Poster: Providing a co-ordinated, connected world for all stroke survivors and their families through a personalised, co-created digital support package: ‘My Stroke Companion’

This poster was presented at the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) 2023. Co-created with UCLH, My Stroke Companion offers personalised advice and support for stroke survivors and their care givers as they navigate life after stroke.

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Abstract

Providing a co-ordinated, connected world for all stroke survivors and their families through a personalised, co-created digital support package: ‘My Stroke Companion’

Louis Stokes1, Daisy Allington1, Rob Simister2, Arvind Chandratheva2 1Cognitant Group Ltd., Research, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery Queen Square and UCLH, Hyper Acute
Stroke Unit (HASU), London, United Kingdom

Background and aims:

Many stroke survivors lack a comprehensive understanding of their diagnosis, care plan, or treatment. Patients, therefore, have less control over their care and are at higher risk of non-compliance to treatment regimes, increasing stroke recurrence risk and long-term disability.

‘My Stroke Companion’ was co-created alongside University College London Hospital, charities, stroke survivors and their families as an accessible digital support package (DSP), designed to provide personalised, reliable, and localised information to stroke survivors and their families, including about type of stroke, prescribed medications, rehabilitation, and navigating life after stroke.

This work aimed to measure patient response to the DSP following discharge from hospital after stroke by analysing use of the tool and from a simple patient feedback questionnaire. Clinician feedback was also captured.

Methods:

We piloted “prescription” of the first iteration of the DSP to selected patients presenting to the UCLH Comprehensive Stroke Service over a four-week period.

Results:

During the pilot phase, 57 people accessed the tool with a 13-minute average session duration, compared against a 2-minute industry standard. The most viewed information related to type of stroke. Patients felt their understanding of their stroke and subsequent care plan increased after using the hub, and feedback from clinicians was favourable, noting direct benefit to patient recovery.

Conclusions:

Patient information following stroke should be accurate, tailored, and accessible. Pilot data from the My Stroke Companion tool suggests the benefit of patients accessing the digital content. Further development of this system and detailed evaluation are now in progress.