University of Virginia (UVA) clinicians are working through UVA’s USEED fundraising program to raise $10,000 to equip two additional local ambulances with the iTREAT mobile telemedicine kit. The plan is to connect paramedics through a secure video link with UVA’s specially trained stroke neurologists and emergency medicine physicians to diagnose stroke patients while they are in the ambulance.
Getting stroke patients treated quickly is even more challenging for patients living in the remote, rural areas of central and southwest Virginia where it may take an ambulance 30 minutes or longer to get patients to an emergency room or stroke center.
UVA and partners working on the project include the UVA Stroke Center, Department of Emergency Medicine, and the Center for Telehealth are working with the Thomas Jefferson Council for Emergency Medical Services to equip regional rescue squads with the iTREAT mobile telemedicine toolkit.
The toolkit includes a tablet device, secure video conferencing technology, a high-speed modem, and a magnetic antenna to mount on the outside of the ambulance. UVA and the Thomas Jefferson Council are going to equip 12 ambulances with the iTREAT toolkit and it is estimated that it will cost about $5,000 to equip each additional ambulance with the equipment. Currently, the iTREAT technology is in the testing stage with local rescue squads and the hope is to use the toolkit to care for Central Virginia patients early this year.
For more information, go to http://uvahealth.com or to https://uva.useed.net/projects/82/home for the video.
In another action to improve the treatment for strokes, Georgia is using the Georgia Coverdell Acute Stroke Registry program at http://dph.georgia-coverdell-acute-stroke-registryto improve care for stroke patients not only when they are in the hospital but also before they arrive.
More than 60 Georgia hospitals are participating in the Registry from the state’s primary stroke centers to local hospitals in rural areas. The program is a partnership between the Georgia Department of Public Health, Emory University, American Heart Association, American Stroke Association, Georgia Hospital Association, and CDC.
When paramedics first arrive on the scene, they must quickly evaluate a patient’s symptoms, and determine whether the person has had a stroke and when the stroke occurred. The paramedic makes the assessment and then issues a stroke alert to the Registry which lets the hospital know that they will be arriving with a potential stroke patient. Selected patient care information upon admission is entered into an online data collection tool enabling real-time analyses to provide feedback to each hospital in the partnership.