Original title: Education Research: Assessing the Current State of Telestroke Exposure in Vascular Neurology Fellowship
Nikita Chhabra, David S Liebeskind, Amy Katherine Guzik, Brian Stamm +5 · September 2026
Telestroke lets doctors care for stroke patients from far away using screens or phones. It is now a key part of emergency care, but training for new stroke doctors varies a lot. Researchers wanted to see how United States stroke fellowship programs teach this skill and what gets in the way. They surveyed leaders of these training programs. They found that most programs provide telestroke services and involve trainees in real patient cases, mostly through video and telephone calls. However, formal teaching is much rarer. Less than half offer specific skills training, one-quarter offer lectures, and just over a tenth use practice simulations. Even though most program leaders feel trainees leave ready for independent practice, over a quarter are unsure or think they are not ready. Big challenges include supervision rules, licensing paperwork, and scarce administrative support, leaving nearly two-thirds of programs needing more resources.
Imagine learning to drive a car by only driving on empty roads with an instructor beside you. You get plenty of practice, but you never take a formal lesson on how to handle ice or a blowout. Now imagine that after you get your license, you might be sent to drive in a snowstorm. In this paper, the researchers surveyed driving schools and found that while almost all let students drive, fewer than half offer any formal lessons on emergencies, and only one in eight uses a simulator to practice them.
Telestroke lets doctors treat strokes remotely, which is critical for patients in rural areas without a stroke specialist nearby. If fellows aren't trained consistently, the quality of care patients receive depends on luck—which program their doctor happened to attend. This survey shows that while most programs offer hands-on experience, formal teaching and simulation are rare, meaning many fellows may graduate without practicing key skills in a safe setting.
The abstract does not specify response bias, whether non-responding programs differ systematically, or how fellow preparedness was measured beyond director perception. It also does not report patient outcomes or correlate training structure with clinical performance.
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Education Research: Assessing the Current State of Telestroke Exposure in Vascular Neurology Fellowship — Nikita Chhabra, David S Liebeskind, Amy Katherine Guzik et al. — Neurology. Education — doi:10.1212/ne9.0000000000200366
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.