The American Heart Association www.heart.org and the American Stroke Association www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG recently committed $5.6 million for the Mission: Lifeline Stroke Initiative to expand and improve stroke care in North Dakota. This initiative received a grant of $4.3 million from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust http://helmsleytrust.org.
The Mission: Lifeline Stroke Initiative is a community-based initiative to develop a care system that brings together hospitals, emergency medical services, first responders, communications and regulatory agencies, state and local governments, and payers to provide a seamless plan to treat patients through their rehabilitation and recovery process.
This Initiative is going to work to further strengthen collaborations with stakeholders across the state representing hospitals, individual ambulance services, North Dakota Department of Health www.ndhealth.gov and others.
The goal is to:
- Develop a system-wide data tool to assess protocols used throughout the continuum of care
- Coordinate treatment guidelines for EMS and hospital personnel
- Develop regional plans for the rapid transport transfer or patients
- Develop strategies for reducing barriers to access the quality of telemedicine and rehabilitation care
- Develop a rural peer-to-peer stroke survivor support network
- Provide for a public education campaign with a focus on recognizing stoke signs and symptoms
Another grant for $1.6 million awarded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, went to North Dakota State University’s (NSDU) www.ndsu.edu American Indian Public Health Resource Center (AIPHRC) https://www.ndsu.edu/centers/american_indian_health which is housed in the Department of Public Health.
The AIPHRC addresses American Indian public health disparities by providing technical assistance, policy development, self-determination feasibility analysis, education, research, and programming in partnership with tribes in North Dakota, across the Northern Plans and the nation.
The grant funding will enable AIPHRC to join the National Network of Public Health Institutes https://nnphi.org. By joining the national network, the center anticipates increased external funding via grants and contracted services and more focus on American Indian Public Health issues not only in North Dakota but in the seven-state region.
In addition, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in Washington D.C http://bipartisanpolicy.org with funding also available from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, is doing a study that will focus on populations living in remote areas of the Upper Midwest states.
The project will specifically study issues involving rural provider workforce and training, intrastate and interstate practice of telemedicine, availability and speed of broadband, reimbursement issues, and study models of healthcare payment and delivery of care for critical access hospitals, rural healthcare clinics, and issues pertaining to rural providers.
In December 2017, the Bipartisan Policy Center is expected to hold an event to discuss the study’s findings and recommendations.