Prehospital application of telemedicine in a neurological emergency

Objective: This is an overview of the projects in prehospital application of telemedicine in a neurological emergency care. Material and methods: Using the example of telemedical projects in emergency care with main focus on the acute care of stroke, different attempts and possibilities for improving medical care are indicated and first results are reported. Results: Prehospital telemedical projects support the acute care of neurological emergencies and act preclinically as a catalyst for an interlinking (of medical care facilities) in the region and for a better communication between emergency doctors/rescue service and clinic teams. By increasing data analysis based on electronical data programmes (EDP) a continuous process optimisation is possible so that, e.g. in stroke, internal-clinical processes can be accelerated and the rate of lyses under a steady rate of mortality can be raised. Conclusions: Applications of telemedicine are applicable within the prehospital stroke care by the compilation of data based on EDP, a higher transparency of the processes can be achieved and internal clinical pathway can be optimised within the Stroke Unit concept.