{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,27]],"date-time":"2026-06-27T09:27:33Z","timestamp":1782552453995,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":8,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2005,10,11]],"date-time":"2005-10-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1128988800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/www.springer.com\/tdm"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["BMC Health Serv Res"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Early interventions proved to be able to improve prognosis in acute stroke patients. Prompt identification of symptoms, organised timely and efficient transportation towards appropriate facilities, become essential part of effective treatment. The implementation of an evidence based pre-hospital stroke care pathway may be a method for achieving the organizational standards required to grant appropriate care. We performed a systematic search for studies evaluating the effect of pre-hospital and emergency interventions for suspected stroke patients and we found that there seems to be only a few studies on the emergency field and none about implementation of clinical pathways.<\/jats:p>\n            <jats:p>We will test the hypothesis that the adoption of emergency clinical pathway improves early diagnosis and referral in suspected stroke patients. We designed a cluster randomised controlled trial (C-RCT), the most powerful study design to assess the impact of complex interventions. The study was registered in the Current Controlled Trials Register: ISRCTN41456865 \u2013 Implementation of pre-hospital emergency pathway for stroke \u2013 a cluster randomised trial.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Methods\/design<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>Two-arm cluster-randomised trial (C-RCT). 16 emergency services and 14 emergency rooms were randomised either to arm 1 (comprising a training module and administration of the guideline), or to arm 2 (no intervention, current practice). Arm 1 participants (152 physicians, 280 nurses, 50 drivers) attended an interactive two sessions course with continuous medical education CME credits on the contents of the clinical pathway. We estimated that around 750 patients will be met by the services in the 6 months of observation. This duration allows recruiting a sample of patients sufficient to observe a 30% improvement in the proportion of appropriate diagnoses.<\/jats:p>\n            <jats:p>Data collection will be performed using current information systems. Process outcomes will be measured at the cluster level six months after the intervention. We will assess the guideline recommendations for emergency and pre-hospital stroke management relative to: 1) promptness of interventions for hyperacute ischaemic stroke; 2) promptness of interventions for hyperacute haemorrhagic stroke 3) appropriate diagnosis. Outcomes will be expressed as proportions of patients with a positive CT for ischaemic stroke and symptoms onset &lt;= 6 hour admitted to the stroke unit.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>\n          <jats:sec>\n            <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n            <jats:p>The fields in which this trial will play are usually neglected by Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT). We have chosen the Cluster-randomised Controlled Trial (C-RCT) to address the issues of contamination, adherence to real practice, and community dimension of the intervention, with a complex definition of clusters and an extensive use of routine data to collect the outcomes.<\/jats:p>\n          <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/1472-6963-5-66","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2005,10,11]],"date-time":"2005-10-11T18:14:25Z","timestamp":1129054465000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Does a pre-hospital emergency pathway improve early diagnosis and referral in suspected stroke patients? \u2013 Study protocol of a cluster randomised trial [ISRCTN41456865]"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Marica","family":"Ferri","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Assunta","family":"De Luca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Paolo Giorgi","family":"Rossi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giuliano","family":"Lori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gabriella","family":"Guasticchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2005,10,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"165_CR1","first-page":"236","volume":"12","author":"E Warburton","year":"2004","unstructured":"Warburton E: Stroke management. Clin Evid. 2004, 12: 236-252.","journal-title":"Clin Evid"},{"key":"165_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"16","DOI":"10.1136\/jnnp.53.1.16","volume":"53","author":"J Bamford","year":"1990","unstructured":"Bamford J, Sandercock P, Dennis M, Burn J, Warlow C: A prospective study of acute cerebrovascular disease in the community: the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project \u2013 1981\u201386. 2. Incidence, case fatality rates and overall outcome at one year of cerebral infarction, primary intracerebral and subarachnoid haemorrhage. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1990, 53: 16-22.","journal-title":"J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry"},{"key":"165_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1136\/jnnp.50.2.177","volume":"50","author":"DT Wade","year":"1987","unstructured":"Wade DT, Hewer RL: Functional abilities after stroke: measurement, natural history and prognosis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1987, 50: 177-82.","journal-title":"J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry"},{"key":"165_CR4","first-page":"4","volume-title":"Cochrane Database Syst Rev","author":"J Kwan","year":"2004","unstructured":"Kwan J, Sandercock P: In-hospital care pathways for stroke. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2004, 4."},{"key":"165_CR5","first-page":"2","volume-title":"Cochrane Database Syst Rev","author":"Stroke Unit Trialists' Collaboration","year":"2000","unstructured":"Stroke Unit Trialists' Collaboration: Organised inpatient (stroke unit) care for stroke. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2000, 2."},{"key":"165_CR6","volume-title":"Design and Analysis of Cluster Randomization Trials in Health Research","author":"A Donner","year":"2000","unstructured":"Donner A, Klar N: Design and Analysis of Cluster Randomization Trials in Health Research. 2000, London: Arnold"},{"key":"165_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ferri M, Jefferson T, De Luca A: Are the results of hospital based studies generalisable to the pre-hospital setting?. Journal of Emergency Primary Health Care. 2004, 2 (3\u20134).","DOI":"10.33151\/ajp.2.3.284"},{"key":"165_CR8","unstructured":"Medical Research Council 2000: A Framework For Development And Evaluation Of Rcts For Complex Interventions To Improve Health. [http:\/\/www.mrc.ac.uk\/prn\/pdf-mrc_cpr.pdf]"}],"container-title":["BMC Health Services Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/1472-6963-5-66.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/1472-6963-5-66\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/1472-6963-5-66","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/1472-6963-5-66.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,1]],"date-time":"2021-09-01T00:51:01Z","timestamp":1630457461000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/1472-6963-5-66"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2005,10,11]]},"references-count":8,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,12]]}},"alternative-id":["165"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/1472-6963-5-66","relation":{},"ISSN":["1472-6963"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1472-6963","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2005,10,11]]},"assertion":[{"value":"5 July 2005","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"11 October 2005","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"11 October 2005","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}}],"article-number":"66"}}