Turning a Corner in Stroke Care

Neurologist Lee Schwamm looks at 10 pivotal years in the treatment of stroke victims.

NEUROSCIENCE
Search results for “NEUROSCIENCE”
Close

Where Psychedelic Research Goes Next
A new generation of research looks at psilocybin, LSD and other mind-altering drugs. Both the challenges and the therapeutic promise are enormous.

What Makes a Kid Clumsy?
More research into coordination disorders shows why some children are more prone to trip, fumble and spill the milk.

Back From the Brink
Near-death experiences have been the domain of pseudoscience. But clinicians ignore them at their peril.
See More
STROKE
Search results for “STROKE”
Close

The Cholesterol Deniers
For decades, a tiny encampment of researchers has held that statin treatment is a hoax. In a time when contrarian views roar to life on social media, how can medicine keep minority opinions from doing irreparable harm?

Medicine on the Mountain
The body can behave strangely at high altitudes. What can that teach researchers about life at sea level?

The Ambulance Arrives
The first emergency vehicles rolled down city streets 150 years ago.
See More
TECHNOLOGY
Search results for “TECHNOLOGY”
Close

The 100-Day Vaccine
COVID vaccines happened in record time. Could the next be even more rapid?

From Genome to Pangenome
The reference genome is bracing for its next leap forward. Geneticist Ting Wang wants the process to embrace both science and social equity.

Research Has a “Trash Island.” Some Are Trying to Clean it Up.
Computer-generated nonsense studies and other fake papers find their way into the scientific literature all too often. A few crusading researchers are fighting back.
See More
VIDEO
Search results for “VIDEO”
Close

Sleeping Rough
The homeless are the most vulnerable population in the country. How can health care reach them?

A Flu Scare, 10 Years Later
Infectious disease specialist Martin Hirsch looks at the worry over H5N1 and its aftermath.

10 Years That Changed Medicine
Proto’s first issue came out in 2005. The decade that followed brought landmark changes to the world of health care.
See More

Published On January 6, 2016

WHEN PROTO PUBLISHED ITS FIRST ISSUE IN 2005, researchers who study stroke were just beginning to clarify the benefits of the therapeutic protein named tissue plasminogen activator (TPA). Massachusetts General Hospital had also just started a TeleStroke Program, which allowed neurologists to remotely offer their expertise to help diagnose and treat stroke patients within a critical time window.

Both ideas have made a major impact in how stroke victims are treated. MGH’s own TeleStroke program has expanded to 30 hospitals covering 6.5 million patients, and similar programs have taken root around the world. In this video, Lee Schwamm, vice chairman of the department of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, examines those and other treatments, including a revolutionary new use of catheters.

“Stroke affects about 800,000 patients each year and is the number one cause of adult disability in the United States,” he says. “We are on the edge of an epidemic of stroke care if we don’t figure out ways to improve the health of our population.”

Back
to top