Mobile CT scanner to join air ambulance fleet in world-first

Victoria’s Stroke Ambulance looks set to take off, in an ambitious $1 million world-first plan to increase the number of patients getting access to lifesaving and time-critical treatment.

Medical experts studies the EEG condition of the patient

Victoria’s Stroke Ambulance looks set to take to the sky, in an ambitious $1 million world-first plan to increase the number of patients getting access to lifesaving and time-critical treatment.

Almost two years after the launch of Australia’s first stroke ambulance — which carries a mobile CT scanner on-board, and has seen most patients being treated an hour earlier — the Federal Government is funding the groundwork needed to add this specialist service to the air wing.

Neurologists and Professors Stephen Davis and Geoffrey Donnan, from Royal Melbourne Hospital and University of Melbourne, will lead the research project involving more than 30 health and academic bodies, to develop and test the rollout of portable brain imaging.

“There is a mismatch in Australia where people in rural and remote areas aren’t getting the benefits of modern stroke treatment, which are all related to getting blood flow back into the brain,” Prof Davis said.

“Every minute after stroke means the death of two million brain cells. Multiple that by an hour, you’re getting vastly different outcomes.

“The idea is to transform pre-hospital stroke care and translate the benefits that have been obtained in metropolitan areas to rural, remote and indigenous Australians.”

The Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Mobile Stroke Unit team, L-R Lindsay Bent (Paramedic), Andrea Watt (Paramedic), Rob Simons (Paramedic), Skye Coote (Nurse), Francesca Langenberg (Radiographer) and Henry Zhao (Doctor). Picture: Sarah Matray

The Mobile Stroke Unit, based at RMH, has treated more than 2000 patients — about seven each day — which includes about 160 patients who would have missed the 4.5 hour treatment window if they had been taken to hospital in the traditional way.

Scans of the brain, taken in the patient’s driveway, allow for early diagnosis of stroke to ensure patients are given the right treatment fast, and are taken straight to a specialist hospital.

Prof Davis said one of the biggest challenges will be developing a lighter-weight version of the 500kg, washing machine sized CT scanner currently used in the Stroke Ambulance.

The team is also exploring other ways to image the brain, such as microwave technologies.

Royal Melbourne Hospital. Radiographer, Francesca Langenberg inside Australia’s first Stroke Ambulance. Picture: Sarah Matray

The plan, announced today by federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, was one of 10 promising research projects funded by the Medical Research Future Fund Frontiers initiative, to further their plans for their cutting-edge project.

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Stroke Foundation chief Sharon McGowan said given that people in regional areas were more likely to have a stroke and have poorer outcomes, this project would help remedy the inequity.

“We can change the face of stroke for the future,” Ms McGowan said.

“We’re on the cusp of really challenging the whole stroke dynamic to say that people living in rural and remote areas can actually have access to specialist stroke treatment.”

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