Bellvitge Hospital coordinates the Strack project, which aims to improve the quality of life of people who have overcome a stroke and prevent its recurrence.
The Baix Llobregat Primary Care Service and the Viladecans Hospital are the other two participants in the project, which proposes a new model of comprehensive patient care.
People who suffer a stroke become chronic patients with complex health needs on many occasions. The first year after stroke is critical in determining the patient’s future progression, which makes follow-up especially important during this period. The Strack project proposes a new model of comprehensive care to ensure continuity of care after medical discharge, especially during the twelve months following the stroke.
The project is expected to start operating in the coming months and when fully implemented will serve about 540 patients each year. The central axis of the project is a personalized Health or Care Plan that the patient receives together with the medical discharge. This plan includes a mobile application and devices that will allow the patient to monitor and self-monitor a number of key parameters, such as blood pressure or heart rate. By interconnecting these devices with the hospital's app and telemedicine platform, the main risk pathologies in these patients can be monitored, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, joint fibrillation, heart failure or obesity. , others. The Care Plan, which must be understandable to the patient, also includes physical activity guidelines, cognitive rehabilitation exercises, and information on the function and dosage of prescribed medications, among other things.
Dr. Pere Cardona, coordinator of the Neurovascular Unit at Bellvitge Hospital, emphasizes as one of the main features of the Strack project that “the patient is the center of the stroke care process and, beyond the professionals and the center that the 'take care, it takes over your pathology, improving adherence to the most appropriate treatments and vital habits for your health'. Primary care plays a key role in reorganizing the ongoing care for stroke patients posed by the Strack project.
The Bellvitge Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital admit more than 1,200 stroke patients each year, about 50% of whom belong to the same health area, which makes it possible to monitor the disease in the CAPs. "From Primary Care, it may be easier to monitor the required parameters and, if necessary, transfer the relevant information to hospital specialists," said Dr. Silvia Copetti, Deputy Director of the Baix Llobregat Center Primary Care Service. The aim of the project is to facilitate adherence to treatments, reduce decompensation, unnecessary visits and repetition of tests, as well as facilitate decision-making and coordination between care devices.
As indicated by Dr. Cardona, the Strack project will lead to "better results in functional recovery after a stroke, achieving a low risk of recurrence and better control of vascular risk factors." The co-responsibility of the patient will be decisive for the achievement of the objectives set by the Strack project, since as Silvia Copetti indicates “a conscious, self-responsible patient with a good degree of self-knowledge and self-management of the disease and for so empowered, it is the key to avoid future episodes and other complications ”.
Roche Diagnostic is the technological partner of the project, when the public tender called a few months ago was awarded. The company will be responsible, among other things, for facilitating remote control devices and developing the app, which should help improve the quality of life and autonomy of patients. The Strack project is part of the Innovation Public Procurement Projects program within the Integral Health System for Public Use in Catalonia (SISCAT), subsidized by the Operational Program of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).