How to qualify

European stroke centres that meet the following qualifications are encouraged to join the ESO Angels Awards programme. If your centre is still not fully meeting the qualifications, do not hesitate to join the Angels Initiative to get support.

 A successful registration will depend on that:

• the hospital should have at least an emergency department, a CT scanner, a clinical laboratory and access to beds to place stroke patients after/during acute treatment 

• the hospital should have access to rt-PA (IVT) with or without endovascular therapy (thrombectomy, TBY) 

• the hospital needs to have a specialist or a responsible person that will drive the implementation of the programme at the hospital 

• the hospital should have a clearly defined protocol to follow 

• the hospital needs to have a team of medical professionals called the Stroke team, that
  • have special arrangements for treating stroke patients differently
  • are educated on why they do what they do
  • are monitored on a continuous basis to maintain quality standards

• the centre must be located in an ESO member country

During the registration process, you will be asked whether you fulfil these criteria. If not, the registration can not be completed