According to the AHA (American Heart Association), when it comes to stroke, it’s all about acting FAST (face, arms, speech, time). And while comprehensive stroke centers have gotten pretty good at triaging and imaging and treating patients, the time it takes for the ambulance to transport the patient to the hospital eats up precious minutes. The University of California, Los Angeles will now be trialing an ambulance equipped with everything a typical ambulance has, but also a CT scanner and CT tech to operate it, a blood lab, a neurologist, critical care nurse, and a paramedic. The technology is not exactly new, and CT equipped ambulances have already been tried in other places. The goal here is to see if stroke patients have better outcomes when served via the new Mobile Stroke Unit compared to traditional ambulance, and whether there may be a cost savings to society by avoiding costly post-stroke therapy and rehab in these patients. Answers to these questions will help determine ...