GE Healthcare’s solution based on the clinical expert recommendations for the management of Stroke & TIA patients involves three management flows: Primary Prevention, Acute Care and Secondary Prevention. It is critical for the success of the healthcare services to have solutions covering all three patient populations.

Stroke and TIA Needs & Solutions
Stroke and transient ischemic attacks (TIA) are common and serious disorders. We all take for granted our ability to see, to speak, to walk - in short, the basic motility and sensory functions which we use every waking minute. Sadly, every year 15 million people worldwide suffer from a stroke, of which 5.5 million die. 1.24 million of these are located in Europe. Another 5 million people worldwide are left permanently disabled, placing a huge burden on family and society.

Hospital admissions attributable to stroke appear to be increasing, suggesting the care of patients admitted due to a stroke will continue to be a significant health care issue in the foreseeable future. The loss of life due to Stroke & TIA also show drastic variation across our geography. The death rate due to stroke in men aged under 65 living in the Russian Federation is twenty times higher than in Switzerland and for women of the same age group it is fifteen times higher. GE Healthcare is helping to close this gap.

Major advances have been made during the past several decades in stroke and TIA prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. In stroke, priority care is an undisputed necessity. Pre-hospital diagnosis and extension of the therapeutic window for treating Stroke will be key factors of a Successful Stroke Strategy. Urgent assessment and early initiation of existing preventive treatments can reduce the risk of early recurrent stroke after TIA by about 80%. Extrapolated across the UK population, this equates to the prevention of nearly 10,000 strokes per year.

Despite successes in delivering effective new therapies, significant obstacles remain in providing the timely, effective, and efficient care in clinical practice. The European Stroke Initiative recently sought expert opinion to identify which facilities should be available in comprehensive and primary stroke centres and in any hospital ward admitting stroke patients routinely. However, in practice not all stroke patients have access to optimal care, often because either the facilities or appropriately trained staff are not available. In many instances, these obstacles can be related to a fragmentation of stroke-related care caused by inadequate integration of the various facilities, agencies, and professionals that should closely collaborate in providing the care.

A complete healthcare service needs to cover the implementation of primary prevention, acute care and secondary prevention. Products, services and operational flow are key components to achieve comprehensive, connected, and continuous care. Whether it is primary prevention, acute management or secondary prevention in Stroke, more than many other acute conditions, the critical dimension of the care is the race against time. For every minute saved following a Stroke, 2 million brain cells saved, a quantity equivalent to 3 weeks of natural loss of brain cells with aging.

At GE Healthcare we believe we can make a difference in the management of Stroke and TIA through our Clinical Education programs, operational process management and information technology solutions in addition to the diagnostic and treatment technologies from EKG algorithms to ultrasound, from CT to MRI and beyond which can help clinical experts to save lives, save cost and to lift the burden on the stroke victims’ families and societies.

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