Work

Next Steps in Improving Telestroke Systems of Care—From Reach to Efficiency

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Telestroke is evidence based, cost-effective, and widespread in the modern stroke system of care.[1][2][3] Patients presenting to rural and underresourced hospitals can access cerebrovascular expertise for decision-making related to time-sensitive acute reperfusion therapies in the absence of in-person consultants.However, robust assessment of telestroke network performance remains inherently challenging in the distributed hub-and-spoke model of care.Capturing telestroke use and meaningful process and outcome measures across systems of care can be especially difficult.1 We commend Stamm et al 4 for successfully addressing this challenge.The authors performed an analysis of patients with acute ischemic stroke potentially eligible for thrombolysis treated with and without telestroke in the Paul Coverdell Michigan Stroke Registry.Notably, they report a 61% greater adjusted odds of treatment with thrombolysis among patients treated with telestroke but a 44% lower adjusted odds of achieving American Heart Association Target: Stroke-recommended treatment within 60 minutes.

Source: JAMA Network Open

DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.34282

Authors: Laura K. Stein, Kori S. Zachrison

Institutions: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Harvard University, Mass General Brigham

Language: English

Topic: Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,000