'Stroke research that is saving lives'

 Great, but what the fuck are you doing to get survivors to 100% recovery?

'Stroke research that is saving lives' 

For the last twelve years, the Chair of Clinical Neurology has been revolutionising the way New Zealand treats strokes that come into the Emergency Department.Year after year the number of Kiwis affected by stroke has been on the rise. It is estimated that in 2020 11,000 Kiwis will be affected by a stroke. This staggering number proves how desperately we need more research into the treatment and rehabilitation of stroke patients.In 2008 a group of people who believed in what research could accomplish helped establish the Neurological Foundation Chair of Clinical Neurology. This position’s aim was to bridge the gap between neuroscience and neurology, with the theory that this strategy would improve patient outcomes if researchers could work alongside clinicians.In 2011, this theory was proven correct when Professor Alan Barber, Chair of Clinical Neurology and the team of clinicians, nurses, researchers and rehabilitation specialist introduced New Zealand to the revolutionary clot retrieval procedure. This procedure, better known in the medical world as a thrombectomy was known as ‘science fiction’ when Professor Barber first started out. "Thrombectomy used to be science fiction. Now we are routinely going in and pulling out clots. One in every five people who receive the treatment will return home as healthy as they were before the stroke occurred."Since 2011, the work the Chair of Clinical Neurology has conducted has treated over 1,000 Kiwis across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, saving more than 200 lives that normally wouldn’t have survived."Currently we’re thrombolysing around 10% percent of stroke cases in New Zealand. In some centres they’re managing to thrombolyse up to 20% of stroke patients. About a third of people are going to do better than if they hadn’t had the drug. A few times a year, I see a miraculous response. "When the Chair was first introduced, Professor Barber only had one stroke nurse specialist. As a team, the nurse and him would visit all newly admitted stroke patients. From there the next step was to establish a stroke unit within the neurology ward. It was only four beds at first, but it was a beginning of something no one could imagine. Now, they not only have an entire stroke ward and research centre dedicated to treating incoming strokes with either the clot busting drug alteplase, (also led by the Chair of Clinical Neurology programme) and the clot retrieval procedure, they also have a rehabilitation specialist and her team working with patients after their stroke.Professor Cathy Stinear and her team developed the PREP2 algorithm for predicting hand and arm function after stroke. This algorithm is used to develop personalised rehabilitation programmes for each patient to optimise their recovery after stroke. PREP2 is now routine clinical care at Auckland Hospital and several other DHBs around the country. Cathy and her team also developed the TWIST algorithm, which predicts whether and when a patient will be able to walk unaided following stroke. The algorithm is being tested at Auckland, North Shore and Waitakere hospitals currently, and hopefully will be used in rehabilitation regimes in the future.Professor Barber says that none of these achievements would have been possible without the ongoing support of the Neurological Foundation, which last year committed $2.2 million to not only fund the Chair of Clinical Neurology role for another five years, but also to take on a new research fellow. This both provides support to the Chair, as well as begins the training of the next generation of neurologists and neuroscientists."Thanks to the Neurological Foundation and their loyal supporters, we have created an environment where neurological researchers can gather data from real-life clinical situations every day."Professor Barber will be speaking via webinar on 14 October, to provide an update on stroke clot retrieval in New Zealand. Free for anyone to attend, registrations can be made at https://ccn-2020.eventbrite.co.nz