In the UK strokes are becoming an increasing threat to our health. Every year an estimated 150,000 suffer from one and although seen as a disease only affecting the elderly, children and young people can also be victims.
However, treatment has continued to improve thanks to strong research in the area and specialist consults knowing how to act fast when a patient is diagnosed.
Now technology can have a part to play, as proved by the Cumbria and Lancashire Telestroke Network.
In 2007 a national initiative was launched that said all patients should be able to access thrombolysis treatment which dissolves clots in the brain causing a stroke 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Although the intention was sound, not every area of the country had the facilities to make it happen.
In Cumbria and Lancashire, only one in eight of our hospitals were able to offer the treatment and on a Monday to Friday office hours basis, meaning there were an awful lot of patients who could not access the service, said Kathy Blacker, director of the cardiac and stroke network in the region.
We may have had the specialists but spread over such a large county 3,500m and serving 2.2 million people, we could not deliver on a 24 hour basis.
The organisation began to look further afield and saw many places internationally were using telemedicine to treat illnesses remotely. This allowed consultants to be anywhere with a strong internet connection and video conference with staff and patients at a hospital, being able to diagnose and order treatment without being in the room.
There are 16 consultants on the rota for the regional strategic health authority of NHS North West able to treat strokes so the organisations decided to team with Virgin Media Business to make the new system possible.
We now have video as a service running over our 10Gb core network in Cumbria and Lancashire, said Gus Hartley, the programme lead for ICT infrastructure at NHS North West. It is a powerful little beast used by a number of public services to put stuff into a private cloud. Having such a strong central resource meant linking up to the telecarts in the wards and the consults at home was very reliable.
We have installed IP VPN routers with business-class broadband into the consultants homes which dont touch the internet, making it a consistent service.
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Case Study: Telestroke Network hastens stroke treatment