OBJECTIVES: This research project created and evaluated a knowledge-exchange intervention designed to facilitate an increase in organizational readiness for implementing coordinated stroke care in four primarily rural provincial healthcare systems. INTERVENTION: Knowledge brokers were linked to networks within, across and outside the provinces to support, inform and disseminate best practice recommendations for coordinated stroke care within the provincial healthcare systems. FINDINGS: The intervention increased awareness and dissemination of recommendations, which stimulated the implementation of coordinated stroke care. Similar knowledge-exchange interventions might work in other healthcare jurisdictions with similar demographics, to promote evidence-informed improvements in healthcare.