How Telestroke Works

Treating Strokes

As you know, a stroke is a medical emergency. The faster a patient receives proper treatment, the better the chances for recovery. With increased awareness of symptoms, stroke patients are getting to hospitals quicker, and emergency neurology physicians have more treatment options. For example, in patients with ischemic stroke, the clot-busting
drug tPA should be administered intravenously within three hours. Intra-arterial and interventional neuro-radiology therapies must be administered within six hours.

After initial treatment, if your patient needs to be transferred, transportation by helicopter is available, as well as preferential bed placement at our nationally-ranked academic medical center.

How Telestroke Works

Network Hospital

• Doctor reviews patient’s status, determining need for stroke evaluation
• Telestroke mobile robot unit is moved to patient’s bedside
• Patient and doctor speak directly to the Telestroke doctor
• Telestroke doctor conducts consult examination and evaluation for tPA administration
• If necessary, hospital staff prepares patient for air or ground transport

Wake Forest Baptist

• Provides 24/7 on-call stroke experts with additional training in vascular neurology
• Stroke doctor begins video conferencing and evaluates patient data and CT scan
• Consult exam given via Telestroke system to evaluate presence or severity of stroke
• Consultation with network hospital to determine best treatment plan for patient