The 10th anniversary NorthEast Cerebrovascular Consortium, or NECC, summit is being held this week in Newport, RI. NECC was established as an independent organization in 2006 to improve stroke care in an 8-state region (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, N
ew York, and New Jersey). The NECC developed recommendations based on the Stroke Systems of Care Model (SSCM)1 with the goal of implementing the recommendations and assessing their impact. The bottom line: stroke professionals care about the best treatments to help stroke victims.
Stroke superheroes stormed the audience at the opening yesterday to a record attendance of over 400 stroke professionals. It reminded attendees that everyone can be a Stroke Superhero when they act F.A.S.T. to aid a stroke victim.
This year the summit celebrates a decade worth of accomplishments in stroke care and focuses on helping attendees learn how to improve patient care from stroke onset to discharge for optimal patient care.
Discussions were held on the role of EMS, rehabilitation and improving patient treatment time in order to save lives from stroke–stroke pros know that ‘time lost is brain lost.’
Many professionals agreed that there is still room for growth when it comes to changing the overall mentality that stroke IS a medical emergency. One stroke coordinator noted that it was his hop
e that, “One day stroke is understood to be as severe of an emergency as a heart attack.”
Participants also joined in for a group sing of the AHA/ASA’s new F.A.S.T. song. 
Attendees enjoyed the first-ever CeraBallum dinner and dancing reception which recognized two outstanding medical professionals for their contributions and dedication to stroke care. Mary George, MD, MSPH, Deputy Associate Director for Science & Senator Medical Officer, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia was the recipient of the American Stroke Association Community Conscience Award.
Robert G. Holloway, MD, MPH, Edward A. and Alma Vollerston Rykenboer Professor and Chair, Neurology, University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY received the distinguished C. Miller Fisher, MD Neuroscience Visionary Award (pictured above).
The room was brought to silence as passion presenters Sonya Arguijo-Frederick, BSN and Erik A. Frederick, MHA shared their personal experience with stroke. Sonya’s father suffered a debilitating stroke when she was just a child, her father did not have access to proper stroke care that is available today. Left with physical and mental deficits, her father did not let the stroke define him.
FACTS about stroke:
- Someone in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 Someone dies from one every 4 minutes.
- Stroke is the No. 5 cause of death in the U.S., claiming nearly 130,000 lives per year.
- About 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke every year.
- Stroke is the leading preventable cause of disability.
- African Americans have nearly 2x the risk for a first-ever stroke than white people, and a much higher death rate from stroke
- 8 percent of Americans can identify each letter in the F.A.S.T. acronym for stroke.
- Among the words in the stroke acronym F.A.S.T., “Face” has the highest recognition (42%), followed by “Arm” (36%), “Speech” (33%), and “Time” (27%).
- 1 in 3 people cannot name at least one sign of stroke.
- Most people say they would call 9-1-1 for stroke, but fewer people are arriving at the ER by ambulance after suffering stroke symptoms.
