Aster MIMS Hospital has partnered with Medtronic India to build a comprehensive stroke programme in Kerala.

It will form a hub-and-spoke network of identified hospitals around Calicut which will be provided with teleconsultation support and resources for mobilising stroke patients at a critical stage and in urgent need of therapy.

With Aster MIMS at the core of this network, partner hospitals can pass on scans and vital parameters of suspected stroke patients to a team of experts at Aster MIMS for further evaluation. Their condition will then be continuously assessed through telemedicine. 

Meanwhile, multiple neuro-interventional surgeons will be available round the clock to perform mechanical thrombectomy.

WHY IT MATTERS

Each year, over a million patients in India experience stroke – mostly ischemic ones. Due to a lack of stroke-ready centres in the country, most patients do not get timely treatment, said Dr Jacob P. Alapatt, head of the Neurosurgery department at Aster MIMS Calicut. There are two ways to remove blood clots in the brain which lead to stroke: physically removing the clot through mechanical thrombectomy or administering clot-dissolving medicine through IV thrombolysis.

Aster MIMS and Medtronic's partnership seeks to address the inaccessibility of care and lack of awareness of stroke and its management. 

"The programme is designed to break down barriers to treatment and standardise patient care pathways to reduce the overall burden of stroke. Through our partnership with Aster MIMS, we aim to increase access to life-saving therapies for more patients in India," Madan Krishnan, VP and managing director of Medtronic India, commented.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Indian startup Qure.ai last year unveiled a new stroke management platform. It is powered by Qure.ai's proprietary AI imaging solution called qER, which interprets and quantifies up to 12 abnormalities on head CT scans and helps spot stroke at an early stage. It also comes with a companion mobile app where specialists can view imaging data, edit findings, and share reports. 

Also last year, Medtronic India partnered with Stasis Health, a unit of Stasis Lab, to promote the latter's AI bedside patient monitoring system in India.