Prehospital time of suspected stroke patients treated by emergency medical service: a nationwide study in Thailand

Stroke systems of care in South-East Asia Region (SEAR): commonalities and diversities

The Southeast Asia Region (SEAR) accounts for nearly 50% of the developing world's stroke burden. With various commonalities across its countries concerning health services, user awareness, and healthcare-seeking behavior, SEAR still presents profound diversities in stroke-related services across the continuum of care. This review highlights the numerous systems and challenges in access to stroke care, acute stroke care services, and health care systems, including rehabilitation. The paper has also attempted to compile information on the availability of stroke specialized centers, Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) ready centers, Endovascular therapy (EVT) ready centers, rehabilitation centers, and workforce against a backdrop of each country's population. Lastly, the efforts of WHO (SEARO)-CMCL (World Health Organization-South East Asia region, Christian Medical College & Hospital Ludhiana) collaboration towards improving stroke services and capacity among the SEAR have been described.

Understanding of Development Emergency Medical Services in Laos Emergency Medicine Residents

BACKGROUND: Rising death tolls from traffic accidents are quickly becoming an inescapable problem in almost all countries around the world. That being said, the World Health Organization has launched an ambitious campaign aimed at reducing the death rate from traffic accidents by 50% in the next 10 years. Development of emergency medical services (EMSs) was the tool to success the goals, especially in low- to middle-income countries including Laos. However, no studies regard perspective of training EMS in Laos emergency medicine residents. AIM: The aim of our work is to demonstrate the effect of EMS training for Laos emergency medicine residents to the development of the national policy in Lao’s EMS. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in two countries (Laos and Thailand) from January 2020. The project activities were establishment of a command-and-control center, development of EMS support system, and training for emergency care professionals. RESULTS: The eight Laos emergency medicine residents were enrolled between January and March 2020. After practicing as a dispatcher and emergency medical consultant in Thailand at Khon Kaen University, the participants from Laos found that all personnel gained experience and improved their knowledge of technology in EMS and organization management. This had a direct impact on improving confidence in their return to practice in Laos. CONCLUSIONS: The human resource development through international collaboration between Thailand and Laos is contributing the effective knowledge and expertise learning in Laos. Moreover, the result of this training may provide the most effective care system resulting in the much-needed drop in the mortality rate of traffic accidents in Laos.