Imaging team shortlisted for BMJ Team Award

Congratulations to the Lothian Stroke Imaging Team, who made the final shortlist for the BMJ Imaging Team of the Year Award 2015.

The Lothian Stroke Imaging team

The Lothian Stroke Imaging team aims to speed diagnostic imaging for patients with stroke and TIA, throughout NHS Lothian hospitals.

The team comprises radiologists, scientists, radiographers and healthcare staff from the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian. They have researched the most efficient and cost-effective ways to scan patients to diagnose stroke quickly. Using these results, they modified imaging procedures within NHS Lothian hospitals to ensure that all patients with suspected acute stroke are assessed very quickly on arriving at hospital. Through UK and worldwide guidelines, the work also improved imaging for stroke across the UK and beyond.

The BMJ Team Awards 2015

The BMJ Awards are the UK's premier medical awards programme, recognising and celebrating the inspirational work done by doctors and their teams. All nominations reflected the BMJ's mission - to improve patient outcomes and showcase the very best healthcare in the UK.

The BMJ judging panel whittled down dozens of entries from across the UK to produce a shortlist of five teams for the BMJ Imaging Team of the Year Awards.

The judges were very impressed that the successful streamlining of scanning in stroke had reduced average time to scanning to 36 minutes, resulting in more than double the number of stroke patients being treated within an hour of arrival at hospital in Lothian, and prevented at least 1760 strokes per year in the UK. By enabling faster diagnosis and treatment, more efficient scanning lead to improved quality of life after stroke, and also reduced the length of stay and dependency of sufferers, resulting in a reduction of the cost of stroke to the NHS to be between £186M and £332M each year across the UK.

Being shortlisted for this award is great news for the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian collaboration and most importantly acknowledges all the hard work done by the whole team, including local stroke physicians, emergency teams, nurses and imaging staff over the last 7 years.

Congratulations to all those involved - a fantastic achievement!