STROKE: TIME IS BRAIN

In emergency care for stroke, the third leading cause of death and the first leading cause of disability in the US, the motto is Time Is Brain- time lost is brain lost. For every minute stroke is left untreated, an estimated 1.9 million neurons are destroyed. If a stroke patient arrives at a major urban hospital and it is diagnosed as ischemic (caused by blood clot), then an immediate clot absolving drug, called tPA, is administered. The tPA is the gold standard to treat ischemic stroke, but it is most effective only during the initial 3-hour time window before ambulance transfer to a center hospital. The fact that Stroke patients are often elderly in rural areas makes it more challenging to provide emergency technology support in ambulances for reduced care time. In our research group collaborating with Carle hospital, we are developing advanced mobile tele-medicine technologies in ambulances to transform emergency care for acute stroke patients in hospital networks covering large rural areas. Our advanced technologies aims at intelligently reducing the total time of prehospital emergency stroke care given the distance, road conditions, traffic jams, task delays, treatment expertise, equipment capabilities, physicians schedules, and network coverage during transfer.NSF CNS 13-29886Navy N00014-12-1-0046Ope