Towards an Air Mobile Stroke Unit for Rapid Medical Response in Rural Australia

Stroke is highly treatable but time critical. The greatest opportunity to improve outcomes is in the first Golden Hour after onset. Pre-hospital care for stroke in Australia is patchy and poorly coordinated, resulting in gross disparities in clinical outcomes between rural and urban Australians. Clinical outcomes are at least twice as poor for rural Australians compared to their urban counterparts. This paper discusses a transformative research program that investigates the technical feasibility of transporting a CT-scan device to the patient to determine the cause of stroke and initiate treatment immediately. This concept follows in the tradition of the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) who have been providing medical service to rural Australians since 1928.