Up-to-date certification of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) is often required for clinical trials, representing a significant burden on clinical investigators globally.

This systematic review sought to determine if NIHSS or mRS training, re-training, certification or recertification led to improvements in the reliability or accuracy of ratings as well as other relevant user metrics (e.g., user confidence).

Among 4227 studies, 100 passed screening and were assessed for eligibility with full-text review; 23 met inclusion criteria. Among these 23 studies, 22 examined NIHSS training and/or certification, and only a single study included examined the effect of training on mRS performance. Ten of 23 included studies were conference abstracts. The study designs, interventions and outcome measurement of the included studies were heterogeneous. In the case of the NIHSS, two studies found increased accuracy after NIHSS training, and a third study showed statistically significant though clinically trivial decreases in error rate with training. The remaining 19 studies showed no benefit of NIHSS training as it relates to reliability or accuracy outcomes. The single included mRS study did not show the benefit of training.

Although data are sparse with heterogeneous training protocols and outcomes, there is no compelling evidence to suggest benefit of healthcare professionals completing NIHSS or mRS training, certification or recertification. At the very least, recertification/re-training requirements should be reconsidered pending the provision of robust evidence.

The use of telemedicine for the prehospital management of emergency conditions, especially stroke, is increasing day by day. Few studies have investigated the applications of telemedicine in Emergency Medical Services (EMS). A comprehensive study of the applications of this technology in stroke patients in ambulances can help to build a better understanding. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to investigate the use of telemedicine in ambulances for stroke patients in 2023.

A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, ProQuest, Science Direct, and Web of Science from 2013 through March 1, 2023. The authors selected the articles based on keywords and criteria and reviewed them in terms of title, abstract, and full text. Finally, the articles that were related to the study aim were evaluated.

The initial search resulted in the extraction of 2,795 articles. After review of the articles, and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, seven articles were selected for the final analysis. Three (42.85%) studies were on the feasibility and intervention types. Also, randomized trials, feasibility, feasibility and prospective-observational, and feasibility and retrospective-interventional studies were each one (14.28%). Six (85.71%) of the studies were conducted in the United States. The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and RP-Xpress were the most commonly used tools for neurological evaluations and teleconsultations.

Remote prehospital consultations, triage, and sending patient data before they go to the emergency department can be provided through telemedicine in ambulances. Neurological evaluations via telemedicine are reliable and accurate, and they are almost equal to in-person evaluations by a neurologist.