Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) Brings the Laboratory to the Patient at the Point of Care
Clinical laboratories will increasingly provide emergency diagnostic services through mobile-unit near-patient testing
In an innovation designed to bring the laboratory to the patient, use of a mobile stroke unit (MSU) shortened the time to treatment decision for acute stroke patients. MSUs equipped with imaging systems and medical laboratory point-of-care testing proved capable of providing early diagnosis and intervention.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will immediately recognize the implications of these findings. This study demonstrates how clinicians are taking steps to move clinical laboratory testing out of the traditional central/core laboratory and bring it closer to the patient specifically to reduce the time-to-answer for certain medical conditions, like acute stroke.
One conclusion from this clinical study is that use of a mobile stroke unit offers a potential solution to the medical problem of stroke patients arriving at the hospital too late for treatment, wrote researchers in a study published in the medical journal The Lancet.
