New technology could dramatically shorten diagnosis time of stroke patients

Print 16 May 2017
Sarah Wills / European Pharmaceutical Review

An ambitious collaboration between Brainomix, an emerging British business, and Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s largest drug companies, is poised to expedite and improve treatment of stroke, the second biggest killer disease in Europe.

The Brainomix team, based in Oxford, has pioneered the rapid digital analysis of scans of patients admitted to hospital with stroke. With the potential to save vital time for stroke victims, the e-ASPECTS software acts as a standardised and rapid second-opinion tool that assists physicians on site to choose an appropriate treatment based on the magnitude and nature of the brain damage.

Stroke is the biggest cause of disability and a primary cause of death, in Europe killing 650,000 people every year. Many deaths arising from stroke are preventable, and disability can be reduced if medical intervention is timely. Currently, few hospitals in Europe have specialist stroke centres, and even fewer hospitals have the specialist skills necessary to assess scans that can rapidly reveal the extent of damage caused by stroke to a patient and determine the best course of treatment in a very time-sensitive environment.

The Brainomix software has been selected by Boehringer Ingelheim as part of a break-through pan-European collaboration called the Angels Initiative, a unique healthcare initiative launched by the European Stroke Organisation and Boehringer Ingelheim, which aims to improve acute stroke care in Europe by building a community of over 1,500 stroke centres. This collaboration brings together two areas of medical expertise in a battle to limit disability and death caused by stroke.

“We share a common vision to improve early diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients globally,” said Dr Georg van Husen, Senior Vice President, Therapeutic Area CardioMetabolism, Boehringer Ingelheim.

“Imaging is a vital part of stroke diagnosis and treatment decision-making. We are very pleased to collaborate with Brainomix to make the validated e-ASPECTS software available as part of the Angels Initiative.”

As part of the Angels Initiative, Brainomix is offering six-months’ free use of its e-ASPECTS software to hospitals enrolled in the program. Hospitals in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain have already signed up to take advantage of the e-ASPECTS offer. The e-ASPECTS software is already assisting stroke centres in many countries including the UK, Austria, Brazil, Finland, Germany and Sweden. e-ASPECTS uses artificial intelligence to automatically apply the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) method that clinicians use to assess damage to the brain on plain CT scans.

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