Translating new knowledge into practices: reconceptualising stroke as an emergency condition

OBJECTIVES: To examine how the new concept of stroke as an emergency condition led to the development of new clinical pathways for stroke patients in Newcastle Upon Tyne, implemented through protocols which were then rapidly adopted across the UK and further afield. METHODS: Historical analysis using health policy documents, published papers and correspondence on stroke alongside 17 interviews with stroke clinicians and managers in the UK and the US. RESULTS: The challenges of implementation stemmed from organisational and professional barriers rather than scientific or technological difficulties. Stroke’s historical status as a non-treatable illness was a barrier to the adoption of acute treatments. Building new pathways for stroke patients by developing protocols for paramedics and emergency room staff originated as a local solution to a local problem but were taken up widely. DISCUSSION: Understanding the clinical response to the reconceptualisation of stroke as a treatable disease contributes to our understandings of the relations between clinical research and practice. These findings have implications for how we understand the translation of new knowledge into practice and its transfer across different clinical communities and settings. Protocols are shown to be a particularly valuable tool, bridging knowledge between communities and manifesting a new identity for stroke.