ANN ARBOR, Mich. — From the moment a stroke occurs, patients
must race against the clock to get treatment that can prevent
lasting damage. Now, a new study shows the promise – and the
challenges – of getting them state-of-the-art treatment safely
at their local hospital, saving precious minutes. The results
come from an effort that tested methods to improve delivery of a
time-sensitive, clot-busting drug in stroke patients at 24
community hospitals across Michigan. To date, clot-busting
treatment has been mostly used at larger hospitals. The research
effort was coordinated by members of the University of Michigan
Health System's Department of Emergency Medicine, Department of
Neurology and Stroke Program, which offered half the hospitals
education and round-the-clock treatment assistance by phone. The
study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health. By
the end of the study, the community hospitals across Michigan
that had the U-M experts as