In Thailand, some of the highest causes of death are by strokes and paralysis. Paralysis has the power to make blood vessels in the brain rigid. It is found that Paralysis affects 1,880 in 100,000 Thai people over the age of 45.
Khon Kaen University recently announced that it launched a mobile application to assist stroke patients in times of need. The app is called “Stroke Fast Track” and it works to help the patient contact support quickly. This will in turn, help the patient avoid consequences such as paralysis.
Application users will be asked to input their personal information such as age, gender, fat content of blood, family disease history, current diseases, contact numbers and family members’ numbers. Based on this personal data, the app will be able to assess the risk of the user suffering a stroke.
Stroke Fast Track also offers educational tools such as articles about stroked and paralysis.
The user is to keep their mobile phone near them to fully utilize functions of the app, in case a crisis occurs. When the user feels that they are going to have a stroke, they use the mobile app to contact family members, access information to the nearest hospital, and retrieve numbers for immediate and emergency help. On a similar note, OpenGov recently shared news about an app development in Singapore that would contribute similar support to ageing in place.
This is a beneficial app for stroke patients to have as they may not be able to predict the next onset of a stroke or have the ability to find the right contacts, while they are in a fragile state.
As Associate Professor Dr. Somsak Tiamkao, Department of Medicine, Kohn Kaen University, said, “The best cure for a stroke is the injection of a blood thinner into a vein, but a patient must reach a doctor within 270 minutes, or four and a half hours.”
For patients living in rural areas, this may not be so feasible if they do not know where the nearest hospital is and if they cannot contact anyone to get there in time. “Not many Thais know about the new treatment methods resulting in only 4 out of 100 Thais reaching the hospital in time for proper treatment,” Dr. Somsak Tiamkao stated.
The application is currently available in Thailand for Android and IOS operating systems.