US lawmakers have introduced a new bill aiming to expand the reach of telemedicine for stroke victims. Called the Furthering Access to Stroke Telemedicine Act, or the FAST Act, it has bipartisan support and is recommended by a number of medical professionals.
Remote care has been enhanced in recent years with the innovations of mobile technology, and has had a particularly strong impact in the southeastern US’s “stroke belt”, which consists of a largely rural population that has suffered increased mortality rates due to lack of speedy access to medical facilities. The FAST Act aims to bring those same benefits to more suburban and urban centers, where speed in accessing health services remains critical in stroke situations.
The main means of accomplishing this goal is by expanding healthcare coverage for remote stroke evaluations. The infrastructure, after all, already exists, as Calgary Scientific points out in a new blog post: The Partners TeleStroke Network, for example, has on-call medical experts ready to use mobile imaging to analyze brain scans, consult with patients over the phone, or even conduct assessments via video call. According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, the FAST Act “would improve access to timely, high-quality stroke care by allowing Medicare to reimburse for the telestroke evaluation for the 94 percent of stroke patients that present to urban or suburban hospitals,” and could lead to “net savings of $1.2 billion over 10 years after both increased costs and savings are factored in.”
These are dramatic benefits, and in no small part do they owe to recent advances in mobile and biometric technology, which are helping to facilitate remote care in a range of areas. The US government would be wise to take advantage of these opportunities through the FAST Act and similar legislation in the future.
Source: Calgary Scientific
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