Stroke care technology being shared worldwide

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Life-saving work being done here in Toledo is now turning into life-saving work across the world.

Precious time is being saved for stroke patients with a new partnership with ProMedica doctors. Minutes lost mean more and more damage to the brain.

We take for granted these days in the US that physicians can get things like advanced brain scans but also have them read by neurology teams in a timely manner. That’s not the case in places like Pakistan, specifically Karachi where ProMedica doctor Syed Zaidi attended medical school.

“You don’t have the same technology, same resource, same protocols and pathways and treatment options yet the disease is the same,” Dr. Zaidi of ProMedica’s Neurology Department said.

Doctor Zaidi is now working with physicians in Karachi, a city with a few million more people than the state of Ohio, to share the technology to get these scans ready in a timely manner.

Five years ago there was a chance no one read the scan looking for things like blocked blood vessels before it was too late. A year ago it was about 30 minutes to an hour, now it’s a matter of minutes. That’s similar to what we have here.

“Training these next generation of leaders who can help the population there and essentially provide the stroke care locally,” Dr. Zaidi said.

Which is the ultimate goal of this ProMedica partnership. Minutes matter when talking about the lack of immediate access to advanced brain imaging. According to Doctor Zaidi, every 10 minutes lost in stroke care increases the chance for a worse outcome by five percent.

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