Bridging the gap between pre- and in-hospital stroke management is crucial for optimizing acute stroke treatment. While recent advancements like thrombectomy and extended therapeutic windows offer promise, they require efficient prehospital systems. Delays in hospital presentation often leads to undertreatment and poorer outcomes. Recognizing the importance of the 'golden hour,' focus is shifting towards prehospital stroke management. However, this area is often overlooked in literature and training materials, contributing to disjointed care. This book addresses this gap by emphasizing strategies for timely treatment, including enhancing patient awareness, educating EMS teams, and implementing advanced technologies like telemedicine and mobile stroke units. It targets a wide range of healthcare professionals involved in stroke care, offering accessible content and self-contained chapters for selective reading. By promoting interdisciplinary cooperation throughout the stroke rescue chain, it aims to improve patient outcomes.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Fassbender at the Department of Neurology has a broad scientific and clinical expertise in stroke medicine. After his work at the Department of internal medicine, Basel, Switzerland (1989-1990), and Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry at Munich (1991-1992), he became involved in basic and clinical stroke research, i.e., at the Department of Neurology Mannheim, University of Heidelberg (1992-2002). After his stay at the Department of Neurology at Göttingen (2002-2005), he has worked as a chairman of the Department of Neurology, Saarland University and Department of Geriatrics of the Caritas Hospital, Lebach, Germany.  

Currently, the focus of research of his working group is the elaboration of optimal stroke management, e.g., by invention and clinical evaluation of the “Mobile Stroke Unit” concept. He was vice president of his University in 2007-2009, published a large number of peer-reviewed articles and contributed to major national neurological guidelines.