The stroke area: feasibility of adoption in community hospitals.

Pioneering efforts to establish what are known as stroke areas in community hospitals were made primarily by Dr Charles Bonner at Youville Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Dr. Bertram Howard at St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, Massachusetts during the early 1960s. Analysis of comparative data collected in subsequent years from 15 or more hospitals that followed their lead suggests that the stroke unit concept has become recognized as a medically sound approach to the management of stroke victims toward enhancing, rather than simply trying to save lives.