Adding Physicians to Prehospital Stroke Severity Screenings

As treatment options expand for large vessel occlusion (LVO) acute ischemic stroke, appropriate prehospital triage becomes even more important. Several clinical stroke severity tools exist, but all are limited by imperfect sensitivity or specificity and require significant training (Curr Atherosclerosis Rep 2018; 20:34). Incorporating telemedicine may improve identification of patients who could benefit from hospital bypass.

Researchers evaluated a prehospital triage system implemented in Stockholm, Sweden, in which phone consultation with a stroke physician was added to the usual process of hospital selection by a prehospital nurse based on a clinical stroke severity tool. The physician focused on eligibility for endovascular therapy and ro…