AMSU for pre-hospital emergency care

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Advanced Mobile Stroke Unit for pre-hospital emergency management

  • IRAS ID

    292195

  • Contact name

    Silke Walter

  • Contact email

    silke.walter@eastamb.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    NCT05330715

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 8 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    Emergency department overcrowding is a major challenge in medicine, leading to a delay in diagnosis and treatment for the patient due to long waiting times. This is very relevant for diseases like acute stroke, breathing problem, infection and sepsis or severe epilepsy. The Advanced Mobile Stroke Unit is an ambulance equipped with additional devices to diagnose and treat these conditions at the emergency site. Patients with less severe conditions can be diagnosed and safely left at home. The objectives of this project are to investigate whether the Advanced Mobile Stroke Unit compared to a normal ambulance enables more accurate triage of patients (treatment at home vs hospital vs specialist vs A&E). The research questions shall be answered in a clinical study. The Advanced Mobile Stroke Unit ambulance will be used in a random order of weeks and this will be compared to weeks with normal ambulances. Patients with suspected disorders of the brain or infections can participate if identified as eligible by the ambulance service emergency operation (999 call) centre.
    The study will be carried out by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust in collaboration with the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust in the East of England. The project is a collaboration with Saarland University, Germany, which provides the Mobile Stroke Unit equipment and support. In total a minimum of 418 patients per group shall be analysed. The study does not influence any assessment or treatment but analyses existing medical data. Participants will give informed consent to this analysis. In addition, participants will be contacted for interview with a questionnaire on days 7 and 90. The study is planned to last for 21 months. At the end of the study, results will be made available not only to the scientific community but also to the public.

  • REC name

    East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    21/EE/0001

  • Date of REC Opinion

    3 Feb 2021

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion