The Angels Initiative – a unique healthcare initiative to improve acute stroke care

The Angels Initiative is a unique healthcare initiative that helps hospitals around the world become ‘stroke-ready’ so that patients who have just suffered a stroke can be treated as quickly and effectively as possible.

Suffering a stroke is one of the most devastating medical emergencies that can happen to a person. 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke every year. ¹ One–third of these people die as a consequence and another third are left permanently disabled.^1,2

However, with optimal acute stroke care, more lives can be saved and catastrophic disability can be prevented, meaning thousands of patients can return to the life they knew.

The Angels Initiative seeks to greatly reduce the burden of stroke for countless patients by working with hospitals to build an innovative network of stroke-ready hospitals worldwide, including in Europe, to reduce treatment delays and provide patients with the optimal standard of acute stoke care.

The initiative was launched in 2016 and is run by Boehringer Ingelheim in partnership with the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), the World Stroke Organisation (WSO), the Stroke Alliance for Europe (SAFE), and many other national stroke societies, companies and health institutions.

Since its launch, the Angels Initiative has helped thousands of stroke patients around the world access improved acute stroke care, so they can go on to experience their most cherished moments.

How? The initiative works with doctors, nurses and ambulance crews to build acute stroke networks, optimise treatment and diagnosis and implement best practices. Thanks to the Angels Initiative, multidisciplinary stroke teams around the world can access education, standardisation tools, consultancy, community and quality monitoring processes. This enables them to act faster to minimise the burden of stroke on patients’ lives.