STREETERVILLE — Researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Rush University Medical Center have been awarded a $1.4 million federal grant to launch a study and awareness campaign on the South and West sides about the signs of a stroke.
The funding, from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, will enable medical teams to work with aldermen and leaders from churches, schools, hospitals on the city's South and West sides to spread awareness about the signs of stroke and the best ways to immediately respond.
The initiative will last three years and spread the message to "call 911 immediately for a stroke," according to a release from Northwestern. Researchers will simultaneously conduct a study "to understand how social and psychosocial risk factors impact stroke symptom recognition and action," Rush neurologist Neelum T. Aggarwal said.
"We really need patient and community involvement to understanding barriers to prompt response to stroke symptoms as well as to develop effective and culturally appropriate approaches that promote stroke awareness and early action."
The focus on South and West side neighborhoods, called "underserved" areas in the release, follows findings that African-Americans and Hispanics face higher rates of strokes and lower instances of proper treatment.
"Strokes are more common and more severe in minorities, especially African-Americans and Hispanics," Northwestern Medicine neurologist Shyam Prabhakaran said in a statement. “But research shows that minority stroke patients are less likely to go the hospital in time to receive treatments that can lessen the damage from stroke."
"We want more minority communities to understand the importance of calling 911 for stroke to ensure people are taken to the hospital and given the correct medications right away."
South and West side residents have been lobbying for more emergency care options, including a recent, heated campaign to bring a new trauma center to the University of Chicago in Hyde Park.
Kimberly Rodgers, 43, suffered a stroke in April 2013 and was rushed to Northwestern after her aunt, who's a nurse, "heard the way I was talking and told me to go right to the hospital," she said in a statement.
Rodgers, who is African-American, said she would not have recognized her symptoms as signs of a stroke if her father hadn't suffered a stroke six years earlier.
"For a lot of my friends and family, running right to the hospital is not an option," she said in a statement. "I have learned from the older generation in my family to lie down when feeling ill or drink some water. But really if you feel out of sorts, go to the doctor. Find out what the problem is."
Called the Stroke Champion program, Prabhakaran said the initiative, if successful, "will save lives and save brain function for many people."
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