Sacred Heart Hospital’s Regional Stroke Center is launching an innovative use of the Internet and videoconferencing technology that will extend the hospital’s stroke expertise hundreds of miles to smaller hospitals that do not have neurologists on site.

Sacred Heart has acquired a telemedicine system that allows its stroke experts in Pensacola to do an online examination of patients at other hospitals to diagnose stroke and recommend treatment.

“Essentially, we are there without being there in person,” says Dr. Rodney Soto, a vascular neurologist and director of Sacred Heart’s certified Stroke Center. “The patients can see us and we can see them. We can talk to a physician or nurse on the other end. We can determine the type of stroke by looking at the patient and results of the brain scan.”

Dr. Soto adds: “This is a wonderful opportunity to provide the expertise of our stroke specialists 24 hours a day to smaller community hospitals in Northwest Florida and South Alabama. This will expand our regional ability to provide rapid assessment for stroke patients and others with acute neurological injuries.”

Sacred Heart now can provide remote evaluation of stroke patients at its hospital near Destin (Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast). The Stroke Center in Pensacola hopes to expand the program to serve small community hospitals throughout Northwest Florida and South Alabama.

The web-based computer system acquired by Sacred Heart means Dr. Soto and his partner, Dr. Terry Neill, can see and talk to the stroke patient, his family and the local Emergency Department physician via a web camera. They can perform the online consultations from a portable lap top computer, even when they are at home or on the road.

The online evaluations also will allow Dr. Soto and Dr. Neill to quickly make recommendations to emergency department physicians at remote hospitals. In some cases, the recommendation will be to transport the patient via ground ambulance or air ambulance to a stroke center.

In the case of stroke, time saved in transporting patients is especially critical, as the sooner a patient receives proper treatment for stroke, the better the chances for recovery.

Most strokes or “brain attacks” are caused when a blood clot travels to small blood vessels in the brain and block blood flow to the brain. There are procedures and drugs that can remove the clots, but the treatments must begin within a few hours of stroke symptoms.

As a result, many hospitals have been unable to utilize one of the treatments for stroke – a drug called tPA – because it must be given within a three-hour window. Also, the clot busting drug is not recommended unless the diagnosis is made by a physician with expertise in the diagnosis of stroke, including expertise in reading CT scans of the brain. That’s where Sacred Heart’s new system will help patients in small hospitals that don’t have stroke expertise.

Dr. Neill said Sacred Heart’s Stroke Center will adopt the REACH system (Remote Evaluation for Acute Ischemic Stroke) that was developed three years ago at the Medical College of Georgia. The system is one of the few in operation in the entire United States.

“The system’s computer software is able to combine live web-based conferencing, CT imaging and patient data so we can remotely improve the quality of stroke care at rural hospitals throughout Northwest Florida,” Dr. Neill said. “It is a low cost way of bringing the stroke specialist to the patients, even if the patient is far away.”

"Sacred Heart evaluated several programs for remote stroke care and decided to partner with REACHMD, as it was designed to eliminate geographic barriers to stroke care through a web-based system that will bring specialized neurological care to hospitals in our region,” said Dr. Paul Baroco, chief medical officer for Sacred Heart Health System. “REACHMD has been operational at the Medical College of Georgia for three years and has improved stroke outcomes in that region since its inception."