Industry News and ' why ' participants are feeling certain emotions ," the project organisers write . " For example , the app can tell us information like : ' Men between the ages of 18-22 are most anxious on weekday mornings between the hours of 8 am and 10 am when commuting to work , whereas women tend to peak in anxiety in the middle of the day and more prominently at the start of the week '."
The project builds upon the success of a 2014 pilot study which asked ‘ How is Australia Feeling ’ and managed to collect over 20,000 submissions over a sixday period . •
Mobile Stroke Unit Enables Prompt Prehospital Thrombolysis
Results of a recent study suggest that the use of mobile stroke treatment units , to shorten the time taken to administer intravenous thrombolysis in acute ischaemic stroke patients , might lead to improved functional outcome in patients .
When treating a patient with stroke , every minute counts . A specialised stroke emergency response vehicle allows physicians to start the necessary treatment , such as thrombolysis , on the way to the hospital . A recent study conducted by researchers from the Charité – University of Medicine in Berlin investigated whether this earlier response time leads to an improved prognosis .
Patients who received the appropriate treatment during transfer to the hospital were less likely to have a disability three months after their stroke than patients who received conventional treatment . Results from the study have been published in the journal Lancet Neurology
The research focused on the use of the STroke Emergency MObile ( STEMO ), a specialised ambulance vehicle available for prehospital thrombolysis of patients with acute ischemic stroke in Berlin , Germany . Equipped with a computed tomography ( CT ) scanner , point of care laboratory devices and staffed with a trained team of specialists in acute stroke care ( one neurologist , one paramedic and one radiology assistant ) the vehicle enables more patients with acute ischemic stroke to receive thrombolytic therapy than would be possible with standard emergency response vehicles .
Approximately 90 per cent of strokes are ischemic strokes , i . e . they are caused by a blood clot blocking an artery in the brain . Arterial blockages of this kind can be dissolved and treated using thrombolytic therapy . Approximately 10 per cent of strokes , however , are caused by bleeding inside the brain , making it essential to exclude cerebral bleeding before starting thrombolytic therapy . Physicians usually achieve this through the use of computed tomography ( CT ) to produce a crosssectional image of the brain . Thrombolytic therapy reduces the blood ' s normal clotting ability to an absolute minimum , which means that an existing brain bleed would be impossible to stop .
Led by Prof . Dr . Heinrich Audebert , Clinical Director of the Department of Neurology on Campus Benjamin Franklin , the researchers studied the extent to which early thrombolytic therapy can influence the degree of a patient ' s subsequent disability . They did this by comparing both the treatment outcomes of patients who received thrombolysis after being transported to hospital in a conventional emergency vehicle , and those of patients who started to receive thrombolysis inside a mobile stroke unit ( STEMO ). Patients from both groups had their health status assessed three months after their stroke .
“ The results suggest that earlier thrombolysis , delivered by emergency response teams , results in patients experiencing fewer disabilities that affect daily living , as well as producing better survival rates ,” says the study ' s first author , Dr . Alexander Kunz . He adds : “ The earlier treatment of acute stroke begins , the better the treatment outcomes that can be achieved . Data from our study suggest that , wherever possible , treatment should commence prior to arrival at hospital .”
Early treatment of this type is made possible through specially-equipped emergency response vehicles , such as the STEMO specialist mobile stroke unit , which is jointly managed by the Berlin Fire Department and the Center for Stroke Research Berlin .
A previous study by researchers from Charité was able to show that patients who had received treatment inside the STEMO were , on average , started on potentially life-saving thrombolysis 25 minutes earlier than patients who received treatment upon arrival in hospital , following transport by conventional ambulance . •
The Journal of mHealth
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