Drake's pioneering Stroke Recovery Center gives new hope to stroke victims

Thanks to Drake’s new Stroke Recovery Center (SRC), stroke treatment has reached a new level.

“Too often, stroke patients are told after six months or a year that they have plateaued in their recovery, and that they need to adjust to their new limitations,” says Brett Kissela, M.D., co-director of the Stroke Recovery Center at Drake. 

Yet, whether one has suffered from a stroke a week or a decade ago, the good doctors at Drake insist that improvements can be made in their post-stroke condition.

“I’ve seen the dramatic improvements that many patients can have, sometimes years post stroke, given specialized therapies and new cutting-edge treatments,” Kissela says.

The SRC draws on Drake’s strength in neurorehabilitation, the University of Cincinnati’s (UC) internationally respected team of stroke researchers and the treatment expertise of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Stroke Team.

One feature offered by the SRC is its ground-breaking Stroke Team Assessment and Recovery Treatment (START) Program. 

START gives post-stroke patients the opportunity to consult with a mixed team of medical, therapy and research specialists, who collectively develop a treatment program, based on evidence, tailored to each individual’s case. 

Although there are programs that provide treatment for isolated post-stroke conditions, Drake’s SRC is one of only a few in the country to combine the strengths of a world renowned stroke team and research university.

This holistic approach allows patients to work toward recovery in a number of areas:  walking, mobility, balance, using their hands, cognitive functioning, speaking, swallowing and more.

Drake is doing more than mixing treatment techniques adopted from elsewhere.  They’re actually creating many of the treatments; many of them in Drake’s Neuromotor Recovery and Rehabilitation Lab (NRRL).

“Drake Center is the only hospital of its kind in the region with an in-house clinical research laboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Stroke Association,” says
Stephen Page, PhD, director of NRRL and Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Applied Health Sciences.  “We’re not just providing treatments; we’re often the ones developing them.”

This is encouraging news for the 2,000-some ischemic stroke victims in Cincinnati each year.

More information on the SRC at Drake can be found here.

Writer: Jonathan DeHart
Source: Drake Center