Healthcare | Thursday 26 February, 2015 4:31 am |

Stroke is the no.1 cause of disability among adults and 3rd cause of death1leading to huge impacts on patients, families and communities. In the Middle East and North Africa, stroke is increasingly becoming a major health issue, with projections that deaths from it will nearly double by 2030.  There is an urgent need to develop strategies to prevent a better care for stroke patients in the Middle East and North Africa.1

Therefore when it comes to stroke, speed is a critical component of treatment. As part of Boehringer Ingelheim‘s new regional initiative “Making every second count, toward stroke recovery’, the cooperative started collaboration with regional stroke specialists and Neurologists in implementing a stroke program to facilitate acute care across the GCC, Egypt and Lebanon.
The MENA Stroke initiative has three major objectives; Focusing on accelerating the decreasing door to needle times- which is the interval between patient’s arrival to the hospital and starting the treatment; Support in establishing a dedicated stroke unit in hospitals which will directly lead to faster and better patient outcomes and; The most important objective is of raising and increasing the awareness of good stroke management among community and Health Care professionals.






The effort is focused towards enabling doctors, physicians, radiology technicians, nurses, and other staff, with the technical knowhow of stroke unit protocol, offering materials to hone skill-sets of the medical staff. Moreover, the initiative is dedicated towards auditing the development of the unit certifications and sustains the on-going supply of scientific materials to the identified hospitals across the MENA region.
The stroke unit aims to provide superior technology with multidisciplinary teams that exclusively manage stroke patients in a ward. Having such centers will decrease the mortality rates, the complications and outcomes of stroke. Furthermore, the accreditation from the German Stroke Society aims to cement collaboration with all the MENA countries and thus each country will have a stroke center of excellence.

Mohammed Al Tawil, General Manager, Boehringer Ingelheim, Middle East and Near East Area, commented, “At Boehringer Ingelheim, we are really happy to lend our support to the initiative as we believe that a dedicated stroke unit will bring faster, lifesaving treatment to stroke patients with better outcomes. It is therefore imperative for a community to be aware of what to do in case a person suffers from stroke as immediate medical intervention is required.”

Boehringer Ingelheim has partnerships with multiple local and international health authorities for the implementation of the initiative. Upon accreditations of identified hospitals highest level of medical care will be passed on to the patients under the universally accepted stroke protocols and management processes. The neurologists can make diagnosis, treatment and prompt evaluation at the dedicated stroke unit would speed the delivery which can greatly diminish stroke related disability and death.

Dr. Suhail Abdulla Al-Rukn, Neurology Consultant, Stroke Specialist, Neurology Department, Rashid Hospital, Dubai Health Authority, which owns the first certified stroke center said, “Last year, we launched the stroke center in the UAE and we have seen the success and declining mortality rate in our stroke patients ever since. The longer a stroke remains untreated, the greater the chance of stroke related brain damage. Emergency medical treatment soon after symptoms begin improves the chance of survival and effective rehabilitation. “MENA stroke initiative” will help exercising stroke units within hospitals which will reduce the burden of stroke disability in our community by improving the level and speed of care the team is able to provide.”
The initiative has 3 phases: exploring phase, building phase and validating phase. These phases had been developed by group a regional stroke specialists which will facilitate other centers to establish a standardized stroke service. This example of collaboration between scientific people and pharma companies is needed for better quality of patients care in our communities.



Dr. Adel Alhazzani, Dean of Faculty of pharmacy and an Assistant Professor of neurology at King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said, “The stroke burden upon society is progressively high and due to the changing lifespan and age structure of most populations; these numbers are only set to increase in the future. Stroke unit is an arrangement that provides certain key processes for acute stroke patients. Stroke unit care constitutes a highly effective treatment and we are glad to implement the initiative in KSA. “