https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-24/stroke-app-connecting-paramedics-neurologists-to-rollout/105067446

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/am/app-saving-stroke-sufferers-lives/105087386

Stroke treatment app to be rolled out nationally after regional success

• By Emile Pavlich

• Topic:Stroke

6h ago6 hours ago

The app connects paramedics with neurologists. (Supplied: Australian Stroke Alliance)

In short:

A program connecting paramedics with on-call neurologists via an app will be rolled out nationally in 2027 following the success in several regional areas.

Australian Stroke Alliance has received $15 million in federal government funding to introduce more trial sites within the next 12 months.

What's next?

Funding will also pave the way for the Australian-made lightweight brain scanning devices to be set up in ambulances.

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Garry Tierney’s partner, Kim Cooper, watched on in horror as her partner struggled with the typical signs of a stroke.

His face was drooping, he had slumped to the ground and he was struggling to respond to her.

A paramedic arrived and started assessing Mr Tierney, near Nowra, in southern New South Wales.

"It was at that moment that I just, sort of, went to pieces … and cried," Ms Cooper said.

"I thought, well, he's had a stroke, how well is he going to be [afterwards]?"

Garry Tierney has made a full recovery from his stroke and has travelled overseas. (Supplied: Australian Stroke Alliance)

A pioneering pilot program would change Mr Tierney's fate, but neither he nor his partner knew that at the time.

Paramedics who cared for Mr Tierney were participating in a trial connecting paramedics with specialist neurologists through an app called Zeus, speeding up assessments and providing tailored care.

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The neurologist told the paramedics to take Mr Tierney to a specialist stroke centre where specific clot removal treatment was available.

Half an hour after receiving the tailored treatment, Mr Tierney was back to normal.

The ABC can reveal the federal government program will be rolled out across Australia in 2027 following a new $15 million fund to the Australian Stroke Alliance (ASA).

When Mr Tierney was back caravanning a month after his stroke, he knew the medical care he received was second to none.

"The only thing I wasn't impressed with was getting a stroke,"

he said.

The program ran in the Liverpool and Hunter regions of New South Wales, as well as in central Victoria.

Over the next 12 months, the program will be resurrected in parts of Victoria and New South Wales and expanded to South Australia and the Northern Territory, before going national in 2027.

Regional patients targeted

According to the ASA, people in regional areas are 17 per cent more likely to experience a stroke than those in the city.

Grant Hocking says he wants to see the program rolled out to rural and remote Victoria. (ABC Central Victoria: Emile Pavlich)

Grant Hocking a paramedic from Woodend, about 70 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, co-designed the pilot program.

He said the figures were concerning.

"But that's also impacted by the lack of treatment available at some remote [and] regional centres," he said.

"Some strokes need definitive care.

"What we're doing with this pilot is demonstrating that by having a more robust assessment and confirmation through the consultation with neurologists, we can prevent that delay and take patients straight to the appropriate hospital."

Neurologist Geoffrey Donnan said the pilot program had proven a "real breakthrough" for those in regional and remote areas.

"We all know that access to medical care in rural and regional Australia is sometimes challenging," he said.

"What this technology does is basically bring the hospital to the patient."

Data suggests 'huge' advantages

At Liverpool Hospital in Sydney, the median time to treatment for stroke patients was two hours faster than their five-year average.

Data for central Victoria and the Hunter region was not yet available.

Professor Donnan said the preliminary data suggested the advantages were going to be "huge" for stroke patients.

"It really does revolutionise the whole workflow,"

he said.

"We have estimated that by 2035, for example, there will be about $154 billion worth of savings in health and economic benefit, which will return to the Australian people by adopting a more streamlined system."

Professors Geoffrey Donnan and Stephen Davis are pioneers of international stroke care improvements. (Supplied: Australian Stroke Alliance)

This is because many stroke survivors will require disability and other support services.

The new funding will also prepare paramedics for Australian-made portable brain scanners.

Professor Donnan said he hoped the brain scanners would be available in ambulances within two to three years.

"We are the world leaders in this sort of research," he said.