Developing a Stroke Ambulance Ecosystem via Remote Support, Road, Rotary & Fixed Wing

Dr Mardi Steere¹, David Waters, Dr Damien Easton

¹Royal Flying Doctor Service (Central Operations), Adelaide Airport, Australia

Timely, accurate diagnosis of stroke is critical for achieving early intervention and improved patient outcomes. Access to neuroimaging is the cornerstone of effective stroke differentiation and therapeutic intervention. Until now, the size and weight constraints of brain imaging devices have limited their use to the hospital setting, leading to fundamentally inequitable access to care for those in rural or remote areas – notwithstanding treatment delays even in the urban setting when prehospital and emergency systems are overwhelmed.

The Australian Stroke Alliance (ASA), comprising over 37 research, industry and government entities, has three key objectives:

• Develop and test novel lightweight and portable neuroimaging technologies for stroke
• Improve access to care through the development of a pre-hospital stroke-capable ambulance with on-board imaging and data transmission to regional hospitals.
• Create the world’s first stroke air ambulance (fixed wing and rotary) to serve remote communities.

This presentation will focus on achievements to date and upcoming targets including:

• The foundational progress of the Digital Telestroke network and app tools in NSW, Victoria and South Australia
• The impact of the pilot mobile stroke road ambulance launched in 2017 in Melbourne, with upcoming expansion in Sydney and other metropolitan and rural locations
• Progress on Stroke Capable Air Ambulance, with early hospital-based results of lightweight portable devices to progress to aeromedical validation beginning 2023, and upcoming goals of the Stroke Capable Helicopter

Biography:

Mardi Steere

Dr Mardi Steere is a Paediatric Emergency Physician and Retrievalist who is the Executive General Manager of Medical & Retrieval Services at RFDS SA/NT.  She has lived and worked as a doctor in the Australia, the US and most recently in Kenya from 2011-2019 where she co-developed East Africa’s first accredited subspecialty training program in Paediatric Emergency & Critical Care and worked as medical director of a 348-bed tertiary referral hospital. She is passionate about improving health outcomes for those with limited access through innovative, multidisciplinary approaches, whether in low-middle income countries or rural and remote Australia.