Telestroke

It's been a long time since my last post. I apologize for the long period of quiet. Between studying for the MCATs and applying to medical school, my free time has come in bits and pieces.

I thought that I would mention an encouraging trend that I've seen in the world of stroke care. For a while now, there has been a big buzz surrounding the potential for telemedicine to improve access to care in a cost efficient manner. In the last few months, however, my colleagues and I have had multiple requests for information on telestroke technology.

Nationally, there is an acute shortage of neurologists willing to take 24/7 stroke call. The theory is that a large tertiary care facility may be able to help address this shortage by adopting a telestroke system that allows the facilitiy's neurologists to perform emergent consultations for less advanced community hospitals or critical access hospitals in the surrounding area.

There are still a lot of regulatory and cost issues to consider, but I hope that this movement continues to strengthen. There are many facilities - Saint Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, MGH, UPMC, Atlantic Health, Medical College of Georgia - that have developed impressive regional stroke networks using telestroke technology. These networks have excellent clinical outcomes and deliver neurological care to a much wider market.