Mobile Stroke Unit Showcased at the World’s Largest Emergency Physicians Meeting

A new specialized emergency medical vehicle with a mobile Computed Tomography (CT) stroke unit was unveiled and demonstrated in action at the Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in Boston (MA, USA) in October 2015.

The Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) will speed up treatment for patients suffering strokes, and help emergency physicians differentiate between ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, by providing diagnostic imaging capabilities in the field. Strokes continue to be a leading cause of death in the US. Time is critical in the stroke care cycle, and timely treatment can minimize or even prevent injury to the brain, before a patient reaches the hospital. The first MSU in the US was debuted in 2014 and there are now four active MSU programs in the country.

The MSU was developed by researchers at Stryker (Kalamazoo, MI, USA), Frazer (Houston, TX, USA), and Samsung NeuroLogica (Danvers, MA, USA) and features a built-in CereTom portable 8-slice CT scanner with rapid scan time, and a user-friendly interface. The CereTom interface enables immediate viewing of acquired scans. The CereTom is also intended for use Intensive Care units (ICU) including Neonatal ICUs, in patient rooms, and in hospital emergency department. The goal of the MSU program is to reduce time-to-treatment for stroke patients and shorten the length of hospitalization for stroke patients.

James C. Grotta, MD, director of the consortium of partners for the UTHealth MSU program, said, “It typically takes roughly an hour once a stroke patient arrives in the emergency room to receive treatment. With the mobile stroke unit, we can actually put the emergency room in the ambulance, take the CT scanner to the patient and treat at the scene with the medication, saving that hour. And, that hour could mean saving 120 million brain cells.”

Related Links:
Stryker
Frazer 
Samsung NeuroLogica