Neuroscience is the third national service line Advocate Health has formally stood up since its 2022 merger, alongside oncology and heart and vascular care. Through these expansions, Advocate, which is dually based in Downers Grove, Ill., and Milwaukee, intends to create a systemwide framework for delivering complex specialty care at scale.
Health system leaders told Becker’s the national neuroscience service line is designed to ensure advancements — such as minimally invasive procedures, AI-driven diagnostics and emerging therapies for Alzheimer’s and stroke — do not remain confined within academic hubs, but reach patients across the system’s six-state footprint.
Leading the Advocate Health Neuroscience National Service Line are Sean O’Leary, MD, PhD, and Courtney Bogan, who serve as president and senior vice president, respectively.
Like their cancer and cardiology service lines counterparts, Dr. O’Leary and Ms. Bogan oversee the full continuum of neurological care, from outpatient and acute settings to rehabilitation and post-acute care.
Within neuroscience, diseases can lack clear treatment pathways and care can span from acute intervention to long-term rehabilitation.
“We’re not just responsible for the strategy of neuroscience,” Ms. Bogan said. “We’re responsible for outpatient, acute care, rehab, post-acute. How that patient does in their whole journey of healthcare related to neuroscience falls within our scope of responsibility. While that’s a little bit daunting, it’s also really exciting.”
That breadth of responsibility makes neuroscience one of the most interconnected service lines within the system, touching many specialties outside its own.
“We can partner with our colleagues in the heart and vascular service line with the goal of preventing future problems like stroke or vascular dementias,” Dr. O’Leary said. “And when they do happen, we want to see if we can prevent them from happening again.”
Similar overlap exists in neuro-oncology, where collaboration with the cancer service line is essential for managing complex brain tumors and expanding access to clinical trials. Neurologists also work alongside primary care physicians, geriatricians and neuropsychologists in brain health and memory care to guide patients through complex treatment decisions.
“Another great example is how we work with our orthopedic, physical medicine and rehabilitation colleagues when a patient’s knee is hurting from a fall related to their stroke,” Dr. O’Leary said. “Those colleagues have to be brought into the neuroscience care pathway.”
Ms. Bogan said the key to fostering cross-collaboration across specialties, the full care continuum and six states is one word: alignment. The neuroscience service line has strengthened its navigator workforce to help maintain alignment.
“Navigators make sure patients don’t get lost across the continuum,” Ms. Bogan said. “Our navigators guide and shepherd care in a way that lets patients feel that interdisciplinary support, even if they don’t realize they’re interacting with multiple teams.”
The neuroscience service line has recently activated telestroke nurses at select facilities. Once involved, the telestroke nurses navigate patient care while pulling in the appropriate care teams and specialists. The system has seen significant outcomes through the program so far, Ms. Bogan said, signaling a potential for future systemwide adoption.
“As this is really working in some of our areas, how do we think through whether it’s scalable?” she said. “Should this become a new standard for how we provide urgent and emergent telestroke care?”
Advocate’s telestroke initiative is one example of how the system is harnessing technology to improve neurologic outcomes. AI is extending that approach across multiple facets of neurological care.
The neuroscience service line is leveraging AI to screen and identify patients earlier than ever.
“With new infusions and treatments, some patients are only eligible when they have mild cognitive impairment. If they’re too far along, they’ve missed the treatment window. If you don’t get assessed until after that window, you don’t even get the chance to be considered,” Ms. Bogan said. “Given all that’s happening in the neuro space, we need to get to patients earlier to be able to jump in and help them. Leveraging AI to do that early is going to be key.”
Advocate has also leaned into remote electroencephalogram monitoring, enabling patients in remote areas to stay in their local hospital for testing while epileptologists — often states away — monitor their care.
For Dr. O’Leary and Ms. Bogan, the goal of the national neuroscience service line is not to centralize care, but to make advanced neurologic expertise accessible across Advocate Health’s six states. As the system continues to build out its national service lines, the Advocate team said neuroscience will be a critical proving ground for how a large, geographically diverse health system can deliver complex specialty care.
“None of us has a perfect answer yet. Anyone who has even a small piece of insight, we’re going to listen and say, ‘That’s a great idea — let’s do that too,’” Dr. O’Leary said. “But we’re also looking inward. We have this large group of patients we’re responsible for caring for. What are we going to do? Let’s put our heads together and deliver the best care we can.”
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