About Us
Time lost is brain lost: UCLA Health brings the hospital to the patient
Time has a significant impact on the severity of patient outcomes in stroke. The earlier the patient is conclusively diagnosed and receives treatment, the more likely they are to make a meaningful recovery from the devastating effects of the disease.
By bringing the hospital to the patient, California’s first mobile stroke unit (MSU) provides unparalleled access to hyperacute diagnosis and treatment of stroke prior to hospital arrival. Since its launch in 2017, the UCLA Health MSU program, part of the UCLA Arline and Henry Gluck Stroke Rescue Program, has expanded to include collaborations with six Los Angeles County fire departments across three alternating geographic sites, administering clinical coverage of acute stroke dispatches 12 hours per day, six days per week.
The MSU is a specialized ambulance that offers highly advanced clinical care in the prehospital setting. It is staffed by a vascular neurologist, either in person or by telemedicine; critical care nurse; firefighter paramedic; and a computed tomography (CT) technologist. The MSU has resources for rapid turnaround laboratory testing as well as CT scan technology, enabling the examination of brain tissue and brain blood vessels in the vehicle prior to arrival at the hospital. After the CT scan demonstrates whether stroke symptoms are caused by vessel blockage and lack of blood flow or, alternatively, bleeding into the tissue of the brain, patients can be quickly treated with brain and lifesaving medications in the MSU and routed to the most appropriate level-of-care stroke center.
UCLA Health's mobile stroke unit is granted accreditation by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission for its CT scanner
UCLA Health's Mobile Stroke Unit is the second program to obtain accreditation from the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) and currently the only unit operating that holds the accreditation. Congratulations to all services and departments that helped support our successful inaugural accreditation.
Accreditation by IAC indicates that UCLA Health's Mobile Stroke Unit has undergone an intensive application and review process and is found to be in compliance with the published Standards, thus demonstrating a commitment to quality patient care in CT. Comprised of a detailed self-evaluation followed by a thorough review by a panel of medical experts, the IAC accreditation process enables both the critical operational and technical components of the applicant facility to be assessed, including representative case studies and their corresponding final reports.
Meet Our Team
May Nour, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology and Radiology Medical Director,
UCLA Arline and Henry Gluck Stroke Rescue Program UCLA Comprehensive Stroke Center UCLA Division of Interventional Neuroradiology
Dr. Nour is a dually vascular and interventional neurologist, completing her training at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She earned her medical degree (MD) from the University of Arizona College of Medicine and her doctorate degree (PhD) in neurosciences from the University of Oklahoma Center for Neurosciences. As medical director of California’s first mobile stroke unit which began clinical operations in 2017, Dr. Nour has extensive, first hand experience in initiation of mobile stroke programs and concrete knowledge of rig build and design, hardware/software integration, models for effective clinical staffing, clinical operating procedures, integration into EMS systems of care, budget/cost analysis and QI/QA for these specialized ambulance programs which bring the hospital to the patient. As a PI, Co-PI and Investigator for multiple clinical trials in the fields of vascular neurology and neurointervention, Dr. Nour has extensive experience in telehealth applications, clinical trial design, assessment and outcome analysis. Dr. Nour is currently an assistant professor of neurology and radiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jeffrey L. Saver, MD, FAHA, FAAN, FANA
Professor and Senior Associate Vice Chair for Clinical Research Carol and James Collins Chair,
Department of Neurology Director, UCLA Comprehensive Stroke and Vascular Neurology Program David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Dr. Saver is SA Vice-Chair and Professor of Neurology at UCLA, and Director of the UCLA Comprehensive Stroke and Vascular Neurology Program. He trained at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Training Program (neurology), the University of Iowa (neurobehavior), and Brown (vascular neurology). Author of over 670 research articles, 2 books, and 40 book chapters, Dr. Saver’s research interests are in acute stroke treatment, stroke prevention, neuroimaging, clinical trial design, and neurocognitive consequences of stroke. He served as PI of the NIH-NINDS FAST-MAG trial, Global Co-PI of the SWIFT PRIME trial, and Chair of the American Heart Association Stroke Council. He is currently Associate Editor at JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Editorial Board Member at the journal Circulation. Dr. Saver is a recipient of the Feinberg Award from the American Stroke Association, the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association, and the Lifetime Research Award from the World Stroke Organization.
Viktor Szeder, MD, PhD
Interventional Neuroradiology
Dr. Szeder is subspecialty trained in NeuroInterventional/NeuroEndovascular surgery (UCLA), Vascular/Stroke Neurology and NeuroCritical Care (Columbia University). He earned his MD and PhD in Neurosciences at Charles University, Prague and MSc in patient oriented research/biostatistics at Columbia University, New York. He serves as clinical staff physician of the UCLA NeuroInterventional/NeuroEndovascular service as well as vascular neurologist of California’s first Mobile Stroke Unit, Arline & Henry Gluck Mobile Stroke Rescue Program. His research focus is on clinical outcomes and treatment modalities in patients with acute stroke, brain aneurysm and vascular malformations. He has authored or co-authored over 45 peer-reviewed articles, 13 book chapters and over 102 scientific abstracts. He has also presented at over 40 local, national and international meetings and symposia and participated in over 35 clinical studies and trials. He serves on multiple local/national and international committees involved in quality control initiatives and assessments as well as campaigns of expanding mechanical thrombectomy access. Dr. Szeder is an Associate Clinical Professor at UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine.
Mersedeh Bahr Hosseini, MD
Stroke Neurology
Mersedeh Bahr-Hosseini is a vascular neurologist and assistant professor of neurology at UCLA. She completed her medical degree in Mashhad Azad University and her neurology residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) before joining UCLA for a 2-year vascular neurology and stroke research fellowship. She is a recipient of American Heart Association Career Development Award for developing a new treatment for acute ischemic stroke. She has been an active Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) staff neurologist since the establishment of the MSU clinical operation in 2017. Dr. Bahr-Hosseini has extensive clinical and research experience in acute stroke management, development of novel therapeutics, and stroke prevention.
Kayla Kilani, MPH, RN, BSN, PHN, MICN
Nurse Manager-Mobile Stroke Unit
Kayla Kilani is a registered nurse with over 17 years of experience. She received her BSN from California State University, Chico and Masters in Public Health from UCLA in Health Policy and Management. She obtained her clinical expertise in Emergency Nursing working at an academic Level 1 Trauma Center for adult and pediatrics, STEMI Receiving Center, Comprehensive Stroke Center and Pediatric Medical Center at UCLA. The past 7 years have been spent in a leadership role in both the Emergency Department and the Mobile Stroke Unit. Kayla’s areas of expertise including lean management (certified in lean), process improvement and improving patient care through QI/QA. She understands the complexity of healthcare delivery systems and is dedicated to their improvement. She is the current nurse manager for UCLA Health’s Mobile Stroke Unit and is working towards making MSU’s the standard of care.
Contact Us
May Nour, MD, PhD
Medical Director, UCLA Arline and Henry Gluck Stroke Rescue Program
[email protected]
For more information about the UCLA Stroke Center visit stroke.ucla.edu.