NC Medical School Develops Digital Health Platform to Improve Stroke Care

Researchers from North Carolina-based Wake Forest University School of Medicine have developed a data-driven digital health platform that could help improve health outcomes for stroke patients.

The platform, known as COMprehensive Post-Acute Stroke Services – Care Plan (COMPASS-CP), relies on health informatics algorithms to create personalized care plans for stroke patients using social determinants of health (SDOH) and clinical data pulled from EHRs. The platform is designed to support health management by providing links to community-based resources for these patients and enabling the integration of remote patient monitoring tools, such as blood pressure devices and virtual care management programs.

COMPASS-CP was created following the completion of the COMPASS study, a randomized trial that investigated post-acute stroke care models to enhance health outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions. The study was led by Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina. It was conducted within 40 hospitals over five years.

During the study, researchers compared the health status of stroke patients receiving conventional post-hospitalization treatments to those who received comprehensive care based on a model developed by a team of clinicians, pharmacists, health system leaders, and patient and caregiver stakeholders. The COMPASS-CP platform is a result of the study’s insights.

“COMPASS-CP allows clinicians to securely receive and easily interpret remote monitoring data, such as blood pressure and physical activity, which helps them, their patients, and coaches make timely decisions and adjustments to lifestyle behaviors and medications aimed at reducing the likelihood of patients suffering future strokes,” said Pamela Duncan, PhD, professor of neurology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the COMPASS study, in the press release.

Wake Forest Innovations, which connects the faculty and staff of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center with industry leaders to promote collaboration and product research and development, has helped launch a startup company to make COMPASS-CP available to other hospitals. In doing so, stakeholders hope to decrease the number of secondary events for stroke patients, the press release notes.

“[COMPASS-CP] is a great example of how our academic learning health system can take research findings and develop solutions to help improve the health of patients right here at home and across the country,” Duncan stated.

COMPASS-CP’s development comes just over a month after Ohio-based Mercy Health – Springfield Regional Medical Center struck a collaboration with software company Viz.ai to implement the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to improve stroke detection and notification.

The cloud-based platform implemented at Mercy Health is designed to alert neurovascular specialists of a suspected stroke and enable earlier imaging review. Care teams can also use a mobile interface to collaborate on scan analysis and treatment decisions in real time.

These efforts to improve stroke care follow research published in JAMA Network Open last year, which showed that SDOH is significantly linked to premature stroke mortality.

The study sought to evaluate disparities in premature stroke mortality in the US at the county level. Researchers collected data from individuals between 25 and 64 years old for analysis. When comparing this data between counties, the research team found significant differences in mortality rates and stroke subtypes.

Demographic composition was associated with premature stroke mortality for all subtypes, leading researchers to conclude that stroke prevention and care strategies need to be tailored at the county level for best results.