During the past 20 years, the traditional supportive treatment for stroke has been radically transformed by advances in catheter technologies and a cohort of prominent randomized controlled trials that unequivocally demonstrated significant improvement in stroke outcomes with timely endovascular intervention. However, substantial limitations to treatment remain, among the most important being timely access to care. Nonetheless, stroke care has continued its evolution by incorporating technological advances from various fields that can further reduce patients' morbidity and mortality. In this paper the authors discuss the importance of emerging technologies-mobile stroke treatment units, telemedicine, and robotically assisted angiography-as future tools for expanding access to the diagnosis and treatment of acute ischemic stroke.
Keywords: AIS = acute ischemic stroke; IA = intraarterial; IV = intravenous; MSTU = mobile stroke treatment unit; NINDS = National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; PHANTOM-S = Prehospital Acute Neurological Treatment and Optimization of Medical care in Stroke; RACA = robotically assisted cerebral angiography; RAII = robotically assisted intracranial intervention; acute ischemic stroke; health services accessibility; mobile stroke treatment unit; robotic surgical procedure; tPA = tissue plasminogen activator; telemedicine.