Researchers Find Mobile Communication App Helps Deliver Stroke Treatments Faster

Currently in the United States someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, and each of those cases relies on getting treatment as fast as possible in order to assure best chances for recovery. Expediting care for these critical patients requires smooth communication between first responders in the field, the emergency room staff, and the specialty stroke team. Unfortunately, this delicate relay is not always well executed, as care teams are patching together archaic technologies such as pagers, faxes, emails, call lists, and other communication methods that do not integrate. Results from a study recently published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases offer a promising solution to these communication hurdles. The study, which looked at 85 stroke patients over an 18-month period at the Good Shepherd Health System, found that in cases where a mobile care coordination platform was used in place of traditional communication technologies, case times for Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) patients were reduced by an average of 40 minutes. This result is a 46% improvement over previous times. Furthermore, there were 3.7 times more cases that achieved the national benchmark of door-to-needle time less than 60 minutes. The platform, known as Pulsara, can be installed on any smart phone, or tablet device. With the tap of a button, a paramedic in the field who recognizes a stroke can notify everyone on the hospital team that an ambulance is on its way with the critical patient. ...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Patient Care Industry News Source Type: news