Baylor Health Care System seeks to offer advanced neurologic stroke expertise to its community-based medical centers through telemedicine, according to a news release issued by the organization.

Dion Graybeal, MD, medical director for Baylor Health Care System’s hub-and-spoke stroke program, explains that the telemedicine system, “allows a neurologist to look at, talk to and examine the patient, and help make treatment decisions.”

The release notes that neuro-hospitalists based at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas use iPads or laptop computers to connect with other Baylor medical centers whenever a call comes from their emergency departments. Currently, the release reports that Baylor Medical Centers at Irving, Garland, Waxahachie, Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, and Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth use the hub-and-spoke stroke program.

Quickly diagnosing a stroke allows for the administration of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in patients who qualify for the treatment. This reflects the key role of time in treatment, since “Unfortunately with stroke, time is brain. About 1.9 million neurons are lost with every minute of lack of blood flow,” Graybeal points out.

According to the release, the virtual presence of neurologist in the emergency department helped saved the life of patient Judy Buck. Buck states in the release that it was as if the doctor was standing right in front of her, and credits knowing the symptoms of stroke and Baylor’s technology with saving her life.

Photo Credit: Baylor Health Care System

Source(s): Science Daily, Baylor Health Care System