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AI-Powered Hub-and-Spoke Stroke Care at Renown Health & Carson Tahoe Health

Care Coordination, Stroke, Workflow
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At a recent Aidoc event, clinical leaders from Renown Health and Carson Tahoe came together to tackle a critical question:
How do you deliver world-class stroke care when geography, resources, and time are all working against you?

Featuring Dr. Mike Ke (Stroke Medical Director, Renown) and Aly Rogers (Stroke Coordinator, Carson Tahoe), the discussion offered a candid look at rural healthcare and how AI is beginning to close the gap. Their message was clear: innovation isn’t just about better algorithms. It’s about building systems that work in the real world.

Stroke care is a race against time and distance

Every minute matters. As Dr. Ke noted, each 15-minute delay in treatment increases the risk of death and disability by ~1%. In rural settings, those delays are amplified by geography.

Renown Health serves a region the size of the UK, spanning Northern Nevada and Eastern California—much of it without immediate access to stroke-ready care. Carson Tahoe, a primary stroke center within this network, plays a critical role despite limited resources, staffing constraints and complex transfer logistics.

Before AI: a fragmented, sequential process

Pre-AI workflows were slow and disconnected. At Carson Tahoe, stroke care followed a linear path:

Patient arrival → CT → Radiology read → Teleneurology consult → Transfer center → Manual image transfer → Specialist review → Transfer

Each step added delay. In some cases, imaging couldn’t be transferred at all, and patients were sent with CDs.

At the hub, Renown faced variability across 27+ referral sites, with different EMRs, imaging systems, and workflows, making coordination even more challenging.

AI as orchestration—not just detection

What changed wasn’t just speed, rather the workflow itself.

With Aidoc, stroke care shifted from sequential to parallel and connected:

  • AI analyzes imaging immediately
  • Alerts reach all stakeholders simultaneously (ED, radiology, neurology)
  • Imaging is instantly accessible at the hub
  • Teams review and decide in real time

As Aly Rogers put it: “We went from waiting… to making decisions together in real time.”

Real-world impact: faster care, better decisions

Within ~6 months of implementation, the results* were significant:

  • Door-in-door-out time reduced by 32 minutes
  • Large vessel occlusion transfer time reduced by ~30% (133 → 94 minutes)
  • Faster treatment initiation (door-to-needle time improved by ~16%)

Interestingly, total transfers did not significantly increase. Instead, they became more targeted. Before AI, transfers were often based on incomplete information. After AI, they were driven by clearer clinical insight. Carson Tahoe is now able to send the right patients, not just more patients. 

Building a Connected Care Ecosystem

The next phase is already underway, with health systems moving beyond individual workflows toward fully connected care ecosystems. This includes advanced analytics for precision care, broader network expansion into rural areas and deeper workflow orchestration across stakeholders.

At its core, this evolution is about improving outcomes and advancing healthcare equity. In many regions, outcomes are still dictated by geography. Renown Health and Carson Tahoe are leading the way—not only accelerating diagnosis, but building a connected system where distance no longer determines outcome.

*Internal Data Provided by Site

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