Boehringer Ingelheim launches campaign to enhance acute stroke care

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced a new collaboration with the European Stroke Organisation with the aim of enhancing the quality of stroke care.

The Angels Initiative aims at building a community of at least 1,500 stroke centres and stroke-ready hospitals across Europe by May 2019, in order to ensure patients affected by the condition are provided with a higher standard of acute care.

Hospitals and physicians will receive support through this programme to help them set up or improve stroke centres through measures developed with input from a steering committee of leading international stroke experts.

These include educational tools and programmes, support for in-hospital process optimisation, and a community platform for peer-to-peer exchange and access to the world's leading stroke specialists.

Over the next five years, it is hoped that the Angels Initiative will give up to 500,000 stroke patients a better chance of survival.

Dr Georg van Husen, senior vice-president for cardiometabolism at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "We are funding this unprecedented health initiative, because it aims at structurally improving the healthcare system needed to treat acute stroke patients in the best possible way."