Video-call Assisted Assessment of Acute Stroke in Addition to Stroke Severity Scales in a Prehospital Setting

University of Southern Denmark (SDU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stroke; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Vascular Diseases; Cerebrovascular Disorders; Brain Diseases

Treatments: Diagnostic Test: Video call

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05737420

SHS-Neuro-1-2023

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to investigate whether a live stream video between the on-call neurologist and the emergency medical services is feasible.

Full description

Multiple stroke severity scales have been coined in order to examine patients suspected of stroke in a prehospital setting in order to identify and transfer patients eligible for thrombectomy directly to a comprehensive stroke centre (CSC). However, performance and feasibility vary greatly in different validation studies suggesting that those outcomes are greatly dependent on other factors i.e. acceptance amongst stakeholders, implementation process, patient segment etc. Some recent studies have shown promising results using telemedicine i.e. video solutions between emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and on-call neurologist in examining patients suspected of stroke in the prehospital phase. The investigators will perform this trial to examine whether a cluster randomised trial with video call assisted assessment of patients suspected of stroke in a prehospital setting is an appropriate trial design and feasible with regard to recruitment and retention, acceptability among stakeholders (EMS and neurologists) as well as patients and lastly with regard to stakeholders' adherence to protocol.

Enrollment: 33 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Suspected stroke within 24 hours from onset (confirmed with Pre-hospital stroke score 1 ≥1)
• Catchment area of Hospital Sønderjylland
• Deferred informed consent obtained from patient or patient surrogate

Exclusion criteria

• In-hospital stroke or private transport to hospital
• Unconsciousness defined as Glascow Coma Score (GCS) ≤ 8 (as they cannot be rated)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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33 participants in 2 patient groups

Interventional video call

Experimental group

Description:

All patients suspected of stroke in a prehospital setting are examined according to a prehospital stroke score. The emergency services personnel then contact the on-call neurologist and a live video stream is initiated. The on-call neurologist then examines the patient via the video-call.

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: Video call

Control with standard care

No Intervention group

Description:

All patients suspected of stroke in a prehospital setting are examined according to a prehospital stroke score. The emergency services personnel then contact the on-call neurologist by telephone. .