More Australians to benefit from life-saving stroke treatment options.

New medical guidance published today says more Australians may be eligible for blood clot-busting drugs up to nine hours after a stroke, giving thousands more patients the chance of a better recovery.

The advice comes from the world-leading Australian Living Stroke Guidelines, a pioneering initiative that introduces research into clinical practice within months of publication, rather than years. The initiative was developed by Stroke Foundation and Cochrane Australia in 2018 using seed funding from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund.

Stroke Foundation, as part of the wider Living Evidence Consortium, is now calling for Federal and State governments to continue to invest in this ground-breaking innovation so that more lives can be saved.

Stroke Foundation Executive Director Stroke Services, Dr Lisa Murphy, says this new way of developing ‘living’ or continually updated clinical guidelines means health professionals have an important tool they can count on to help them deliver the best care. A $24.5m investment is needed to sustain and evolve this revolutionary health innovation and maintain Australia’s leadership in this area.

“The old model of research and review could take five or more years to translate new innovations into practice. We cannot go backwards, we must continue to progress this life-saving approach which brings real-time advances to the people needing care,” Dr Murphy says.

“Further Government investment in this program is an investment in Australia. We have already led the world in developing this innovation and we can take that even further to save more lives and reduce the level of disability caused by stroke.”

The guidelines’ update published in the Medical Journal of Australia today is an example of the Living Evidence’s impact.

One of the new recommendations comes from research which was only published in May last year. It found that clot-busting drugs are considered safe to give to some patients up to nine hours after a stroke instead of the traditional 4.5-hour window.

Dr Murphy says it remains critical to treat every stroke patient as fast as possible, as millions of brain cells die with every minute that passes. However, this research opens the possibility of treatment for selected patients who wake-up with stroke symptoms, or who are unavoidably delayed in reaching hospital.

The experience from the Stroke Living Guidelines demonstrates changes and approval of clinical guidelines can occur more rapidly, while maintaining strong development standards. It means that clinicians in every Australian hospital can access and trust this new guidance as they treat stroke patients. This will translate to thousands more patients being considered for this treatment.

Since pioneering the Living Evidence approach to stroke treatment in 2018, it is estimated over 300 Australian lives have already been saved or greatly improved.

While stroke specialists have been the early champions of this ‘living’ approach, groups involved in other diseases such as COVID-19, diabetes, and arthritis are also contributing to Consortium. The initiative has been particularly revolutionary during the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing new treatment guidelines every few weeks since April 2020, based on emerging evidence from thousands of COVID-related global studies.

Dr Murphy says ensuring more people can access life-saving treatments is a significant step forward, but more still needs to be done to help Australians recognise a stroke and get to hospital in the first place.

Stroke Foundation’s annual survey last year found that 40 per cent of Australians do not recognise any of the signs of stroke, and therefore may not call for an ambulance quickly enough to get urgent medical care.

Three of the most common signs of stroke are facial droop, an inability to lift your arms, and slurred speech. Those symptoms and the reminder that time cannot be wasted in a stroke emergency, make up the F.A.S.T acronym which Stroke Foundation promotes widely.

“Ideally, we want at least one person in every household and workplace in Australia to be able to recognise the signs of stroke and to know that time is critical, calling triple zero (000) is the very first thing you must do,” she says.

The Living Evidence updates can be found here or via www.livingevidence.org.au

What is a stroke?