Australian health professionals will be empowered to deliver high quality, best practice stroke care thanks to a world-first, new online platform. The Stroke Foundation recently came together with leading minds in stroke treatment and care to launch InformMe in Melbourne.
Stroke Foundation Chief Executive Officer Sharon McGowan said InformMe would transform stroke treatment and care in this country. “There will be around 50,000 stroke events in Australia this year, and currently there is no guarantee that patients suffering a stroke will receive the level of treatment and care that is recommended. In fact we know from the recent Acute Services Audit that many of them will not,’’ she highlighted.
“The gap between care that is recommended in best practice clinical guidelines and what actually happens in Australian hospitals is costing lives and money.
“InformMe will help bridge these gaps in care by providing stroke care information, clinical guidelines and quality data in an easy to access format – a ‘one stop shop’ for health professionals working in the field of stroke.
“InformMe provides readily accessible information which will empower health professionals to make the right decisions, and deliver the right treatment, in the right way, at the right time.
“Stroke is treatable and InformMe will help ensure more Australians have access to the treatment and care they need and deserve to make the best recovery possible.”
How does InformMe work?
InformMe brings together resources, guidelines, data, professional support and education in one easy to use, free and accessible location.
Stroke Foundation Clinical Council Chair Associate Professor Bruce Campbell said InformMe broke down distance and physical barriers by not only providing information but connecting health professionals from Hobart to Cooktown, Perth to Sydney, and everywhere in between.
“Clinicians from across the care spectrum have been involved in every stage of InformMe development. It provides a place for allied health professionals, doctors, nurses and researchers to come together to share information, as well as source the latest news in stroke,” A/Professor Campbell said.
“Australian researchers are the brains behind the development some of the latest, lifesaving innovations in stroke treatments and care, however access to their expertise is often limited to those located in the city. InformMe will help remove these barriers.
“The strength of InformMe is that it is an evolving tool that will continue to improve and change to meet current and future health professional needs. These changes can be almost instantaneous. Where in the past it might have taken a year to update practice guidelines and wading through journal after journal to find the research you were looking for, now with InformMe the latest research and information can be accessed in an instant.
“This platform has the power to dramatically improve the treatment and care of stroke in Australia,” he said.
InformMe was developed with the support of founding partner Gandel Philanthropy and the additional support of Boehringer Ingelheim.