Brainomix is set to strategically partner with Visionable, a real-time clinical collaboration platform designed to enable virtual healthcare models, in an attempt to transform the delivery of stroke care.
The two tech-enabled health companies will collaborate and comarket two complementary solutions—Visionable’s collaboration platform and Brainomix’s e-Stroke artificial intelligence (AI) software—to enhance the full pathway of stroke care delivery, from pre-acute to intrahospital stages.
Visionable’s patented, next-generation digital healthcare collaboration platform can be used across this care pathway, a press release from the company states—from emergency response, connecting frontline responders and on-scene members of the public to remote specialist clinicians; through to hospital treatment, including virtual consultations, multidisciplinary team meetings and at-home care.
This platform is set to be combined with Brainomix’s e-Stroke software, which constitutes a collection of tools that use state-of-the-art AI algorithms to support doctors by providing real-time interpretation of brain scans, helping guide treatment and transfer decisions for stroke patients, and allowing more patients to be treated in the right place at the right time.
The two complementary technologies are saving time, reducing workload, and supporting improved outcomes, all of which aligns with the UK national strategy to drive integration and efficiency for better care, the Visionable release states.
Under a National Health Service (NHS) Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award, Brainomix has been deploying e-Stroke across a number of UK stroke networks over the past two years, evaluating its impact on stroke care across multiple NHS regions in the process. The additional benefit of combining e-Stroke with Visionable’s platform has been pioneered by the stroke team at Ipswich Hospital (Ipswich, UK), with patients and staff already reaping positive results through faster delivery of care, superior performance metrics and, most importantly, improved patient outcomes.
Lynda Sibson, telemedicine manager, East of England Stroke Telemedicine Partnership, works across the region to support the transformation of stroke care through the adoption of innovative digital tools and played a central role in introducing the two solutions to Ipswich Hospital.
“Both systems are easy and intuitive to operate, and highly complementary, ensuring timely sharing of clinical and radiological information that ultimately enables faster patient transfers,” Sibson commented. “The companies are true partners, easy to work with and highly responsive. We have also found that the technologies are affording our clinicians more flexibility and an improved work-life balance—not something to be underestimated!”
Sajid Alam, stroke consultant at Ipswich Hospital, said: “As a district general hospital, we do not have ready access to dedicated neuroradiologists to interpret every stroke scan. Having the AI software gives us more confidence when interpreting each scan, particularly the CTAs [computed tomography angiographies], where we look for a large vessel occlusion—a key indicator of patient eligibility for mechanical thrombectomy.”
Patients admitted to Ipswich Hospital who are eligible for mechanical thrombectomy are transferred to the Royal London Hospital (RLH; London, UK), a comprehensive stroke centre that serves as a supra-regional thrombectomy hub for Ipswich and a number of other stroke units across the south-east of England.
“In stroke, time is critical. Using e-Stroke saves precious minutes, as the scans are immediately available for viewing on the Brainomix web portal,” Alam added. “With RLH also using e-Stroke, we can communicate instantly, share images and make transfer decisions without delay.”
As per the release, recent performance metrics indicate that Ipswich Hospital is delivering best-in-class service, with the proportion of patients being assessed by a stroke consultant within 24 hours ranking above the national average (90.4% vs 82.9%, respectively), along with how quickly that assessment takes place from admission (four hours and 20 minutes, compared to nine hours and 53 minutes, respectively).
