Queensland Health partners with Nicolab to deliver Australia’s largest AI-powered stroke imaging deployment

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – Queensland Health has awarded Nicolab a Standing Offer Arrangement (SOA) to implement StrokeViewer across 36 hospitals in the state, making it the largest AI-driven stroke imaging rollout in Australia.

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in Australia. Data shows that around 1 in 5 strokes take place in Queensland every year and 89.000 of Queenslanders live with the effects of stroke (Stroke Foundation, 2024). Timely intervention is critical to reducing disability and saving lives.

This landmark investment will transform stroke diagnosis and treatment pathways across Queensland, ensuring that every stroke patient—regardless of location—receives the fastest possible access to life-saving care.

Nicolab: An Enterprise-Grade AI Solution for Stroke Care
This milestone puts Nicolab at the forefront of enterprise-level AI-powered healthcare solutions, demonstrating the company’s capability to deliver government-scale, clinically integrated, and mission-critical technology. Nicolab offers not only cutting-edge AI technology but also implementation expertise, ongoing clinical support, and seamless workflow integration to drive real-world clinical transformation.

Enhancing the Queensland Telestroke Service
This deployment significantly bolsters the Queensland Telestroke Service, a $5.8 million annual investment by the Queensland Government aimed at providing approximately two million residents in regional, rural, and remote areas with equitable access to stroke specialist care.

The Telestroke Service enables time-critical, specialist assessment, diagnosis, and effective treatment for stroke patients, accelerating access to therapies such as clot-dissolving drugs or clot retrieval procedures that require specialist intervention.

A Milestone in AI-Powered Stroke Care
Building on the success of Nicolab’s previous AI deployments, this rollout represents a significant expansion of Queensland’s stroke network, equipping both metropolitan and regional hospitals with advanced AI-driven decision support tools. StrokeViewer, an end-to-end stroke workflow solution, enables clinicians to instantly review analysed CT and CT perfusion brain scans, helping stroke teams determine the best course of treatment within minutes, rather than hours.

This investment funded by Queensland Health’s $5.8 million investment in the Queensland Telestroke Service, provides critical stroke care to over two million regional and remote Queenslanders. The proof-of-concept study conducted by QLD Health in 2023 and 2024 that used Nicolab’s StrokeViewer demonstrated the clinical and operational benefits of AI-assisted stroke workflows, playing a key role in securing this government funding.

Clinician-Led Innovation for Faster Stroke Treatment
Dr. Claire Muller, Queensland Telestroke Clinical Director, emphasised the transformative potential of AI in stroke care:
“This service is exclusively for Queenslanders who live in regional, rural, and remote locations, and we anticipate helping up to 2,000 people each year. A key element of this service is upskilling frontline workers in these areas, ensuring a safe, high-quality, sustainable service for many years to come.”

Nicolab’s Australian-based CEO, Michael Macilquham, reinforced the company’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge clinical technology to Australian healthcare professionals:
“Every second matters in stroke care. StrokeViewer puts real-time, AI-powered decision support into the hands of clinicians, helping them make life-saving treatment decisions faster and more accurately. This national-scale deployment with Queensland Health is a game-changer for stroke care in Australia.”

Why AI Matters in Stroke Care
In stroke treatment, every second counts. Studies show that for every 1-second delay from hospital arrival to procedure start, a stroke patient loses 2.2 hours of healthy life (JAMA Neurol, 2021). StrokeViewer helps eliminate unnecessary delays, automating stroke imaging analysis and reducing treatment bottlenecks.

By integrating StrokeViewer across 36 hospitals, Queensland Health is:

• Accelerating stroke diagnosis and treatment in emergency settings
• Standardising stroke care workflows across metropolitan, regional, and remote hospitals
• Improving access to life-saving therapies such as stroke clot retrieval (SCR) and thrombolysis
• Supporting clinicians with AI-powered insights to enhance decision-making and patient outcomes

A Strategic Collaboration for the Future
Nicolab is proud to partner with Queensland Health, clinicians, and stroke networks across Australia to deliver this groundbreaking project. This initiative will serve as a national model for integrating AI into acute stroke care, setting new benchmarks for efficiency, accessibility, and patient outcomes.

Setting a New Benchmark for AI in Government Healthcare
With this deployment, Nicolab continues to lead the way in large-scale AI-driven healthcare transformation. This initiative not only serves as a national model for integrating AI into acute stroke care but also demonstrates Nicolab’s capability as an enterprise healthcare technology provider, delivering cloud-native, mission-critical solutions that scale across healthcare networks.

This partnership with Queensland Health, clinicians, and stroke networks across Australia is a testament to the power of AI to drive real-world impact in healthcare.