Technology helps treat stroke patients up to 30 min faster

An innovative telehealth platform aims to deliver faster diagnosis and treatment to stroke patients in regional South Australia.

The SA Telestroke service uses a cloud-based platform, Zeus, to gather information about rural and regional patients — including brain scans, consultation records and other data — into a single platform.

The technology has been deployed by the Australian Stroke Alliance and its technology partner, and delivered with the Rural Support Service (RSS), which works alongside SA Health’s six regional local health networks to deliver innovative health care to regional South Australians.

Using the platform, neurologists can access all data for people with suspected strokes to help them make quick decisions about patient care across 61 hospitals in regional South Australia and for Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Stroke Nurse Practitioner Skye Coote said, “In stroke, every minute is vital. We often say ‘time is brain’ meaning that for each minute stroke treatment is delayed, brain cells are dying at a rate of approximately 1.9 million neurons per minute.

“Therefore, if we save 40 minutes, say, we save about 76 million brain cells, or the equivalent of about 2.5 years of normal brain aging.”

This program — along with education — is enabling patients to receive life-saving treatment up to 30 minutes faster. There have been more than 440 SA Telestroke Service calls using the Zeus platform since it was introduced last year.

According to reports, the implementation of the Zeus telehealth platform combined with education led by the SA Telestroke team has resulted in a doubling of the number of patients treated with life-saving thrombectomy, improved efficiency of teleconsults and enhanced access to treatment for all stroke patients in the regional LHNs.

Unnecessary hospital-to-hospital transfers have also been reduced by 72%.

Regional hospitals will directly link brain images to Zeus, further streamlining neurologists’ access to patient information.

Riverland General Hospital will be the first of eight regional hospitals to upload to Zeus, with hospitals in Port Pirie, Mount Gambier, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Wallaroo and Naracoorte all anticipated to have the platform by the end of the year.

Regional Australians are 17% more likely to suffer a stroke compared with those living in metropolitan areas¹, according to the Stroke Foundation.

The use of the Zeus platform is part of a five-year SA Health and Australian Stroke Alliance agreement to analyse stroke treatment trends and workforce requirements across South Australia.

Australian Stroke Alliance Co-chair Professor Stephen Davis AO said, “The [Zeus] application allows the health workforce to connect with rural hospitals and patients quickly, reliably and seamlessly.

“This innovative program could inform future national change and improvements in stroke care for all Australians.”

^{[1] Stroke Foundation, No Postcode Untouched, Stroke in Australia 2020, https://strokefoundation.org.au/media/juuba3qm/no-postcode-untouched-30-october-final-report.pdf}

Image credit: iStock.com/Pornpak Khunatorn