Telemedicine Support Treatment of Stroke Patients
The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) is using a robot for telemedicine support to manage patients who present to the emergency room with a stroke. The effort was described by the Detroit News.
The robot facilitates communication, in real time, with emergency room doctors and stroke patients and neurologists who specialize in stroke care. The system was installed about six weeks ago.
Four of the DMC hospitals; including Sinai-Grace, Detroit Receiving, Harper University, and Huron Valley-Sinai, have the robots on site. Using the robots, the emergency room team at each facility contacts one of eight neurologists via videoconferencing to guide treatment planning for the patients. Neurologists are from the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
One of the emergency room doctors was interviewed by the Detroit News and commented that he has already started to use the system two to four times every week. Each of the four hospitals has their own neurology staff, but those physicians are not on call 24 hours. The robotic-telemedicine system ensures that each stroke patients, particularly those with less straightforward presentation, has a neurology consult.
The robot system was particularly designed to treat patients who present to the emergency room within the window during which patients are eligible to receive clot-busting therapy or removal of the clot, which is within three hours of stroke symptom onset. This initiative is one step in DMC’s plan to develop common stroke treatment protocols at each of the hospitals in the network.
The program is similar to one developed last year in Pontiac, Michigan at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital by Trinity Health. Stroke specialists at St. Joseph’s are connected to the Trinity Health hospitals to provide insight.
November 29, 2007 Related topics: New Technology & Innovation, Trends, Diagnostic, Psychiatry & Neurology