Study explores the impact of a national telestroke network on the delivery of thrombolytic therapies
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Specialists On Call, Inc. (SOC), the nation’s leading provider of clinical telemedicine services, announced today that it has presented data from a national stroke study conducted in partnership with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) at the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference (February 8 – 11, 2011). The study, which reviewed emergency stroke consultations handled by the SOC network during 2009, found that national, multi-state telestroke care is a feasible model and results in patients having greater access to the delivery of thrombolytic therapy (tPA).
Other highlights from the 2009 study include:
- SOC provided coverage to more than 12 percent of the U.S. population within 30 minutes travel time in geographic regions where local, in-person neurology coverage is unavailable around the clock
- SOC’s physicians recommended the administration of tPA to 9.4 percent of eligible patients with acute ischemic stroke within three hours
SOC provides teleneurology services to more than 100 hospitals throughout the country and has conducted over 25,000 emergency neurology consultations via telemedicine. Last year alone, SOC’s affiliated neurologists completed more than 11,000 consults and administered 600 plus doses of the clot busting drug, tPA, to eligible patients suffering from acute stroke, far surpassing the national average, and higher than any other medical organization in the world.
“The volume of stroke patients that Specialists On Call evaluates each month far surpasses any single stroke service, allowing us to collect an enormous amount of data from around the country in a short amount of time,” said Dr. Leonard Dimitri DaSilva, Chief of Neurology for Specialists On Call. “We can capture this critical patient information from a wide spectrum of geographic areas, socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicity in hospitals ranging from a busy, urban, level 1 trauma center with 3,000 beds to a rural critical access hospital with 25 beds and leverage this data to develop best practices for the treatment and care of stroke patients.”
The poster presentation, entitled “A National US Telestroke Delivery System: Patient Characteristics and Frequency of Thrombolytic Therapy Delivery,” was authored by Drs. Latisha K. Ali, Sidney Starkman and Jefferey L. Saver, MD, UCLA Stroke Center, Los Angeles, Calif; Dr. Meng Lee, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan; and Drs. Evan Allen, Mitch Rubin, Todd Samuels, Jean Raphael Schneider, Carlos Villar and Leonard Dimitri DaSilva, Specialists On Call, Inc., Westlake Village, Calif., and was presented at the International Stroke Conference on Thursday, February 10, 2011.
About Specialists On Call
Specialists on Call, Inc. (SOC), a Joint Commission-accredited organization is changing emergency medicine. As the leading provider of clinical emergency telemedicine consultations, SOC gives hospitals vital 24/7/365 access to its 45+ board certified, fellowship trained academic specialists, each with a minimum of 10 experience in community and academic settings. SOC provides more than 1,000 emergency consultations per month for hospitals nationwide including hospitals systems such as Vanguard Health Systems, HCA, Inc., HMA, CHS and Tenet Healthcare Corporation.
For more information, please visit www.specialistsoncall.com.
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