In the past two years, significant progress has been made in the research project "Virtual Treatment Room Stroke" with our project partners from the University Hospital Freiburg. From the development of concepts for regional stroke care to the creation of preclinical scores and the implementation of a prototype app called "mStroke."

Care Concept

Stroke is a highly time-critical and interdisciplinary emergency. Experts from the emergency medical services, neurology, and neuroradiology collaborate to make optimal treatment decisions together. Smooth communication and the central and immediate availability of all patient information are therefore key to successful treatment. In 2021, mbits already published a comprehensive concept for connecting all stakeholders.

Preclinical triage

Part of this concept is to make the information gathered by the emergency medical services about the stroke incident immediately available to the target hospital. This includes a score developed by the clinical partners that preclinically assesses whether it is a large vessel occlusion and whether thrombectomy is likely to be necessary. This information helps the emergency medical services to select and navigate to an appropriate hospital directly. By transmitting this information to the target hospital and incorporating a live tracking feature of the emergency medical services, the hospital staff can optimally prepare for the patient's arrival. 

Outlook

An initial prototype of our mStroke app is already available on the App Store and Play Store and will be continuously developed in collaboration with our clinical partner. Furthermore, within the scope of our Nepal Stroke Project, we are evaluating to what extent such an app can support stroke care on-site.