Physio-Control Announces LIFENET® System Stroke Alert Capability to Speed Patient Time-to-Treatment

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With the recent release of the updated American Heart Association (AHA)/American Stroke Association (ASA) Guidelines for Early Management of Acute Stroke Patients, Physio-Control, a world leader in emergency medical response technologies, today announced that the LIFENET System’s OnePush feature can be used to rapidly activate stroke care teams. LIFENET’s stroke alert capability enables faster time-to-treatment, assisting stroke care teams in meeting the updated AHA/ASA Guidelines and helping improve stroke patient outcomes. The updated Guidelines, released January 31, 2013, support the overarching concept of stroke systems of care and detail aspects of stroke care from patient recognition; emergency medical services activation, transport and triage; through the initial hours in the emergency department and stroke unit.¹

“We expect the new stroke team activation capability of LIFENET to do for stroke systems what it has already done for STEMI systems. With LIFENET’s easy-to-configure alerts, stroke care teams can streamline their protocol activation and documentation to help improve stroke patient outcomes and meet their quality improvement initiatives.”

The LIFENET stroke alert capability utilizes LIFENET’s easy-to-configure settings allowing hospitals to create a OnePush automated stroke protocol activation, similar to how customers now activate a STEMI alert protocol. When a prehospital notification of a stroke is received, the appropriate notifications, vital signs and ECGs are forwarded to the entire hospital stroke team and events are recorded, noting the time of the protocol activation which aids in documenting response times for quality improvement purposes. In addition, a OnePush stroke alert can be activated by hospital personnel in the event a stroke patient self-transports to a hospital. Fundamental events associated with stroke management that can be activated by hospitals and documented with LIFENET include:

Activation of stroke team
Computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan initiation
CT or MRI interpretation
Admission of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) therapy
Stroke unit admission notification

In addition to STEMI and stroke alerts, LIFENET can be easily configured to help facilitate a wide range of protocol-driven treatments requiring timely intervention and documentation, such as therapeutic hypothermia or pediatric trauma.

“The LIFENET System has proven to be a critical tool in enabling STEMI systems of care, helping care teams meet or exceed the AHA recommended door-to-balloon time of under 90 minutes,” said Brian Webster, president and CEO, Physio-Control. “We expect the new stroke team activation capability of LIFENET to do for stroke systems what it has already done for STEMI systems. With LIFENET’s easy-to-configure alerts, stroke care teams can streamline their protocol activation and documentation to help improve stroke patient outcomes and meet their quality improvement initiatives.”

About Stroke

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and is the leading cause of adult disability in the U.S. A stroke is an interruption of blood flow to the brain causing paralysis, slurred speech and/or altered brain function. About nine of every 10 strokes are caused by a blockage in a blood vessel that carries blood to the brain; known as an acute ischemic stroke. Rapid identification of stroke symptoms, initial management of stroke patients by EMS in the field and transport to the nearest available certified stroke center or institution that provides emergency stroke care is recommended to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with stroke.

The revised AHA Stroke Guidelines recommend administering clot-busting fibrinolytic treatment to eligible patients using rtPA within three to four and-a-half hours from symptom-onset. Additionally, the Guidelines recommend completing patient evaluation and administering treatment, known as door-to-needle (DTN) time, in 60 minutes or less from hospital arrival. Furthermore, the Guidelines recommend that EMS personnel provide prehospital notification to the receiving hospital that a potential stroke patient is en route so that the appropriate hospital resources may be mobilized before patient arrival.

About the LIFENET System

The LIFENET System is a cloud-based data management network from Physio-Control that helps EMS and hospital teams work together more efficiently and measure outcomes. LIFENET provides care teams with advanced tools for quick, reliable access to critical patient and device data, resulting in improved patient care, ongoing process improvement and greater operational efficiency.

About Physio-Control

Physio-Control, Inc. is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. The company operates in over 100 countries and is the world’s leading provider of professional emergency medical response solutions that predict or intervene in life threatening emergencies. To learn more visit www.physio-control.com.

¹Jauch, Saver, et al. Guidelines for the Early Management of Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke, American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Stroke. 2013;44:870-947. http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/44/3/870