Stroke telemedicine: yesterday, today and tomorrow

Abstract

Introduction. Telemedicine, by fitting into the long chain of events of the patient’s fate, plays an integrative role, allowing all stages of stroke care to be monitored.The aim of the study was to analyse and systematise the scientific literature in the context of the development of telemedicine for stroke.Materials and methods. Narrative review is compiled from literature sources found in the scientific electronic library eLIBRARY.RU and the National Library of Medicine database (PubMed.gov) using the keywords “telemedicine”, “stroke”, “telestroke” for the years 1999 to 2022.Results and discussion. The emergence of thrombolytic therapy perceived as a risk treatment, the lack of specialists to provide round-the-clock care, the requirement of regulatory authorities to improve the quality of care and technological improvements in data transmission capacity served to develop stroke telemedicine in the first decade of the 21st century. In the second decade of the 21st century telestroke, which initially originated in North America and Western Europe, began to spread widely around the world. The pandemic of a new coronavirus infection at the turn of the third decade of the 21st century provided the greatest impetus for the development of telemedicine in general and was the third impetus for the development of stroke telemedicine. Stroke telemedicine is pushing the boundaries of clinical practice, making specialised care more accessible and less dependent on local manpower.Conclusion. Further evolution of telemedicine for stroke will proceed in three directions: (1) telemedicine for stroke will become routine clinical practice; (2) telemedicine for stroke will become more personalized; and (3) regional telestroke networks will be connected to national and international telestroke networks, and stroke telemedicine networks will develop.