Portable Stroke Device Wins $350K [video]

Speedy treatment following a stroke gives a patient the best chance of making a full recovery. Diagnosing a stroke in the field to determine the proper treatment is the catch, however. The correct treatment can save the patient’s life and minimize complications, but making the wrong call in typing a stroke can be fatal because the wrong treatment exacerbates the problem.

The basic difference between strokes is whether the cause is from too much blood (hemorrhagic stroke) or too little (ischemic stroke). We wrote in July about work by China’s Army Medical University and the China Academy of Engineering Physics with two types of near-infrared spectroscopy to measure stroke victim’s hemoglobin concentration, tissue oxygen saturation, and blood flow. The Chinese researchers found the hybrid model effective in ruling out hemorrhagic stroke.

Forest Devices’ AlphaStroke uses a portable electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring device with just a few leads. Machine learning algorithms analyze the EEG data to diagnose large vessel occlusions and other stroke subtypes. With the correct diagnosis, first responders can triage and patients to transport them to the proper stroke centers.

MedTech Innovator announced that AlphaStroke is 2019 global grand prize winner in the MedTech Innovator Accelerator program. Forest Devices stated it will use the $350,000 prize money to bring AlphaStroke to market.

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