Academic and Community Hospitals differ in stroke subtype classification and cardiac monitoring: the DiVERT multi-center cohort study

Cardiac monitoring strategies to detect occult atrial fibrillation (AF) post-stroke differ among healthcare institutions. This may be related to discrepancies in stroke subtype classification/adjudication, and/or consultation of cardiology specialists at Community Hospitals (CoH) and Academic Centers (AcC). Identifying the degree of heterogeneity may encourage development of guideline-directed monitoring protocols, result in higher AF detection rates and treatments, and fewer strokes. The DiVERT (SeconDary Stroke PreVEntion ThRough Pathway ManagemenT) study was designed to characterize post-stroke cardiac monitoring practices in a hospital setting. Care pathways were assessed with in-person stakeholder interviews; patient-level data were reviewed using electronic medical records. DiVERT identified 2,475 patients with diagnoses of cryptogenic (83.6% vs. 33.1%,