Thursday, 20th August Australian and New Zealand Stroke Organisation Conference 2026

BP Control in Stroke: From Established Evidence to Emerging Opportunities Join us for an insightful breakfast symposium exploring the latest evidence and emerging strategies in blood pressure management following stroke.   Thursday 20 August 7:00am breakfast | 7:15am–8:15am session Presenter: Prof Craig Anderson Gain expert perspectives on established practice, evolving research, and future opportunities to optimise patient outcomes in stroke care.

• Neuroplasticity in Action: What Really Drives Stroke Recovery? - Lara Boyd

• Advances in AI for stroke diagnosis and risk prediction using EMR - William Whiteley

• Motor Rehabilitation after Stroke: How to proceed? - Gert Kwakkel

• Use of an electronic care platform, Personify, to improve quality and consistency of information for patient pre and post TIA Rapid Assessment clinic appointment - Gillian Dowie
• Title: Representation of Older Adults in Acute Stroke Research: A Seven-Year Retrospective Analysis of Screening and Recruitment at Comprehensive Stroke Centre - Mycah Astrera-Sgro
• Ambient Temperature and Metabolic Risk Factor Control Associated with Geographic Variation in Stroke Incidence in Thailand: A Nationwide Ecological Study - Natrawee Ngamprasertsith
• Extracranial-intracranial bypass in a patient with recurrent hemodynamic ischemic stroke due to atherosclerotic intracranial occlusion despite best medical management - Hoe Chin Chua
• Left atrial appendage contrast retention is associated with breakthrough stroke - Mikito Saito
• Managing Device-Detected Atrial Fibrillation After Stroke - Nadja Korajkic
• Evaluating feasibility of a secondary stroke prevention program - Shane O'Leary
• Real-world effectiveness of dabigatran across body mass index in atrial fibrillation - Karim Mahawish
• Home-based stroke-integrated cardiac rehabilitation: An alternative model for stroke secondary prevention. - Natasha Machado

• CT in telestroke – optimising technology, referring, and telesroke service processes - Carlos Garcia‐Esperon
• Optimizing Telestroke Models of Care: A Target Emulation Tria - Amelia Isac
• Telemedicine Across the Stroke Continuum to Advance the Stroke Action Plan for Europe: From Acute Care to Life After Stroke    - Francesca Romana Pezzella
• Communicating the prehospital stroke treatment patient care process through dynamic visual simulation  - Dominic Italiano
• Expanding the NSW Telestroke Service – TeleMDT Pilot Project  - Kelly Andersen
• Feasibility and acceptability of using Telepractice to remotely conduct Videofluoroscopic Swallowing Studies (TeleVFSS) to support regional stroke dysphagia management in Western Australia (Stage 3) - Louise M Cleary
• Pivotal Validation of the EMVision emu™ for Intracranial Haemorrhage Detection in Suspected Stroke   - Angela Dos Santos
• Frontiers in Acute Telestroke Assessments - Anna Ranta
• Optimising code stroke in telemed sites in Queensland - Aylissa Canning

• Implementation Science for Stroke Trial Translation - Natasha Lannin
•  A multi-data source evaluation of implementation of the fitness and mobility exercise program for people after stroke using the RE-AIM framework.     - Marie-Louise Bird
• Beyond single-site implementation: Insights from adapting the CHAT implementation strategy at scale - Kirstine Shrubsole
• Implementing a Dedicated Stroke Unit at Maroondah Hospital: Impact of a Stroke Coordinator led Model - Tanya Frost
• Improving aphasia screening in the acute setting: An evidence-based approach to co-design and implement an intervention - Marissa Stone
• Practical implementation - Elizabeth Lynch

Panel Discussion: Come with Your Questions

• Evaluation of the Love Your Brain Digital Platform - Monique Kilkenny and Seana Gall
• A massive open online course to improve stroke knowledge in the community: a subgroup analyses of the Love Your Brain randomised controlled trial - Aastha Gurung
• Engagement with a stroke prevention massive open online course: a secondary analysis of the Love Your Brain randomised controlled trial - Seana L. Gall
• One-year impacts of stroke on functional independence using repeated measures - Mulugeta Molla Birhanu
• Improving health behaviours and mental well-being after stroke or TIA through facilitated secondary prevention. - Beth Crane
• Lipids for secondary prevention - Karam Kostner
• Maximising adherence with secondary prevention medications - Lachlan Dalli

Contributors -

Leonid Churilov, Hannah Johns, Kate Hayward and Bruce Campbell  

Emily Dalton, Candice Delcourt, Natalie Fini, Odkhishig Ganbold, Carlos Garcia-Esperon, Erin Godecke, Tim Kleinig, Liz Lynch, Chloe Mutimer and Dina Pogrebnoy

• Minimally invasive surgery for ICH: Are we entering a new era? - Timothy Kleinig
• Urapidil for hyperacute blood pressure management in intracerebral haemorrhage: an Australian experience - Tom Richardson
• Early Hematoma Absorption After Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Clinical Characteristics, Neurological Evolution, and Outcomes - Qi Li
• Effects of blood pressure lowering by hematoma location in acute intracerebral hemorrhage: a pooled analysis of individual participant data from four INTERACT and ATACH-II trials - Xinwen Ren
• Relative Reductions in Systolic Blood Pressure and Functional Outcomes in Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A pooled analysis of four INTERACT and ATACH-2 individual participant data - Xinwen Ren
• Characterising usual care for early mobility training in intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH). Insights from the AVERT trial. - Emily R Ramage
• Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy in 2026: New Inights and Future Therapies - Claire Muller
• Blood pressure management in acute ischaemic stroke - Xinwen Ren

