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Augusta, GA, February 18, 2008 — REACH Call, Inc., the leading provider of 100 percent Web-based solutions for remote stroke diagnosis and evaluation, has announced that it is offering its turn-key telehealth service to the international healthcare industry. This secure service facilitates faster treatment for stroke patients in rural areas by enabling neurologists to remotely diagnose, evaluate and recommend treatment from anywhere in the world using a Web broswer.

REACH was conceived several years ago when Dr. David C. Hess, professor and chairman of Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), and other MCG neurologists noticed that rural hospitals in Georgia often were unable to provide stroke care quickly enough to patients who were visiting their ERs because they had no neurologist on staff. These patients were transferred to MCG for treatment, but often too late to receive tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the only FDA-approved thrombolytic treatment for ischemic strokes that must be delivered within three hours of the onset of symptoms.

"Although ER physicians can administer stoke tests at local hospitals, only a neurologist can diagnose the patient and prescribe tPA," Hess explained. "Time is brain, and time saved is brain saved."

Studies have shown that the sooner a stroke patient is treated after the onset of symptoms, the better his chances of recovery and prevention of long-term disability. But, according to Hess, less than two percent of stroke patients are getting tPA due to poor quality of stroke care in the country's stroke belt, which is largely concentrated in the Southeast U.S.

"Every 45 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke," Hess added, "Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of long-term disability in the country."

REACH has tested its patent-pending service over the last few years with several key healthcare organizations, added Sandeep Agate, REACH president and CEO. Today, REACH has nearly 50 hospitals in six states on contract, and the technology already has saved countless lives.

For instance, 86-year-old Francis "Frank" Wozniak of Fredonia, New York, is alive today because of REACH. Last June, Wozniak fell to the bathroom floor as he was preparing to shave. Immediately, his left arm went numb, his speech became slurred, and he was unable to stand back up. Wozniak's wife called 911, and emergency responders rushed him to Brooks Memorial Hospital in nearby Dunkirk, NY, where the emergency department staff immediately administered a STAT CT scan of his head. Although Brooks Memorial did not have a neurologist on staff, it did have REACH. The hospital connected with neurologists at Millard Fillmore Gates hospital in Buffalo, who confirmed via remote cameras and access to treatment data that Wozniak had experienced an ischemic stroke.

Within minutes of receiving tPA, Wozniak was able to move first his fingers, then his hand, then his arm. He made a full recovery thanks to the time-saving and life-saving REACH application. "REACH works because it does not require any proprietary hardware; only a standard PC with a web cam and broadband Internet connection," Agate said. "The service typically is used in a 'Hub and Spoke' network of hospitals, where the Hub Hospital provides physician-consulting services to Spoke Hospitals for remote evaluation of acute medical conditions such as stroke."

Several Spokes are connected to the Hub and leverage the expertise of physicians at the Hub to provide critical care for patients in their own ERs. These Spokes use a mobile workstation to initiate a consultation request with a physician affiliated with the Hub. The workstation is an assembly of non-proprietary, off-the-shelf components including a laptop, LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a camera. It is battery powered and is equipped with a wireless bridge for maximum mobility within an ER. Spoke Hospital ER staff can use the web browser running on the laptop embedded in the workstation to register a patient and request a consult with a remote physician affiliated with the Hub.

Since REACH is a 100 percent web-based turnkey service, there is no hardware or software installed in the Hub Hospital. The consulting physician can use any laptop or PC, a standard off-the-shelf web cam, and a broadband internet connection to communicate with the Spoke and evaluate the patient. The physician, who can conduct the consultation from anywhere in the world with a broadband Internet connection, has complete control over the two-way audio and video communication and can view all patient data and DICOM images, such as CT Scans, and then use the integrated decision support tools to efficiently and effectively evaluate the patient and recommend treatment.

"We at REACH are excited to offer our service to the broad healthcare market after such successful results with leading U.S. hospitals," Agate said. "We look forward to expanding our application to other acute care modules, such as cardiology, psychiatry, epilepsy, severe head trauma and other medical conditions."