Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and severe disability worldwide (1). "Code stroke" is a time-sensitive and high-stakes clinical scenario alert for acute stroke that requires a rapid team approach to facilitate hyperacute evaluation and management of patients. For each acute stroke case not adequately interpreted, categorized, and treated, there is a high risk of mortality and disability. Management of acute ischemic stroke is evolving rapidly due to highly efficacious endovascular therapy (2–8). Regardless of the imaging modality (CT vs MRI) or type of hospital (tertiary "hub" vs outlying "spoke"), acute stroke management has one unifying need: to treat as quickly as possible. Optimal stroke treatment is a highly time-dependent process (9).

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust is improving its response to stroke care with the launch of new software which uses artificial intelligence. The Brainomix software acts as a second opinion by analysing CT images of the brain and blood vessels, and automatically highlighting blocked blood vessels to indicate possible areas of damage. It also means stroke teams will be able to easily share scanned images to aid rapid diagnosis and support clinical decisions and treatments. Amanda Martin, stroke co-clinical lead at the trust, said: "At a local level, this decision support tool will help us to speed up diagnosis and therefore patient care in a simple and safe way… we are hoping that the implementation of Brainomix will support the highly specialised thrombectomy pathway, facilitating the timely transfer of those eligible for treatment to the trust." The AI technology can be used as a mobile app, meaning clinical decisions can be made swiftly and from anywhere. It will also connect the trust's stroke team with colleagues at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Barts Health NHS Trust and provide a 24/7 service.