Enhancement of TIA management in primary care with a novel electronic tool.

Abstract

Cerebrovascular disease causes a heavy burden for society. To avoid disability and reduce costs, stroke prevention is essential. The Early Use of Existing Preventive Strategies for Stroke (EXPRESS) and Transient Ischemic Attack Clinic with Round-the-Clock Access (SOS-TIA) studies in Oxfordshire and Paris suggested that rapid investigation and treatment can prevent early stroke in TIA patients. Neurologist-led rapid access clinics are not available to all, however, and it is general practitioners (GPs) who most commonly play the crucial role in early management, making the diagnosis and urgent transfer to hospital, or initiating tests and treatments and triaging patients to the appropriate specialist clinic, including determining the urgency of referral. Individual GPs see few such patients, however, and their knowledge of TIA diagnosis and urgent investigations and secondary prevention treatments is not always optimal.