Munster Integrated Stroke Research and Education Catalyst (MISREC)
Background
One in five people will have a stroke at some time in their life and more than 5000 people survive a stroke each year in Ireland. Since stroke typically affects older people, its prevalence will increase as our population ages. While stroke patient management has improved, there are still few specific therapeutic interventions. Research into the development of novel intervention modalities and their effectiveness is therefore urgently needed.
The Cork area has a wealth of individual expertise and resources in the stroke field, but it is lacking a shared strategic direction to improve stroke management and recovery. There is a need to integrate these skills and infrastructure in a common platform to promote synergy between the different stakeholders.
About MISREC
The Munster Integrated Stroke Research and Education Catalyst (MISREC) was therefore established in 2023 by Professor Christian Waeber (Dept. of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Medicine) , Dr Irene Hartigan (School of Nursing and Midwifery) and Dr Kirstyn James ( Consultant Geriatric Medicine, CUH) to coordinate our efforts to improve training, study mechanisms and enhance the effectiveness of interventions for the management of stroke.
Patient and Public Involvement is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to the quality and relevance of research. The Cork area is fortunate in that it can rely on an established stroke support group Cork Stroke Support. CSS has an active management committee which includes Stroke Survivors, Family Members and Health Professionals. This patient and public partnership approach will leverage real world research design with and by service users and their families.
The proposed Catalyst will also enable the project partners to meet the goals of the National Clinical Programme for Stroke (NCPS) commenced in early 2010, and whose mission is to “shape the delivery of better care through better use of resources” and vision is to “design standardised models for the delivery of integrated clinical care and to embed sustained clinical operational management of the integrated pathway”, in conjunction with Sláintecare recommendations.
Alignment with UCC Futures
Because stroke typically affects an older population, MISREC primarily aligns with Future Ageing & Brain Science. Novel pharmacological interventions are urgently needed; in this context, the Catalyst also aligns with Future Pharmaceuticals and Future Medicines. Neurorehabilitation and intelligent technologies would align with Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics.
Impact
The goals of MISREC are to develop 5 key areas:
- A joint strategic plan for stroke preclinical and clinical research and education
- Provide oversight of the identification and stroke priorities for high quality stroke care.
- Identify and support a range of short- and medium-term initiatives to address identified priorities in line with service need and organisation goals e.g., Stroke Unit and Stroke Centre Certification by the European Stroke Organisation. This recognition would contribute substantially to rapidly expanding evidence base in stroke care and connection to a wider research network through ESO.
- Support the clinical pathways to address priority areas including Specialist and Advanced Practice, National Clinical Programmes, Integrated Models of Care and other projects determined by the objectives of both organizations.
- Monitor feedback on the implementation of projects, including evidence of impact of research activities on health outcomes for stroke survivors and service improvements.
Contact information:
Prof Christian Waeber, c.waeber@ucc.ie
Dr Irene Hartigan, I.Hartigan@ucc.ie
Dr Kirstyn James kirstyn.james@hse.ie
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Next event
March 28th, 2024: CUH, Ward 3b Rehab Gym.
This event is open to academics, researchers, clinicians and the public with an interest in Stroke. It will be relatively short and focused, ahead of our larger meeting planned for the beginning of September at UCC, which will include research presentations from various stroke stakeholders.
Please RSVP using this link and feel free to forward this invitation.
Agenda:
13:00-13:10 - Introduction to the CUH stroke simulation programme
13:10-13:45 - Stroke simulation
13:45-14:00 - Networking over coffee
Past events
September 1st, 2023: First townhall meeting, UCC School of Pharmacy,
The event was a resounding success, with over 40 in attendance and presentations on preclinical research (Prof Christian Waeber), prehospital emergency care (Ms Edel Burton), hospital acute and subacute care (Drs Kirstyn James and Liam Healy), nursing (Dr Irene Hartigan), clinical therapies (Dr Helen Kelly), the Cork Stroke Support group (Dr Mary Foley) and stroke clinical trials (Prof Simon Cronin).
December 1st, 2023: Networking event, Cork Stroke Support Centre
We heard presentations on stroke from the perspective of a younger survivor or that of a paramedic.
This was followed by an hour of networking while enjoying tea, coffee and mince pies.
