A cutting-edge collaboration, including experts from the University of Exeter and the Royal Devon NHS, has been recognised for its contribution to stroke treatment and care.
The Thrombolysis in Acute Stroke Collaboration (TASC) won the 2025 HSJ Patient Safety Award in for its pioneering work to make stroke treatment safer and faster.
Featuring a team of experts from across the UK, TASC is a collaboration between NHS England, NHS Elect, the national stroke audit (SSNAP) and the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC).
The collaboration supports stroke teams nationwide to use quality improvement (QI) methodology and measurement to improve access to timely clot-busting treatment. This treatment, known as thrombolysis, can reduce disability caused by stroke when given early.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability with over 100,000 people hospitalised in the UK each year. One way of treating stroke and preventing disability is to give a patient medication to break down blood clots. This treatment has been given to approximately 11 per cent of patients in recent years including over 1,000 patients per year in the South West.
However, thrombolysis isn't suitable for every patient and is only effective if given quickly after a stroke. How often thrombolysis is used, and how quickly it is given, can vary widely across the country.
Involving 18 NHS acute Trusts, TASC has been using state-of-the-art approaches to big data to help drive local, data-driven change for the benefit of patients. These approaches include AI, Quality Improvement coaching, statistical process control, and Experience-Based Design – a method that focuses on creating better experiences for patients, carers, and staff.
The impact of this has been profound. Hospitals taking part in the initiative have seen an impressive 45 per cent increase in the number of stroke patients receiving clot-busting treatment and have cut treatment times from about 60 minutes to 40 minutes.
Reviews of patient experiences and care pathways have helped identify even more ways to improve in the future. One of the biggest strengths is that TASC has empowered NHS staff to lead this improvement. Overall, it has created a collaborative, patient-centred culture that has led to clear improvements in care quality, safety, and stroke recovery. These changes are now being shared as a national blueprint for improving stroke care across the country.
The state-of-the-art approach to analysis of clinical data from people treated with thrombolysis is called the SAMueL project. The SAMueL 2 – Stroke Audit Machine Learning project uses AI and machine learning to personalise stroke care for patients identified by their doctors as most likely to benefit from clot-busting treatment.
The project developed a tool to better understand how clot-busting drugs are used in all English hospitals and to help improve their use, so more patients receive the best available treatment as quickly as possible.
This represents the world's first integration of AI into a national stroke audit and is making a big difference to how hospitals deliver thrombolysis care, ensuring that treatment is targeted more effectively for local populations.
Professor Martin James, Consultant Stroke Physician and Honorary Clinical Professor at the University of Exeter, said: "It's a great honour to win this award and a fitting tribute to the extraordinary work of the SAMueL team in seeing the potential of machine learning in this area and the journey from research to implementation.
"SAMueL provides the AI analysis of real-world patient care to overcome the historical reluctance of clinicians to use more thrombolysis, which is typically motivated by a longstanding conservative practice around safety concerns.
"The award judges cited the project's national, and potentially global, significance in supporting greater use of thrombolysis in stroke. More people with stroke are leaving hospital with less disability as a direct result of this project."
Learn more about TASC: https://www.nhselect.nhs.uk/improvement-collaboratives/Clinical-networks/TASC
