The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been a leader in the development of telestroke protocols. Launched in 2017, the VA telestroke program involves over 30 medical centers and more than 20 neurologists. This enables rapid point-of-care (POC) decision-making from the primary care team in consultation with the VA specialists via a video telehealth system. To date, over 10,00 consultations have been successfully performed in the program.
The agency has now launched a free companion app called Stroke Code that provides POC decision support. The app permits the primary treatment team to rapidly collect the relevant information necessary for a proper treatment determination in consultation with a stroke neurologist. The app includes the relevant times including the “last known well,” the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) calculator, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) dosing calculator, etc.
The app can be used by anyone who cares for acute stroke patients, and includes all of the relevant indications/contraindications for t-PA and endovascular treatments, information for patient records, and activity reminders.
Likes
- Contains latest protocol for Code Stroke from NIH/AHA built into POC app
- Includes calculators for NIHSS and tPA, data collected can be used for patient records
- Walks through the process to decide between tPA versus endovascular procedures
Dislikes
- No “overall” directions included in app or overview; no information about VA app team
- No links to any relevant guidelines, protocols
- Not available for Android
This post appeared on iMedicalApps.com.