Stroke and digital technology: a wake-up call from COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION: The pandemic has implemented the need for new digital technologies as useful tools during the emergency and the long recovery phase that will follow. SARS-CoV-2 has strongly impacted stroke care with significant contraction in a number of patients treated. METHODS: This mini-review is an initiative of the “Digital Technologies, Web and Social Media Study Group” of the Italian Society of Neurology and briefly discusses digital tools for managing the acute phase and the rehabilitation after stroke, even considering the new apps that will improve the process of remote monitoring of patients after discharge at home. RESULTS: Telemedicine and digital technologies could play a role in each of the three stroke-belt stages: hyperacute treatment and reperfusion, acute care, etiological classification and secondary prevention and rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: The global emergency represented by the COVID-19 pandemic can be the stimulus to accelerate the digitalization process in the field of stroke for the use of new methods on a large scale.