CLINICAL WIRELESS
Web-based Program Optimizes Stroke Care in Rural Areas Using Wireless Tech
Treating a thromboembolic CVA (cerebro-vascular accident) with a clot-dissolving drug such as tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) can minimize tissue damage, especially if administered in a timely fashion. (Stroke caused by a clot can be mitigated by use of clot-dissolving drugs within the first 2 hours, but later administration has not been proved effective or safe. Stroke cause by a bleed, or hemorrhagic stroke might be worsened by this drug. For this reason, it is usually not given. What routinely happens is that a Neurologic consult is called, to review the head CT scan to make the correct diagnosis. Almost invariably the window of treatment opportunity is missed.)
The American Association for the Advancement of Science's EurekAlert! Web site posts a news item describing a study involving the Medical College of Georgia published in the October rapid access issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
tPA was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1996 to treat stroke but still is given to less than 5 percent of patients, in part because stroke patients are not evaluated by a neurologist rapidly enough to receive the drug within the first three hours after symptoms begin...
The result was the Web-based system which, at the remote site, has a cart equipped with a video camera and a personal computer with wireless Internet access that can go wherever the patient is. The health care provider with the patient simply calls the 24-hour Emergency Communications Center in the Emergency Department of the MCG Medical Center, the communications center pages the neurologist on call for REACH who goes to a computer, uses a password to access the confidential site and immediately begins talking with and seeing the patient and provider...
Wireless technology will continue to be utilized in the ER and rural areas, where prompt treatment, with diagnostic confirmation from a specialist's consult, could mean a significantly-improved outcome.
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