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It is important to approach this problem in a 3-pronged fashion: first, to educate the public on the urgency of AIS as a medical emergency and seek immediate help; second, to increase the utilization of available technology to ensure faster arrival of these patients to hospitals and improve infrastructure to provide IVT or MT to as many eligible patients as possible; and third, to identify deficiencies in current preventative strategies to better identify patients at higher risk of LVOs. The first 2 points are discussed in detail in the following sections. The third point is better elucidated by a recent single-center study performed at one of the largest county hospitals in the United States, where 21.7% patients with LVO undergoing MT had known atrial fibrillation but were not adequately anticoagulated.20 The frequency is even higher in elderly patients, where ≈1 in 4 LVO cases were not adequately anticoagulated prior to incident LVO.20 Eligibility for Acute Stroke Intervention Time to stroke intervention is the most important quality metric in providing acute stroke interventions.

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