System to treat stroke victims has long reach

The latest venture for an Augusta-based telemedicine company has a distinctly Cajun flavor. The REACH Call telestroke system went live this week with the Ochsner Health System in and around New Orleans, and in coming years across Louisiana.

The REACH system is a Web-based interactive system with cameras that allows a neurologist at a "hub" hospital to see and evaluate potential stroke patients in distant emergency rooms. The system allows the neurologist to see key tests such as a CT scan and determine whether a patient is a candidate for a clot-busting drug. Getting a clot-buster within three hours increased by 33 percent the number of patients free from disability three months later, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

"It's our best treatment for stroke, actually to bring people back to normal or to a good outcome from their stroke," said Kenneth Gaines, the chairman of the Department of Neurology at Ochsner Clinic Foundation.

The problem for the Ochsner system, and for hospitals across the country, is not every hospital has a neurologist and stroke expertise on site.

"Some of the hospitals had neurology capabilities but didn't have it on a regular basis and some didn't have any neurology capabilities," Dr. Gaines said.

"It really allowed us to take our main campus expertise and take it to other facilities that are in the Ochsner system."

The health system, in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and with the American Stroke Association/American Heart Association, got a $600,000, three-year grant to start adding rural hospitals in southern Louisiana to the system and train emergency medical services and ER personnel, Dr. Gaines said.

"It's important because this is a big public health problem in Louisiana," he said. "This is clearly part of the Stroke Belt and we have some parishes here that have extremely high stroke rates."

The Stroke Belt, a swath of counties across the Southeast with extremely high rates of stroke, is an area REACH would like to continue to expand in, said Chief Operating Officer Bill Hamilton.

"That's one of our goals is to make sure where there's a stroke problem, folks can get to the neurologist in the right place and at the right time," he said.

The REACH Call system, developed at Medical College of Georgia before it became its own company, now operates in nine states, Mr. Hamilton said. The company is looking at establishing statewide systems in Ohio and Oregon and expanding a current system in Wyoming to statewide status, he said.

"Wherever there's a need, that's where we need to expand into," he said.

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.