HoloStroke: Holographic Telestroke and Remote Assessment

Overview

Stroke treatment runs against a clock. Thrombolysis reaches fewer than 5% of acute strokes, because the decision has to be made within hours of symptom onset, and it needs both a stroke specialist and adjunctive imaging. Neither is reliably present where and when the patient arrives, and rural and community hospitals carry most of that shortfall.

HoloStroke moves the expertise rather than the patient. Holograms of a patient, or of their imaging, are rendered in three-dimensional space on a HoloLens and transmitted to a distant site, so that a remote stroke neurologist assesses and interacts as if present at the bedside.

Four studies have tested the approach. Holo-Stroke established that patients found remote holographic visits with a stroke provider satisfying and immersive. Holo-Stroke-CTA compared providers reading computed tomographic angiography for large vessel occlusion in holographic space against a conventional DICOM viewer, and found higher reliability and markedly higher satisfaction. Holo-Stroke-ii extended the approach to inpatient immersion. Holo-PACS widened it from stroke to radiographic scans more generally, testing whether holograms improve provider acumen when reading a scan.

Funding and External Collaborations

HoloStroke is a collaboration with the UCSD Stroke Center and HomniHealth.