A UT Southwestern Medical Center study to evaluate nursing protocols designed to better triage and treat stroke patients using telemedicine will be the first study using a new consortium of medical centers.
The Lone Star Stroke Consortium, a group of five medical academic centers including UT Southwestern and 21 hospitals, developed the consortium for clinical researchers to quickly initiate studies and launch clinical trials, including telemedicine opportunities to include participants in geographically remote areas. The group is focused on improving care for stroke patients.
"Lone Star Stroke Consortium provides the perfect testing ground across the entire state of Texas to see what factors are most important in providing the most efficient care," said Dr. Mark Goldberg, Chairman and Professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at UT Southwestern and Principal Investigator on the study. "The predictors of top performance with the new protocol will be identified as possible points of stroke education for the future."
The objective of the study is to optimize care by emphasizing the rapid completion of stroke work-up by nursing personnel, said Dr. Goldberg, who holds the Linda and Mitch Hart Distinguished Chair in Neurology.
A pilot study of the protocols at UT Southwestern University Hospitals improved both efficiency and consistency, leading to the hope that an expanded study could lead to a description of "best care" practices in multiple telestroke networks.
"Because telestroke is still an evolving paradigm of care, this study may have significant findings in improving care," Dr. Goldberg said.
The Lone Star Stroke Consortium is focused on patient-oriented research of preventive strategies, evaluations of therapies and protocols, acute treatment in emergency rooms, and rehabilitation.
The Lone Star Stroke Consortium was established in 2014 with $4.5 million in seed funding from the Texas Legislature. The Legislature continued the funding for the Consortium in 2015 session. The support of many state legislators was vital, in particular that of Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, who chair the Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee, respectively; Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, who represents the Texas Medical Center in Houston, and Rep. John Zerwas, M.D., R-Richmond, who now chairs the Texas House Committee on Higher Education and helped found the program. Its goals are to improve stroke care in often underserved rural areas by expanding the outreach of stroke specialists via telemedicine, study the institutional variations that affect stroke care in rural populations, and allow the often underserved populations to participate in research.
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