Telestroke Network

Introducing Wake Forest Baptist’s Telestroke Network — the first of its kind in North Carolina

The Wake Forest Baptist Telestroke Network, part of our Primary Stroke Center, is focused on reducing death and disability caused by strokes. The Network accomplishes this by partnering with your community hospital to ensure 24-hour access to our acute stroke experts via two-way live video and audio consultation and image sharing technology. Your team will have immediate access to the latest advancements in stroke care.

Our stroke specialists, each of whom has completed an additional year of fellowship training in the care of stroke patients or is board certified in vascular neurology, make up the largest stroke team in the region.

The Wake Forest Baptist Telestroke Network

The Wake Forest Baptist Telestroke Network serves approximately 24 counties in western North Carolina and southern Virginia. More than one million adults over the age of 45 live in the area, and the projected growth rate for adults 45+ is nearly 11 percent.

The goal of the network is to bring 24/7 access of expert stroke care to patients in hospitals in smaller communities of the region. Wake Forest Baptist is the base of the network. Community hospitals are a critical component and are considered a network hospital.

Through this network, physicians are able to receive on demand consultation to help diagnose strokes and develop care plans quicker and take action if necessary. We provide training to organize services for your hospital, including helping your hospital achieve designation as a Primary Stroke Center. Our interventional neuro-radiology specialists and neurosurgeons will be rapidly available to care for your patients if necessary.

Partnering with InTouch Health^®’s state-of-the-art technology provided by the
RP-7^® Robot, RP-Lite^™ and Wake Forest Baptist stroke experts

Through the Internet, a physician seated at the InTouch Health TotalView ControlStation can simultaneously view electronic patient records and scans and connect to an RP-7 Robot or RP-Lite system located at your hospital. Under direct control of a Wake Forest Baptist stroke expert, the system can move untethered, allowing the doctor to freely interact with patients, family members and hospital staff from anywhere.

Primary Stroke Center Internationally Known for Stroke Care

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is internationally known for pioneering work in stroke treatment, diagnostic technologies and improved outcomes in stroke care.

As a Primary Stroke Center, Wake Forest Baptist uses a multidisciplinary approach that combines the expertise of specialists in neurosurgery, interventional radiology, emergency medicine, neuro-intensive care and neurology.

Interventional radiology offers a state-of-the-art neuro-radiology suite dedicated to neurointerventional procedures. Special equipment is used to guide advanced therapeutic procedures such as:

• Revascularization of acute arterial occlusions
• Stenting of occlusive vascular lesions in the carotid arteries
• Intracranial blood vessels coiling of aneurysms and angioplasty

Neurosurgical procedures are often performed to help stroke patients, including:

• Simple and complex intracranial procedures
• Craniectomy and hemispheric decompression in patients with a large area of affected brain
• Carotid endarterectomy
• Skull-based approaches to aneurysm clipping
• Arteriovenous malformation resection to prevent stroke or stroke recurrence while minimizing disturbances of normal brain tissue
• Stereotatic radiosurgery to treat AVMs

Our facility includes a designated stroke unit, neuro-critical care unit, and neurosurgical unit designed to meet the needs of patients with ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIAs), and hemorrhagic stroke.