A decade-long study from the American Heart Association has found telestroke services lead to lasting improvements in stroke care in rural areas.
The study, published in the AHA's journal Stroke, analyzed the use of telestroke technology in rural Bavaria, Germany. In 2003, a hub-and-spoke telestroke network connected 12 hospitals without neurology or neurosurgery departments to two neurological stroke centers. By 2012, the network had facilitated 31,864 consultations with vascular neurologists and other experts.
Researchers found the introduction of the telestroke network increased the percent of patients receiving tissue plasminogen activator, a clot-busting drug linked to increased survival rates in clot-caused strokes,from 2.6 percent to 15.5 percent. The median time between the patient's arrival at a regional hospital until the patient received tPA was cut in half, from 80 minutes to 40 minutes.
Additionally, use of telestroke allowed more patients to remain at their local hospitals rather than be transferred to a stroke center. Over the course of the study, the number of patients transferred dropped from 11.5 percent to 7 percent.
"Telemedicine can accelerate the emergency transfer of patients in need of neurosurgery. At the same time, it helps avoid unnecessary transfers because expert vascular neurologists are involved in remote patient assessment by video examination and the interpretation of CT scans," said Peter Müller-Barna, MD, the study's lead author and a consultant in the department of neurology at Agatharied Hospital in Hausham, Germany.
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