Mobile-Stroke-Unit (MSU)
Prehospital diagnostic and therapy of acute stroke
Approach
The MSU is a special rescue vehicle with comprehensive telemedical and medical equipment.
Telemedicine systems and emergency medical technology for diagnosis of strokes, as in the mobile stroke unit STEMO, allow a fast prehospital care. The diagnosis and the initiation of therapy measures for acute strokes start directly on board. For this purpose a mobile stroke unit is equipped with a computer tomography scanner (CT).
Emergency vehicle
Examination with a CT scanner, as well as the patient transport into the next appropriate stroke unit and/or neurosurgery takes place in one vehicle. The radiological images (DICOM) are transmitted via up to three encrypted VPN tunnels to the diagnostic site, using reliable UMTS and LTE solutions. The radiological images can also be optionally viewed on the medical findings monitor directly on board, in compliance with the German X-ray regulations (RöV). Automatic bundling/switching between the available reliable mobile phone networks ensures a high level of independence from the quality of the individual transmission channels. As such the STEMO solution is a mobile clinic for emergency care of patients with acute stroke.
Highlights
- Effective identification of stroke events by special dispatcher algorithm during emergency call
- Prehospital differential diagnostics with computer tomography scanner and blood lab diagnostics in the stroke mobile unit
- Telemedical support of the emergency services in the diagnosis by the neuroradiologist
- Prehospital therapy decision for thrombolysis and thrombectomy or transport to a neurosurgical center
- Redundancy solutions for reliability and high availability of all system components
Utilization
One mobile stroke unit (STEMO 2.0) is deployed in Berlin as a reserve. This emergency vehicle is already integrated into the networks of the three medical centers within STEMO project, Charité, UKB and Vivantes, and is always ready to be deployed in the respective network. In the event of malfunctions or failures or during scheduled maintenance work to one of the three STEMOs, the reserve STEMO will be activated for this area in order to continue to ensure this high standard of care for stroke patients in Berlin. MEYTEC staff is responsible for laboratory and medical technology as well as all telemedical areas of the overall solution. Through years of service and support of the first STEMO, MEYTEC is able to demonstrate a high level of expertise in these areas.
Stroke, the world's leading cause of permanent disability, is a major challenge for our healthcare systems, with the resulting and ever-increasing financial expenditures for care and rehabilitation of those affected. The MOBILE-STROKE-UNIT concept represents a sustainable and efficient solution on the way to further optimization of the stroke treatment pathway and stands for an improvement in the condition of those affected after a stroke.
The STROKE-EMERGENCY-MOBILE and other innovative telemedicine solutions are provided by MEYTEC GmbH.
MEYTEC has competences in telemedicine and medical technology resulting from many years of experience in the implementation of telemedicine applications, constant innovative further development of systems and services as well as intensive cooperation with medical practitioners in practice.