From the moment someone experiences a stroke-a sudden interruption of blood flow to the brain-the clock is ticking. Getting the best care as quickly as possible can make the difference between recovery, lasting impairment, or death. But for patients in rural areas or those treated at smaller hospitals, that care may be hours away.
The Utah Stroke Trials Network (UT StrokeNet), which is the Mountain West regional hub of a National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) research network, aims to accelerate stroke care and save lives by bringing advanced, research-based stroke treatments to patients across Utah and beyond.
"Our goal is to get the best science out to people as fast as possible," says Jennifer Majersik, MD, MS, professor of neurology at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, who leads UT StrokeNet. "I'm motivated by my rural patients who don't always have access to the newest treatments or trials. StrokeNet is helping us change that."
Bringing health care frontiers to rural frontiers
UT StrokeNet works by connecting hospitals and researchers across Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona to give more patients access to clinical trials: medical studies that test whether a new treatment, device, or approach is safe and effective. Participation in clinical trials is often limited to large academic hospitals in big cities, but through UT StrokeNet, smaller hospitals can link directly to academic medical centers, allowing patients in remote areas to take part in cutting-edge research close to home.
The success is evident: since 2013, UT StrokeNet enrolled nearly 350 patients in 17 different stroke trials at 13 regional hospitals. A 14th hospital, St. Alphonsus Medical Center, just enrolled its first trial patient-the first-ever StrokeNet participant in the state of Idaho.
The NIH, realizing in 2013 that stroke trials were slow, expensive, and unable to deliver a major treatment breakthrough in two decades, created NIH StrokeNet to accelerate the development of new treatments in prevention, acute care, and recovery.
The University of Utah was selected as one of 25 StrokeNet Regional Coordinating Centers and continues to uphold this prestigious designation today.
Majersik described the network's impact as transformative. "I got involved with StrokeNet because I didn't want people in the Mountain West to be left out of high-quality stroke research," she says. "We're working to ensure that if you have a stroke in rural Utah, Salt Lake City, or regional centers such as Boise, Idaho, you have the same opportunities to access new treatments as someone in Boston or Los Angeles."
Improving care for the future
One landmark study, DEFUSE3, showed that removing blood clots from the brain could benefit patients up to 24 hours after a stroke-making the window in which doctors can help patients four times longer than anyone thought was possible. That discovery, made through a StrokeNet trial, has changed global treatment guidelines and saved countless lives.
"This study completely changed standard of care."
The network also supports studies that address the wide range of challenges stroke survivors face. This includes the FOCAS trial, which investigates treatment strategies for pediatric stroke-an uncommon but devastating condition.
Beyond breakthroughs in science, StrokeNet helps smaller hospitals by providing hands-on experience and education for students, physicians, nurses, and research professionals who want to specialize in stroke care and research.
"When we work with community hospitals, we're not just running a study," Aitken says. "We're helping them develop the infrastructure and confidence to continue offering high-quality stroke care after the trial ends. It's an investment in people and systems."
"I want to be able to manage the patient right in front of me with the best science. I do research because I really believe in the mission of improving care for the future."
