Poster Presentation Asia Pacific Stroke Conference 2024

Synergies TO Prevent stroke (STOPstroke) –an interdisciplinary program of research focused on stroke prevention (#347)

Christine Farmer 1 , Amanda Thrift 2 , Judy Katzenellenbogen 3 , Mark Nelson 1 , Timothy Kleinig 4 , Valery Feigin 5 , Dominique Cadilhac 2 , Brenda Booth 6 , Lee Nedkoff 7 , Joosup Kim 2 , Monique Kilkenny 2 , Angela Dos Santos 8 , Tara Purvis 2 , Seana Gall 1
  1. Menzies Institute for Medical Research, Hobart, TAS, Australia
  2. Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  4. Central Adelaide Local Health Network, Adelaide, South Australia
  5. NISAN, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
  6. Lived experience expert, Newcastle, NSW, Australia
  7. University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
  8. Alfred Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Background: STOPstroke, initiated with a $5 million NHMRC Synergy Grant in 2020, is a 5-year research program. We describe its achievements to mid-2024.

Methods: STOPstroke includes 13 diverse (e.g. gender, career stage, region, ethnicity) investigators from 5 institutions in Australia and New Zealand. The team have expertise in epidemiology, neurology, primary care, biostatistics, data linkage, health economics, health services research and with lived experience of stroke. The research program has three themes: (1) Better prediction of those at risk of stroke; (2) Better management of those at risk of stroke and (3) Real world modelling and effectiveness of stroke prevention. Here we report the outcomes of the program to mid-2024 in terms of publications, presentations, funding, capacity building, partnerships and co-design.

Results: There have been 71 publications and we have given 104 presentations at national (n=17) and international (n=81) conferences. We have leveraged $4.8 million in additional funding to achieve our aims including from the MRFF, Heart Foundation and Stroke Foundation. In terms of capacity building, we have delivered 67 webinars with 21 of these presented by early career researchers and have supported the salaries/PhD stipends of 16 people. Partnerships have been developed with Stroke Foundation across all themes and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare related to theme 3. We have embedded co-design with lived experience experts across projects in all themes.

Conclusion: STOPstroke has been a successful, interdisciplinary research program leading to generation of new knowledge and action on stroke prevention in Australia and New Zealand.