ATW Project Lead to Legislation on Promoting Stroke Awareness

ATW Health Solutions is proud to announce the signing of Illinois House Bill 5014. The bill resulted from ATW Health Solutions’ work to support the Community Engagement for Early Recognition and Immediate Action in Stroke (CEERIAS/2CEERIAS) project.

The CEERIAS/2CEERIAS project demonstrates our commitment to this work. Stroke ranks as one of the primary contributors to fatalities and impairments in the United States. In 2014, a collaborative effort led by Dr. Shaym Prabakaran from the University of Chicago Medicine, Dr. Neelum Aggarwal from RUSH Medicine, and Dr. Knitasha Washington from ATW Health Solutions was initiated to investigate the effects of community-based education on stroke outcomes within the at-risk population of Illinois. ATW Health Solutions led the community engagement strategy, study design, and implementation as part of this study. As a result of the impact of COVID-19, ATW Health Solutions expanded the CEERIAS examination to 2CEERIAS, where we evaluated methods of community engagement during COVID-19, education as early intervention, and barriers to accessing the health system.

The CEERIAS/2CEERIAS project led to the signing of Illinois House Bill 5014, which requires the Department of Public Health to partner with Governors State University to establish a six-month outreach and educational campaign focused on promoting stroke awareness within Chicago’s Southland community, stroke recognition and prevention strategies, and access to reliable sources of information about strokes. The bill, written by Illinois House Representative Debbie Meyers-Martin, was signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker in July 2022.