Royal Philips and the World Stroke Organization (WSO) have teamed to bring greater awareness to the need for best-practice care for stroke patients.
In a Sept. 10 news announcement, Philips said it is “Time for a revolution in stroke care,” referencing a new policy paper co-published with the WSO.
The news announcement noted that stroke or cerebrovascular accident — “a blockage in a blood vessel in the brain that prevents adequate blood supply to brain tissue and leads to permanent loss of brain cells” — impacts approximately 12 million people worldwide every year and is increasingly impacting people under the age of 55.
The Philips-WSO announcement was accompanied by an editorial in The Lancet Neurology titled, “A Real Chance to Reduce Death and Disability from Stroke.”
“The direct and indirect costs are conservatively estimated to be around $900 billion [U.S. dollars] annually and are expected to almost double over the next 25 years,” the announcement added.
While the technology to prevent stroke and even reverse its effects with rapid treatment does exist, “There is insufficient focus on health-care expenditure and research funding to advance stroke care,” the announcement said. “As a result, access to timely treatment remains limited, and huge disparities in stroke care persist.”
The Philips-WSO policy paper, aligned with recent guidance from the World Health Organization, listed six policy interventions “to improve outcomes and reduce direct costs with substantial potential savings, releasing essential resources for other priorities across struggling health-care systems.”
The six suggestions included assessing current gaps in stroke care and prioritizing stroke care in health plans; investing in and expanding essential stroke services, such as intravenous thrombolysis, in which medication is injected to dissolve the blood clot that caused the stroke; investing in and expanding advanced stroke treatments, such as mechanical thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure to remove the blood clot; improving health-care workforce skills; ensuring adequate reimbursement for essential and advanced stroke care; and building a way to actualize potential savings from essential and advanced acute stroke care.
“Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide,” said Philips Chief Medical Officer Carla Goulart Peron. “The burden of stroke on patients, their families, the health-care system, and society is huge. The time is now for a coordinated approach to revolutionize stroke care, bringing together investment in care and treatment, infrastructure, awareness and a focus on effective policymaking. The benefits are significant, both for healthcare systems and societies, and most importantly in delivering better care for millions of patients worldwide.”
