UT Southwestern launches study of telemedicine stroke protocols, a first for Texas’ Lone Star Stroke Consortium

DALLAS – December 17, 2015 – A UT Southwestern Medical Center study to evaluate nursing protocols designed to better triage and treat stroke patients using telemedicine will be the first study using a new consortium of medical centers.

The Lone Star Stroke Consortium, a group of five medical academic centers including UT Southwestern and 21 hospitals, developed the consortium for clinical researchers to quickly initiate studies and launch clinical trials, including telemedicine opportunities to include participants in geographically remote areas. The group is focused on improving care for stroke patients.

Drs. Goldberg and Provencher
Dr. Mark Goldberg, Chair of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics, and Michelle Provencher, Senior Research Nurse, are leading a UT Southwestern study on acute stroke care in partnership with the Lone Star Stroke Consortium.

“Lone Star Stroke Consortium provides the perfect testing ground across the entire state of Texas to see what factors are most important in providing the most efficient care,” said Dr. Mark Goldberg, Chairman and Professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at UT Southwestern and Principal Investigator on the study. “The predictors of top performance with the new protocol will be identified as possible points of stroke education for the future.”

The objective of the study is to optimize care by emphasizing the rapid completion of stroke work-up by nursing personnel, said Dr. Goldberg, who holds the Linda and Mitch Hart Distinguished Chair in Neurology.

A pilot study of the protocols at UT Southwestern University Hospitals improved both efficiency and consistency, leading to the hope that an expanded study could lead to a description of “best care” practices in multiple telestroke networks.

“Because telestroke is still an evolving paradigm of care, this study may have significant findings in improving care,” Dr. Goldberg said.

The Lone Star Stroke Consortium is focused on patient-oriented research of preventive strategies, evaluations of therapies and protocols, acute treatment in emergency rooms, and rehabilitation.

The Lone Star Stroke Consortium was established in 2014 with $4.5 million in seed funding from the Texas Legislature. The Legislature continued the funding for the Consortium in 2015 session. The support of many state legislators was vital, in particular that of Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, who chair the Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee, respectively; Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, who represents the Texas Medical Center in Houston, and Rep. John Zerwas, M.D., R-Richmond, who now chairs the Texas House Committee on Higher Education and helped found the program. Its goals are to improve stroke care in often underserved rural areas by expanding the outreach of stroke specialists via telemedicine, study the institutional variations that affect stroke care in rural populations, and allow the often underserved populations to participate in research.

The Consortium is now inviting research proposals from facilities around the world. Researchers interested in using the Lone Star Stroke Consortium can contact BMSansom@seton.org for information on initiating research studies.

The Lone Star Stroke Consortium currently includes UT Southwestern, the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, UT Health Science Center in Houston, the Seton Healthcare Family in Austin, and Baylor College of Medicine/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston. Hospitals involved serve 22 counties, including Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Harris, Cameron, and El Paso counties.

UT Southwestern stroke specialists pioneered the development of some of the most advanced and effective brain aneurysm procedures in use today. Currently, UT Southwestern is participating in many cutting-edge studies to better treat stroke patients and prevent another stroke.

UT Southwestern University Hospitals are jointly certified by The Joint Commission, the American Heart Association, and the American Stroke Association as an Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center, a distinction for hospitals fostering specialized stroke care and expertise for patients. UT Southwestern’s Robert D. Rogers Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center is the first and only Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center with joint certification by The Joint Commission and American Heart Association/American Stroke Association as a Comprehensive Stroke Center in North Texas and only the second in Texas.

UT Southwestern recently established the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, a comprehensive initiativededicated to better understanding the basic molecular workings of the brain and applying these discoveries to the prevention and treatment of brain diseases and injuries.  

###

About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty includes many distinguished members, including six who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to about 92,000 hospitalized patients and oversee approximately 2.1 million outpatient visits a year.

Media Contact: Gregg Shields
214-648-3404
gregg.shields@utsouthwestern.edu

To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via email,
subscribe at www.utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews