Technology is advancing health care for Manitoba stroke patients

Health care for stroke patients in Manitoba is making leaps and bounds with the advancement of hospital technology that is slowly becoming available to rural parts of the province.

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When a person dials 911 and presents with stroke symptoms, Manitoba's emergency responders are trained to initiate a "by-pass protocol" and direct those patients to the nearest hospital that is able to offer what Manitoba Health calls "hyper-acute stroke services," Brie DeMone, the executive director of acute services for Manitoba Healthy Living and Seniors, told CBC.

These services include the potential administration of tPA (or tissue plasminogen activator), known as the "clot-busting" drug. This comes after CT scans and blood work, as well as an examination by a neurologist, either in person or via Telestroke, which is a communications technology similar to Skype but for doctors. 

So far there are five hospitals across the province offering these services:

• Brandon General Hospital
• Thompson General Hospital
• St. Anthony's Hospital, in The Pas
• Health Sciences Centre, in Winnipeg
• St. Boniface General Hospital, in Winnipeg

Telestroke eliminates the need for patients to be immediately transferred to Brandon or Winnipeg, as they would have been in the past.

Instead, Telestroke allows stroke specialists from the city centres to examine patients in remote hospitals miles away and digitally send medical tests, such as CT scans. Specialists can then diagnose patients and recommend a plan of care, DeMone told CBC. 

This is a significant technological advancement, since time is of the essence in treating strokes; there is only a 4½-hour treatment window to effectively administer the clot-busting medication.

"The technology itself, Telehealth, has been around for quite a while,"  DeMone said. "The use of this technology for Telestroke services has been on the rise in Canada for the last five or six years."

The Pas added the Telestroke technology to its hospital earlier in 2015 and Thompson gained access to it in 2014.

"I think this is a huge improvement for patients living in rural Manitoba, to be able to access the bypass protocol or access hyper-acute stroke care services in their environment," DeMone said. 

The changes are coming in stages so they don't overwhelm the system, but all hospitals with CT scanners are expected to join the Telestroke roster.

"In essence, the quality of hyper-acute stroke care in those rural hospitals will be the same as in urban centres," DeMone said.