Introduction
Each
year, there are 12.2 million new strokes worldwide, and 101 million
people living with stroke aftermath. One in four people will have a
stroke in their lifetime, a number that has increased 50% over the last
17 years.1,2
The World Stroke Organization (WSO) is the only global body solely
focused on stroke. With around 3000 individuals and 105 society members
spanning every global region, the WSO represents over 55,000 stroke
specialists in clinical, research, and community settings.2,3
WSO is in official relation with the World Health Organization and has a
United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) consultative
status, giving stroke profile and voice in the global health policy
arena. The WSO works closely with global and regional policy makers to
address key issues in health systems strengthening, prevention
strategies and to improve access to healthcare. One of the ways that the
WSO disseminates information on advances in stroke research and
education and overcomes gaps in stroke care is through the use of the
newly formed World Stroke Academy (WSA).
What is the WSA?
The WSA is the educational platform of the WSO.4
It facilitates educational activities (e.g. webinars and eLearning
modules) and supports the WSO mission by providing high-quality stroke
education to healthcare professionals.5
It provides educational materials in a variety of formats to meet the
needs of the WSO membership, with the support of the WSO Education and
Research Committees and the WSO Connector programs. The WSA provides
stroke information for healthcare professionals with an aim to alleviate
the global burden of stroke through the education of stroke
practitioners worldwide. It also supports the coordination of the WSO’s
online educational and promotional webinars, as well as various social
media activities based on previous need assessment.6,7
The
WSA Editorial team carries multiple responsibilities, from managing
editorial decisions and leading strategic directions to effectively
increase awareness, disseminate, and enhance the knowledge of stroke
around the world in support of the WSO vision.8–10
The WSA is a team that welcomes new ideas and fosters diversity of
opinions to achieve excellence, composed by its Editor in Chief Dr
Gustavo Saposnik, Executive Manager Laura Ceci Galanos, Associate
Commissioning Editor Dr Anita Arsovska, Social Media Leader Rodrigo
Guerrero, Communication Specialist Florencia Casagrande, and Data
Science Manager Emili Adhamidhis.
The WSA recently re-launched the
newly designed Academy website, with the intention to host all
educational materials, reviewed by WSA editors, WSA Leadership Group,
WSO Education committee, and other bodies of the WSO. This upgraded
platform is more user-friendly, enhancing learner engagement and
utilizing advanced e-learning technology: www.world-stroke-academy.org
The WSA vision to support the WSO mandate is based on the following principles:
Teamwork, diversity, and collaboration.
Facilitating access to practical and high-quality material relevant to our daily stroke practice.
Improving communication among WSA, the International Journal of Stroke (IJS), and WSO to increase value for WSO members, colleagues, and the public.
The
core educational elements of the Academy are e-learning modules, case
studies, podcasts, webinars, webcasts from congresses, and papers of the
month and core news (Figure 1), all covering: diagnosis, prevention, innovative therapies, acute treatment, neurorehabilitation, and life after stroke (see Table 1 for strengths and metrics).
| Table 1. WSA dissemination activities to overcome stroke care gaps. |
|
Table 1. WSA dissemination activities to overcome stroke care gaps.

At the WSA, we follow a peer-reviewed approach for every educational initiative (Figure 2).
Promotion
on our dedicated platforms, Twitter and LinkedIn, is a key element of
the Academy’s role in advocacy and dissemination of information. On
Twitter, the @WorldStrokeEd page has now reached over 6000 followers
whereas the newly created LinkedIn page, World Stroke Academy, is
steadily growing with 250 followers. Engaging activities such as
#WeekendLectures and #MondayTips, spearheaded by our social media leader
Rodrigo Guerrero, are followed and re-shared by hundreds of users
weekly.
In terms of new initiatives, the Academy is involved in a
variety of projects in collaboration with both the WSO’s Future Stroke
Leaders and the WSO Education Committee. Each initiative has a different
format, ranging from evidence-based stroke care checklists to stroke
diagnosis and management podcasts and life after stroke-based content.
These initiatives are aligned with the WSO Roadmap to deliver quality of
stroke care. Some useful links are summarized in Table 2.
More at link.