Opportunity 

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Unfortunately, because it is challenging to conduct neurologic assessments in hospitalized patients, most in-hospital strokes are not detected promptly. Undetected strokes result in treatment delays that can lead to long-term disability, death, and millions of dollars in annual costs to hospital systems. 

Intervention 

Neuralert is a first-of-its-kind non-invasive continuous stroke monitoring system designed to address the problem of late or undetected stroke in hospitalized patients.  

Key features of the system include: 

• Constant monitoring: Neuralert bands monitor for warning signs of stroke 24/7, a vast improvement to periodic neurological checks by hospital staff. 

• State-of-the-art detection: Neuralert bands measure arm asymmetry, a key stroke indicator, and model out non-stroke asymmetry that causes false alarms. 

• Immediate alerts: Upon detecting signs of stroke in a patient, Neuralert's cloud software immediately alerts hospital staff on their mobile devices so that they can rapidly initiate life-saving and disability-reducing stroke treatments. 

Impact 

Time to detection of stroke is directly related to eligibility for treatment and response to treatment. Neuralert decreases stroke detection time tenfold compared to the current standard of care, saving patient lives, improving outcomes, and reducing hospital costs and liability. 

In July 2021, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Neuralert designation as a breakthrough device, and in 2022 it was named one of the Best Inventions of 2022 by TIME.  

An IRB-approved study is currently underway to validate the Neuralert algorithm with more than 300 hospitalized patients enrolled so far.