Latest stroke patient results in a case study of Lancashire & Cumbria Stroke Network – implemented by MultiSense Communications.
Time is of the essence when diagnosing stroke. If effective intervention and treatment in acute ischemic stroke is to be achieved, the treatment window is limited to a few hours from the on-set of symptoms. There are 150,000 incidents of stroke in the UK per year. There are many times this number of “suspected” strokes or stroke-imitators that present and each one has to be dealt with appropriately.
Telemedicine, although in use for a number of years now, has only recently been deployed for this specialist healthcare application. The Health Service quickly saw the benefits of the application for the specialist Cardiac and Stroke Networks around the country following stroke having been raised as a priority focus area. Lancashire and Cumbria Cardiac and Stroke Network is one of MultiSense Communications’ customers who have implemented our Telestroke solutions across their region.
Access to many regional hospital locations by a few specialist on-call consultants, covering wide geographic areas, was proving difficult, whether in congested urban areas or in sparsely populated rural communities even in the early hours of the morning.
MultiSense Communications has successfully delivered working telemedicine solutions that started to make a real difference from day one of operating the service.
Polycom HDX telemedicine / telepresence facilitating remote consultation of a patient
The consultants can be working to diagnose and treat a patient within minutes of the patient arriving at the hospital, PACS images are simultaneously accessed by the physician from home or a remote location and used to determine the “type” of stroke. Treatment pathways are determined following a full verbal and visual consultation with the patient, using The Rosier Scale or The NIH Stroke Scale. Nursing staff and relatives can be present with the patient during the live and interactive session.
High Definition video images are a vital contributor to the accurate assessment and appropriate treatment of patients in this key area of medicine.
Above is a short video showing Lancashire & Cumbria Cardiac and Stroke Network out of hours stroke solution – one of our many successes within the NHS, to read the full story, click here.
Fast, effective treatment of stroke patients is essential
Built using industry-leading, standards based technologies, our fixed or mobile hospital systems and the applications for the consultant’s personal computer will continue to deliver a measureable difference in stroke and other critical care applications.