July 22, 2025

Specially equipped vehicle is first of its kind in the region

Local first responders join leaders and staff from UF Health and UF Health Central Florida in launching the region’s first mobile stroke unit.

University of Florida (UF) Health News

By Caylee Biegalski

The Villages, Florida — UF Health unveiled a dedicated mobile stroke treatment unit, or MSTU, in The Villages Tuesday, Ju;y 22, 2025, marking a significant milestone in advancing emergency stroke care. The Villages will be one of just three communities in the state with access to the lifesaving technology.

The state-of-the-art unit, the newest addition to the first MSTU network in the state, brings rapid, life-preserving stroke care directly to patients, shrinking the gap between the onset of symptoms and hospital treatment. Equipped with a 32-slice CT scanner, telemedicine capabilities and critical stroke medications — like the clot-busting drug TNK — the unit allows for faster diagnosis and treatment in the field.

A stroke doctor, connected remotely to the care team on the unit, can review images as they’re taken and understands the case before a patient even arrives.

“Today marks a powerful step forward in how we care for this community,” said Heather Long, senior vice president and Central Florida regional president for UF Health. “As the first mobile stroke unit in The Villages, this advancement reflects our commitment to delivering leading-edge, lifesaving care where and when it is needed most. It’s about more than innovation, it is about ensuring that every second counts and every life matters. This milestone underscores UF Health’s promise to stay at the forefront of medicine and to be there for our community in their most critical moments.”

UF Health has two other units. The Gainesville unit launched in 2023 and a Jacksonville unit was added this spring.

A mobile stroke treatment unit brings the hospital’s resources to the patient, said Sean Meagher, M.D., a neurointerventional surgeon at UF Health.

“When every second counts, these units allow us to begin treatment in the field — bypassing the emergency room and performing lifesaving procedures before the patient even arrives at the hospital,” he said.

Stroke is a leading cause of death and long-term disability in the United States. The American Heart Association reports that someone dies of a stroke roughly every 3 minutes and 14 seconds in this country, and strokes account for 1 of every 21 deaths.

A recent study by the University of Florida College of Medicine published in the journal Stroke showed that UF Health’s approach of sending a stroke unit to meet paramedics at designated “rendezvous points” to take patients from surrounding rural areas significantly improves timely stroke care — on average, by nearly an hour.

And in stroke care, it is all about reducing the time from symptom onset to treatment, which not only saves lives but also improves outcomes.

Studies show that patients treated within the so-called “golden hour” of when stroke symptoms begin, a critical window for minimizing minimize brain damage, have a higher chance of avoiding disability after treatment. In addition, faster treatment allows patients to go straight to the operating room, bypassing emergency room triage.

Since launching in July 2023, UF Health’s Gainesville-based MSTU has responded to more than 1,850 calls, admitted 900 patients and provided more than 220 critical interventions.

Nationally, only about 10% of stroke patients receive treatment within 90 minutes of the time they were last known to be well. The MSTU in Gainesville, on average, treats more than half of patients in that time frame.

In addition, while only 1.4% of patients nationally are treated within 60 minutes of symptom onset, the Gainesville unit typically treats 29% of patients within an hour.

This expedited care extends to rural communities, as well.

“We are the only known mobile stroke program in the United States to provide this innovative and novel rendezvous process, helping to bridge the gap in stroke care for rural communities,” Long said.