The American Heart Association has launched a nationwide quality improvement initiative to enhance surgical treatments for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), a particularly deadly form of hemorrhagic stroke. Despite accounting for only 13% of all strokes in the United States, ICH is responsible for over 40% of stroke-related deaths, highlighting the critical need for improved interventions. The Hemorrhagic Stroke Surgical Quality Improvement Initiative, supported by Stryker, specifically promotes the adoption of minimally invasive techniques, such as minimally invasive parafascicular surgery (MIPS), which has demonstrated potential to improve patient recovery when performed within 24 hours of a brain bleed.
Fifteen hospitals across the country have been selected to participate in a learning collaborative designed to analyze ICH care data and clinical workflows. These institutions, including Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee and Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, were chosen based on their leadership in MIPS, readiness of infrastructure, and commitment to expanding surgical options for ICH patients. The initiative leverages data from the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines® - Stroke registry, which tracks a significant portion of the nation's stroke hospitalizations, to identify and scale successful care models. For more details on the registry, visit https://www.heart.org/en/professional/quality-improvement/get-with-the-guidelines/get-with-the-guidelines-stroke.
Dr. Kevin Sheth, a volunteer with the American Heart Association and director of the Yale Center for Brain & Mind Health, emphasized the importance of data sharing and accelerated learning in enhancing stroke care. The initiative aims to reduce the devastating outcomes of hemorrhagic strokes by improving access to surgical interventions that have been proven to aid in patient recovery. This collaborative effort represents a strategic move to standardize and disseminate best practices in ICH surgery across leading medical centers, potentially transforming the standard of care for a condition with historically high mortality rates. The initiative's broader goal is to ensure that more patients have timely access to life-saving surgical options, thereby addressing a significant gap in stroke treatment protocols. Additional information about the surgical initiative is available at https://www.heart.org/ICHSurgical.
