103798STREAM (STRoke detection by Electromagnetic Analysis at Microwave frequencies)ClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKStrokes are the 4th highest cause of death and the highest cause of long-term invalidity in the UK. ~110,000 people experience a stroke each year and ~1M people are already living with the consequences. The treatment and rehabilitation for these patients, including the loss of productivity in the work place, costs the NHS and UK economy ~£10bn annually. This project is aimed at developing an innovative new medical scanner that will help to greatly improve these statistics. It uses low intensity radio frequencies to determine whether a stroke has occurred and its low cost, compact and readily portable construction means that it can be widely deployed in hospital emergency departments at a considerably lower cost compared with X-ray CT incumbents. This will help to greatly reduce the waiting times that stroke patients typically endure before they can be scanned and a diagnosis made. These same attributes will enable the new scanner to be carried in ambulances and first responder vehicles and used on-scene, thereby avoiding the delays involved in transporting the patient to a hospital for an X-ray CT scan. The new scanner can also be deployed in care homes for the elderly where there is a localised population at an increased risk of stroke. Crucially, this scanner will enable an increased percentage of patients who present with stroke-like symptoms to be assessed, diagnosed and initial treatment administered within the ‘golden hour’: the first hour after the onset of their stroke. This will significantly improve the outlook for these patients which in turn will help to reduce the annual ~£10bn cost to the nation for strokes.