Busy weekend for the "Robodoc"

Press Statement issued by the HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster 17th May 2010.

Irish Heart Foundation FAST campaign - Busy weekend for "Robodoc" in Dublin Midlands Stroke Network Partnership

The Dublin Midlands Stroke Network has been experiencing busier than usual activity on its' acute stroke telemedicine service over the last number of nights. The network had four 'out of hours' stroke telemedicine consultations from 7pm Friday to 7 pm Saturday alone, with 3 out of 4 patients availing of acute thrombolytic treatment.

Overall the week has been busier than usual for thrombolysis calls at AMNCH Tallaght and a number of patients have mentioned they had seen the Irish Heart Foundation's FAST campaign adverts and phoned emergency services or attended hospital straight away.

The Irish Heart Foundation FAST Campaign highlights the importance of recognising the sudden onset of Facial weakness (F), Arm weakness (A) or disturbance of speech (S) as common symptoms of acute stroke and the need act in Time (T) and ring 999.

The stroke service in Mullingar, have also reported patients mentioning the advert as a reason for attending the Emergency Department (ED) quickly after experiencing symptoms. Professor Seán Murphy, "Of course it's too early to say for definite if the FAST advert is impacting on presentation times to the ED after start of symptoms (a major limiting factor in effective thrombolytic treatment for stroke, as the drug needs to be given as soon as possible after symptoms to get best results) but initial signs are encouraging."

"We will be studying the effect of the FAST adverts on public awareness of stroke signs and presentation times after onset of symptoms within the network," added Dr. Collins.

The Dublin Midlands Stroke Network Partnership (SNP) with the support of Boehringer Ingelheim has already completed a professional survey with IPSOS/MRBI on public awareness of stroke symptoms across the region. "We will be publishing the results shortly, initial findings for Dublin Mid-Leinster region suggest 1 in 5 people don't know what a stroke is, 1 in 3 could not name any of the common symptoms of stroke and almost a half would not choose to ring 999 as their first action if they thought they were having a stroke" said Dr Collins.
"Clearly this highlights the need for greater public education and the Irish Heart Foundation's FAST T.V. advert campaign is a very important component of this," he added.

The network plan to repeat the population survey later this year across the Dublin midlands region after the campaign has been running several months. It is hoped that it will be possible at that stage to measure the effect of the FAST adverts and other initiatives such as the acute stroke telemedicine system in operation with the RP-7 system ("Robodoc") on public awareness.
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The Dublin Midlands Stroke Network Partnership (SNP) is co-operative of stroke physicians, vascular surgeons, nurses and allied health professionals, together with HSE Public Health and hospital management from the acute hospitals in Tallaght, Naas, Mullingar, Tullamore and Portlaoise working together to improve stroke prevention, treatment and rehabilitation across a region of 760,000 people.

Arrangements for  9-5 acute thrombolysis services exist in all hospitals within the network currently and an 'out of hours' acute stroke telemedicine system is available at AMNCH Tallaght, Naas and Mullingar hospitals and is currently under evaluation with a view to immediate extension to Tullamore with cover to Portlaoise if proving efficacious.

Thrombolysis ("clot busting" treatment) if given within 4.5 hours has the potential to significantly improve the effects of certain types of stroke, greatly improving the chances of a full recovery. "It is not suitable for every stroke or every patient but it can make significant differences to patients so it is very important to recognise the onset of stroke and get to hospital FAST as the sooner the treatment is given the better the result" said Dr Collins. "Even if thrombolysis is not the treatment for your stroke, it is important to get FAST evaluation of your symptoms, as there are other treatments that can improve outcome," Dr Collins added.