KOCHI: In a unique initiative, the state government is set to launch the telestroke programme in association with Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences to treat stroke victims at select district hospitals through telemedicine.
District hospitals already having telemedicine facility will be connected to AIMS and acute stroke patients coming to the district hospitals within 4-5 hours of stroke attack will undergo CT scan and the images will be transferred to the AIMS stroke unit.
The patient then will be examined and treated by the expert at the stroke unit of AIMS and the thrombolytic drug can be administered at the district hospital with which the block in the artery is cleared. The government will make available the costly drug free of cost at these hospitals.
Initially the facility, expected to be launched next month, will be introduced in Palakkad, Kasargod, Kannur and Mananthavady district hospitals.
“This is a path-breaking effort. Often what happens is that when a stroke patient reaches a district hospital he/she is referred to any nearby medical college and the patient loses a lot of valuable time which causes damage to the neurons. It is estimated that about 1.5 million neurons get damaged when a large artery gets blocked. Hence the principle of the treatment is ‘Time is Brain.’
“Save the golden time after the onset of acute stroke and provide facility to administer the life saving clot busting drug without any delay,” said Dr Vivek Nambiar, assistant professor at Stroke Medicine at AIMS, who has taken the initiative to launch the programme.
Dr Nambiar said that apart from VSAT network, the service of private internet providers will be used as an alternative to run the facility without interruption. “It would be a 24X7 facility and only an MBBS doctor will be needed in the district hospitals to run it. Even Skype can be used to run it,” he added.
