Dr. Suhail Abdulla Al-Rukn, neurology consultant and stroke specialist at the Neurology Department of Rashid Hospital in Dubai, explains the importance of the "Stroke Initiative" program at the recent launching while other participants listen. — Courtesy photo.
JEDDAH — Stroke is the number 1 cause of disability among adults and 3rd cause of death leading to huge impacts on patients, families and communities. In the Middle East and North Africa, stroke is increasingly becoming a major health issue, with projections that deaths from it will nearly double by 2030. There is an urgent need to develop strategies to prevent a better care for stroke patients in the Middle East and North Africa. When it comes to stroke, speed is a critical component of treatment. As part of Boehringer Ingelheim‘s new regional initiative “Making every second count, toward stroke recovery', the cooperative started collaboration with regional stroke specialists and neurologists in implementing a stroke program to facilitate acute care across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) counries, Egypt and Lebanon. The MENA Stroke Initiative has three major objectives: Focusing on accelerating the decreasing door to needle times, which is the interval between patient's arrival to the hospital and starting the treatment; support in establishing a dedicated stroke unit in hospitals which will directly lead to faster and better patient outcomes and the most important objective is raising and increasing the awareness of good stroke management among community and health care professionals. The effort is focused toward enabling doctors, physicians, radiology technicians, nurses, and other staff, with the technical knowhow of stroke unit protocol, offering materials to hone skill-sets of the medical staff. Moreover, the initiative is dedicated towards auditing the development of the unit certifications and sustains the on-going supply of scientific materials to the identified hospitals across the MENA region. The stroke unit aims to provide superior technology with multidisciplinary teams that exclusively manage stroke patients in a ward. Having such centers will decrease the mortality rates, the complications and outcomes of stroke. Furthermore, the accreditation from the German Stroke Society aims to cement collaboration with all the MENA countries and thus each country will have a stroke center of excellence. Mohammed Al-Tawil, General Manager of Boehringer Ingelheim for Middle East and Near East Area, commented: “At Boehringer Ingelheim, we are really happy to lend our support to the initiative as we believe that a dedicated stroke unit will bring faster, lifesaving treatment to stroke patients with better outcomes. It is therefore imperative for a community to be aware of what to do in case a person suffers from stroke as immediate medical intervention is required.” Boehringer Ingelheim has partnerships with multiple local and international health authorities for the implementation of the initiative. Upon accreditations of identified hospitals highest level of medical care will be passed on to the patients under the universally accepted stroke protocols and management processes. Neurologists can make diagnosis, treatment and prompt evaluation at the dedicated stroke unit to hasten the delivery which can greatly diminish stroke-related disability and death. Dr. Suhail Abdulla Al-Rukn, neurology consultant and stroke specialist at the Neurology Department of Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, which owns the first certified stroke center, said, “Last year, we launched the stroke center in the UAE and we have seen the success and declining mortality rate in our stroke patients ever since.” – SG
