Advances in pre-hospital care - operational experiences from the Melbourne mobile stroke unit

Abstract

Mobile stroke units (MSU) are specially designed ambulances with CT imaging capability able to provide faster pre-hospital care to patients in the community. The Melbourne Mobile Stroke Unit is the first MSU service in the Australian region, commencing operations in 2017 in central metropolitan Melbourne. This review describes the challenges of setting up the MSU in a unique Australian setting and initial clinical efficacy of pre-hospital MSU treatment and triage on ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. We also discuss the current technological and operational limitations of the MSU service and directions for future research.