The ASA Annual Meeting is an educational meeting designed to provide basic and advanced trainees with an overview of the major topics related to modern stroke care. Consultants who do not have a career focus on stroke would also benefit from the up to date summaries of modern management of stroke. The topics will include clot retrieval patient selection, heart-brain interactions with cardiac electrophysiologists and structural interventionists and the management of haemorrhagic stroke, including the emergency reversal of anticoagulation. The faculty will be drawn from stroke and other subspecialty experts from Australia and New Zealand.

 

For more Information visit here

 


Australasian Stroke Academy Webinar

April 17th 2024

 

The Australasian Stroke Academy is pleased to invite you to attend a no-cost educational webinar to be presented by:

Dr Anna Holwell, ASA Council Member, General Physician and Head of Department of Medicine, Clinical Stroke Lead, Central Australia Health Service Dr Angus Baumann, Cardiologist Alice Springs Hospital (FRACP, MBBS, BS)

 

Click here for flyer 

 

 


Message from the President

 

Dear colleagues, 

 

The Australasian Stroke Academy is looking forward to another year of collaborative stroke education in 2024.

 

We are starting off with a lipids webinar on Feb 6th (please contact us if you cannot locate your invitation in your inbox), and we’ll be presenting further webinars throughout the year. We are also planning the Australasian Stroke Academy annual meeting which will be run July 27/28 at the InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto.

 

We’ll also be collaborating with the Korean Stroke Society to deliver a scientific meeting at the Adelaide InterContinental Hotel September 24/25, immediately before the 2024 APSC/ANZSO ASM next door at the Adelaide Convention Centre September 25-28. You’re welcome to join all of our meetings.

 

We will also be delivering Code Stroke training in conjunction with the Angels Initiative. Whilst aimed at Basic Physician Trainees all health practitioners are welcome to join. These will be presented online to make attendance as feasible as possible.

 

We hope you take advantage of all of the stroke educational opportunities that the Australian Stroke Academy offers. See you onsite or on-line!

 

 

A/Prof Andrew Wong

President, Australasian Stroke Academy

Feb 2024

 

 


 

 

ASA Statement regarding Stroke in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

 

 

The Australasian Stroke Academy supports initiatives aimed at improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

 

We would encourage all people working in stroke to be familiar with how stroke affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples (henceforth respectfully referred to as Aboriginal Australians(1)) and recommend reading the papers in the References section.

 

STROKE IN INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS

·       Stroke incidence is significantly higher in Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal Australians(2)

·       Stroke occurs at an earlier median age (7-28yrs earlier) in Aboriginal Australians

·       Poorer stroke outcomes for those living in remote and very remote regions(3)

·       Age-specific incidence is greater in all age groups – particularly ages 45-54 years where stroke incidence is 17 times that of non-Aboriginal population of the same age(4)

·       Age-standardised case fatality of stroke in the Aboriginal Australians nearly two-fold that of the non-Aboriginal Australians(3)

·       Research also shows that recognition of stroke signs and symptoms (face, arm, speech, time (FAST) acronym) at a community level is lower in Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal people (5). It is probable that patients are not presenting to hospital for various reasons and the burden of stroke and those living with disability is under-identified.

 

The drivers behind the above stroke specific statistics lie in the social determinants of health – including inadequate public housing, food and energy insecurity and the persisting legacy of colonisation. No matter how advanced our acute stroke care management becomes, the reality is we will not make significant improvement in these dire statistics without addressing the root causes. This table from Balabanski (5) and Dos Santos (6) outlines this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

1.         Central Australian Aboriginal Congress. Doing It Right: A guide for health researchers working with Aboriginal people in central Australia. Central Australian Aboriginal Congress: Alice Springs NT; 2021.

2.         Katzenellenbogen JM, Knuiman MW, Sanfilippo FM, Hobbs MST, Thompson SC. Prevalence of stroke and coexistent conditions: disparities between indigenous and nonindigenous Western Australians. Int J Stroke Off J Int Stroke Soc. 2014 Oct;9 Suppl A100:61–8.

3.         Balabanski AH, Nedkoff L, Brown A, Thrift AG, Pearson O, Guthridge S, et al. Incidence of Stroke in the Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Populations of Australia: A Data Linkage Study. Stroke. 2023 Aug;54(8):2050–8.

4.         Balabanski AH, Goldsmith K, Giarola B, Buxton D, Castle S, McBride K, et al. Stroke incidence and subtypes in Aboriginal people in remote Australia: a healthcare network population-based study. BMJ Open. 2020 Oct;10(10):e039533.

5.         Balabanski AH, Dos Santos A, Woods JA, Thrift AG, Kleinig TJ, Suchy-Dicey A, et al. The Incidence of Stroke in Indigenous Populations of Countries With a Very High Human Development Index: A Systematic Review Protocol. Front Neurol [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2023 Oct 6];12. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.661570

6.         Dos Santos A. A narrative review of stroke incidence, risk factors and treatment in Indigenous Peoples of the world. Vessel Plus. 2021 Apr 23;5(0):21.

 

 


White Paper on access to mechanical thrombectomy

 

The Australasian Stroke Academy is proud to support a recently launched White Paper on access to mechanical thrombectomy, hosted on the Australian Stroke Alliance web page. We encourage you to be aware of this and to support it, and we thank our collaborating organisations in the development and sharing of this important piece of work.

LINKEDIN: Australian Stroke Alliance post

TWITTER: Australian Stroke Alliance post

Health Industry Hub interview – Stryker & A/Prof Laetitia de Villiers  

Youtube launch video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCxmKZkHz_Y

White Paper host page (ASA) -https://austrokealliance.org.au/white-paper/

 

 


Please join the Australasian Stroke Academy



The Academy values your support and most importantly, sharing our vision. The Academy is an evolving organisation with more than 200 stroke physician members and it is keen to actively engage with our members through open dialogue and feedback. Your participation and opinion will help to shape this organization to be a professional body of which we can be proud. click here to join.

 

 

   

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The Australasian Stroke Academy is an organization dedicated to the training, continuing education and facilitation of stroke research by Stroke Physicians or specialists doctors who have an interest in stroke. Our audience includes neurologists, internal medicine physicians, geriatricians, rehabilitation physicians general practitioners and trainee physicians of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.


 

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