The proof of MSUs' positive effect on patient outcomes is leading to their increased adoption in emergency medical services of many countries. Nevertheless, prehospital stroke care worldwide largely consists of regular ambulances. Advancements in portable technology for detecting neurocardiovascular diseases, telemedicine, AI and large-scale ultra-early biobanking have the potential to transform prehospital stroke care also beyond the MSU concept. The increasing implementation of telemedicine in emergency medical services is demonstrating beneficial effects in the pre-hospital setting. In synergy with telemedicine the exponential growth of AI-technology is already changing and will likely further transform pre-hospital stroke care in the future. Other promising areas include the development and validation of miniaturized portable devices for the pre-hospital detection of acute stroke. MSUs are enabling large-scale screening for ultra-early blood-based biomarkers, facilitating the differentiation between ischemia, hemorrhage, and stroke mimics. The development of suitable point-of-care tests for such biomarkers holds the potential to advance pre-hospital stroke care outside the MSU-concept. A multimodal approach of AI-supported telemedicine, portable devices and blood-based biomarkers appears to be an increasingly realistic scenario for improving prehospital stroke care in regular ambulances in the future.
Keyphrases
- healthcare
- atrial fibrillation
- emergency medical
- palliative care
- quality improvement
- affordable care act
- primary care
- pain management
- cardiac arrest
- acute care
- adverse drug
- mental health
- high resolution
- cerebral ischemia
- subarachnoid hemorrhage
- trauma patients
- mass spectrometry
- electronic health record
- sensitive detection