New Delhi: The Indian Stroke Association, today launched the Stroke SOS App, aimed to help stroke patients in an emergency situation. The app will help facilitate patients/caregivers find the nearest listed hospital which specializes in stroke treatment and request them for assistance. The app would help the user navigate to the selected hospital with the help of the map directly from the application.
The Stroke apps currently availablein the market, cater to stroke rehabilitation, for educating the medical professional, to assess the stroke related risks, for healthcare providers and customized rehabilitation process for the individuals. We at Indian Stroke Association felt the dearth of such an app which could bridge the gap between patients and emergency care on a Pan India basis.
Dr Vinit Suri, President of Indian Stoke Association, Senior Consultant Neurologist and Coordinator-Department of Neurology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi said “Stroke is a devastating medical emergency which requires immediate management to restore circulation in the blocked vessels by Intravenous thrombolysis (conducted up to 4.5 hours) or mechanical thrombectomy (conducted up to 6 hours and up to 24 hours in selected patients).Unfortunately in India only 1-5% patients get access to these therapies because of lack of awareness to recognise stroke and additionally lack of awareness towards where and what treatment is to be administered once stroke strikes.”
“The application called StrokeSOS, helps stroke patients in the emergency situation. It picks up the location of the user, provides information about common symptoms of stroke and provides information about nearby hospitals (both government and private) where stroke management can be administered. It provides contact numbers of the hospital and navigates the patients on Google maps with indication of the time taken to reach the medical facility”.
Stroke is the second leading cause of death globally, with one stroke case occurring every 2 second and claiming 1 life every 6 seconds. 1 in 4 people in the world will develop a stroke in their lifetime.
80% of strokes are preventable if the treatment is delivered within the golden hour. Apps such as StrokeSOS was a much required need of the healthcare industry