Systematic review of telestroke for post-stroke care and rehabilitation

Telemedicine for acute stroke care is supported by a literature base. It remains unclear whether or not the use of telemedicine for other phases of stroke care is beneficial. The authors conducted a systematic review of the published literature on telemedicine for the purposes of providing post-stroke care. Studies were included if the title or abstract expressed use of two-way audio/video communication for post-stroke care. From an initial yield of 1,405 potentially eligible hits, two reviewers ultimately identified 24 unique manuscripts to undergo functionality, application, technology, and evaluative (F.A.T.E.) scoring. Each article was classified using a scoring rubric to assess the functionality, application, technology, and evaluative stage. It was found that most post-stroke telemedicine studies evaluated rehabilitation of adults. All primary data manuscripts were small and preliminary in scope and evaluative phase, and median F.A.T.E. score for primary data was 2. The use of telemedicine for post-stroke care is nascent and is primarily focused on post-stroke rehabilitation.