Siriraj Hospital Improves Stroke Diagnosis With Nextgen Connectivity
- By CDOTrends editors
- February 01, 2021
When you suffer a stroke, seconds matter; sadly, many succumb to it on their way to the hospital. So, Thailand’s Siriraj Hospital partnered with NTT and Cisco to treat victims on their way to the hospital. The result is the Siriraj Mobile Stroke Unit.
The Unit is a special ambulance that connects the first responders in the ambulance to the hospital’s experts. The instantaneous connectivity allows doctors to provide immediate attention, medical treatment, and diagnosis to patients as they are transferred to the hospital.
“Siriraj Mobile Stroke Unit demonstrates how technology is transforming healthcare. With a more stable and reliable communication system, our doctors can now have quicker access to accurate information such as brain scan images to make quality diagnosis and improve patient treatment,” said Dr. Prasit Watanapa, dean of the faculty of medicine at the Siriraj Hospital Mahidol University.
The Mobile Stroke Unit allows the medical team to scan the patient’s brain and send high-resolution images from the ambulance to the doctors for rapid diagnosis. It transfers medical images with a high-speed multicellular router and essential medical equipment such as a CT scanner.
The integrated Cisco Telepresence video conferencing system allows doctors to fully assess the patient’s condition and provide remote advice to the first responders to prepare the best treatment possible. Cisco WebEx allows the mobile and hospital-based teams to collaborate efficiently.
“Through this partnership, we will offer a new way to help stroke patients receive emergency medical care when time is of the essence for their recovery. This will help give patients a greater opportunity to recover and return to their normal lives,” said Taveewat Chantaraseno Country Manager (interim), Thailand, and Indochina Cisco Systems (Thailand).
The first Siriraj Mobile Stroke Unit went into service in 2018. Since then, it has helped 380 stroke patients receive emergency medical treatment in Thailand. With the successful outcome of saving precious time and lowering death and disabilities’ risk to the stroke patients, Thailand’s oldest and largest hospital is now looking to expand the unit.
“We understand the importance of timely treatments in stroke patients, which can sometimes be difficult with Bangkok’s frequent traffic congestions. We have already installed these technologies in the first mobile stroke unit and are set to extend Siriraj Hospital’s fleet of mobile stroke units by five this year,” said Sutas Kongdumrongkiat, chief executive officer at NTT Ltd. in Thailand.
Image credit: iStockphoto/kyolshin