Telestroke Across the Continuum of Care: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

While use of telemedicine to guide emergent treatment of ischemic stroke is well established, the COVID-19 pandemic motivated the rapid expansion of care via telemedicine to provide consistent care while reducing patient and provider exposure and preserving personal protective equipment. Temporary changes in re-imbursement, inclusion of home office and patient home environments, and increased access to telehealth technologies by patients, health care staff and health care facilities were key to provide an environment for creative and consistent high-quality stroke care. The continuum of care via telestroke has broadened to include prehospital, inter-facility and intra-facility hospital-based services, stroke telerehabilitation, and ambulatory telestroke. However, disparities in technology access remain a challenge. Preservation of reimbursement and the reduction of regulatory burden that was initiated during the public health emergency will be necessary to maintain expanded patient access to the full complement of telestroke services. Here we outline many of these initiatives and discuss potential opportunities for optimal use of technology in stroke care through and beyond the pandemic.

A review of the evidence for the use of telemedicine within stroke systems of care: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

The aim of this new statement is to provide a comprehensive and evidence-based review of the scientific data evaluating the use of telemedicine for stroke care delivery and to provide consensus recommendations based on the available evidence. The evidence is organized and presented within the context of the American Heart Association's Stroke Systems of Care framework and is classified according to the joint American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation and supplementary American Heart Association Stroke Council methods of classifying the level of certainty and the class of evidence. Evidence-based recommendations are included for the use of telemedicine in general neurological assessment and primary prevention of stroke; notification and response of emergency medical services; acute stroke treatment, including the hyperacute and emergency department phases; hospital-based subacute stroke treatment and secondary prevention; and rehabilitation.

ACCESS: acute cerebrovascular care in emergency stroke systems.

OBJECTIVES: Our primary objective was to determine the proportion of the population able to achieve acute cerebrovascular care in emergency stroke systems (ACCESS) in the United States. In addition, we examined how policy changes, including allowing ground ambulances to cross state lines and allowing air ambulances to transport patients from the prehospital setting to primary stroke centers (PSCs), would affect population access to stroke care. DESIGN: Data were obtained via the US Census Bureau, The Joint Commission, and the Atlas and Database of Air Medical Services. Driving distances, ambulance driving speeds, and prehospital times were estimated using validated models and adjusted for population density. Access was determined by summing the population that could reach a PSC within the specified time intervals. SETTING/ PARTICIPANTS: US population. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Thirty-, 45-, and 60-minute access by ground and air ambulance to PSCs. RESULTS: Fewer than 1 in 4 Americans (22.3%) have access to a PSC within 30 minutes, less than half (43.2%) have access within 45 minutes, and just over half (55.4%) have access within 60 minutes. The use of air ambulances to deliver patients to PSCs would increase access from 22.3% to 26.0% for 30 minutes, 43.2% to 65.5% for 45 minutes, and from 55.4% to 79.3% for 60 minutes. The combination of prehospital regionalization and air ambulance transport of patients with acute stroke would reduce the 135.7 million Americans without 60-minute access to a PSC by half, to 62.9 million. CONCLUSIONS: About half of the US population has timely access to a PSC. The use of air ambulances to triage patients with ischemic stroke to a PSC would increase the percentage of the US population with prompt access to stroke care. These data have implications for the ongoing design of the US stroke system.