Videoconferencing tablets can save time in stroke care

A clinical study testing mobile videoconferencing between a physician and stroke patient being transported to the hospital was found to be 98 percent as accurate was a bedside visit.

“The goal of our study is to advance the assessment of acute stroke to the pre-hospital setting—to the ambulance transporting the patients to the hospital," said Andrew Southerland, MD, the head of the University of Virginia Health System team that conducted the study.

By being able to evaluate the stroke patient while they are being transported to the hospital, physicians save the valuable time that was used waiting for them to arrive. The new mobile health technology could help save lives by preventing disabilities by treating stroke in its earliest stages.

"Acute stroke is a very time-dependent illness," Southerland said. "Specifically, in acute ischemic stroke, if you can remove the vascular obstruction and re-vascularize the injured part of the brain in a timely way, you can potentially prevent disability and death.”

The Improving Treatment with Rapid Evaluation of Acute Stroke via Mobile Telemedicine (iTREAT) study included a tablet mounted to the wall of an ambulance and portable Wi-Fi, with just these two tools, physicians are able to access the strokes severity and the right course of action for the patent while they are still being transported to the hospital.

The researchers were able to conclude that the tablet videoconferencing was more than 90 percent of calls were at the same level of quality and audiovisual connectivity, as well as each call being 98 percent as effective as a bedside visit.