• Changing face of epidemiology of stroke implications for stroke care - Seana Gall
• Rates of healthcare encounters in the 7 days before acute ischemic stroke differ mostly by age and not sex: evidence from a large Victorian data linkage study - Serah Kalpakavadi
• Estimating rates of young stroke in Victoria and associated risk factors: A population-based study using linked data - Lachlan L. Dalli
• Determinants of impaired health-related quality of life in functionally recovered acute ischaemic stroke patients: secondary analysis of the OPTIMISTmain trial - Chenming Gu
•  Hospital admissions and timing of inpatient palliative care in the final year of life after stroke a population-based data linkage study. - Natalie Govind
• A systematic review of the incidence of acute stroke complicating infective endocarditis - Jimmy Lu
• Responsible use of AI and reproducible research - Adrian Barnett
• Cardiovascular disease surveillance for the 21st century - Lee Nedkoff

Please join Meaghan Osborne and Jess Pyman, two Queensland stroke nurse practitioners, as they discuss career pathways for stroke specialist nurses.

Senior nursing roles are often managerial or executive. What does career progression look like for a clinician? How would a specialist stroke nursing career be crafted from new graduate to nurse practitioner? Please join us for an interactive discussion about career opportunities and options.

• Screening for mood disorders after stroke: feasibility of a community-based pathway - Octavio Garcia Silva
• Improving the quality of discharge summaries with a standardised template checklist for stroke diagnosis: a quality improvement project in Box Hill Hospital - Elisha Jiun En Su
• Improving dysphagia screening for acute stroke – a multi-site quality improvement initiative  - Paul Blee
• Quality improvement in acute stroke care: increasing reperfusion rates with faster door to treatment times - 4 year trends from a regional stroke centre - Lillian GY Choy
• Learning needs of allied health professionals across a public health setting: implications for stroke rehabilitation workforce development - Stephanie Baber
• Identifying prior obstructive sleep apnoea risk in acute stroke patients - a service improvement project - Chloe Malone
• A structural causal model for robot-assisted upper-limb neurorehabilitation - Sivakumar Balasubramanian
• Risk-taking in stroke rehabilitation: a stakeholder workshop - Shae M Jackson
• A Stroke Unit Peer Support Model Supporting Navigation, Information Sharing, and Peer Connection - Jeffrey Kong

• Code stroke Cardiac CT - Duncan Maddox
• How do advances in Oncology influence advances in Stroke? - Po Inglis
• Early Phase Left Atrial Filling Defects on Acute Cardiac CT: A Marker of Cardioembolic Stroke - Sai S Chaganti
• Occult Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation is More Commonly Detected with External Loop Recording in the General Cardiac Population than Post-Stroke. - GERALD C KAYE
• Diagnosis and Closure of PFO-Associated Stroke: A Single-Centre Experience  - Zac Lackner
• Atrial Fibrillation: a Stroke perspective - Karen Phillips
• PFO closure for stroke prevention: Established indications and new considerations - Lauren Sanders

• Optimising mental health and healthy living after stroke - Rene Stolwyk
• Mental health concerns of young people accessing the Young Stroke Service - Alexandra Williams
• Diet after stroke: an overlooked opportunity to improve recovery - Barbara R Cardoso
• Supportive Strides: Co-designing a Community-Based Walking Program with Embedded Socialisation and Support for People after Stroke - Natalie A Fini
• Leisure after stroke: Understanding current practice to inform a co-designed intervention for leisure rehabilitation. - Serena Alves-Stein
• Rethinking Fatigue: Acceptability, usability and preliminary effects of a novel psychoeducational intervention for post-stroke fatigue - Stewart Blackwell
• Exploring perspectives of individuals with stroke on self-efficacy for physical activity and walking - Niruthikha Mahendran
• Exercise & Physical Activity After Stroke  - Natalie Fini

• The Stroke Foundation CRE priority setting project - Coralie English and Brenda Booth
• An international initiative to advance stroke rehabilitation: development of the World Stroke Organisation Rehabilitation Certification program - Elizabeth A Lynch
• Redefining post‑stroke spasticity care: Lived experience and clinician perspectives - Simone Russell and Emma Gee
• A systematic review of early neuroimaging and neurophysiological biomarkers for post-stroke upper limb prognostication - Cristina Levy
• A systematic review of challenge modification in the rehabilitation of walking after stroke. - Andrea Saverymuthapulle
• Clinician and stroke survivor perspectives on low-cost motion capture assessment of upper limb function: a mixed methods study - Jarrad Fisher
• Developing a novel tool to assess treatment fidelity in complex stroke rehabilitation interventions - Woon Ki Chew
• Expert evaluation of a new smartphone‑based ecological momentary assessment survey for stroke rehabilitation - Katrina Kenah
• Diet and cognitive function during the sub-acute phase of stroke - Barbara R Cardoso
• Measuring meaningful change in rehabilitation - Sally Zingelman

• How to use patient feedback to improve services? - Dean Crowther
• Factors influencing pre-hospital stroke care-seeking behaviours in African populations: a review - Shegaw Zeleke
• Australian Stroke Care: National performance and future directions from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry - Dominique A Cadilhac
• Time is Brain: Enhancing Stroke Care in Victoria Through a Statewide Improvement Model - Melissa McIlvain and Toni Arfaras
• Measuring care in post-stroke aphasia services to drive quality improvement: A multicentre pilot study to implement a co-developed minimum dataset - Marissa Stone
• Exploration of ​in-hospital code stroke - Oshi Swarup
• Direct to CT: Transforming Acute Stroke Care in a Regional Hospital - Lucille Monahan

Panel Discussion: QI Australian Initiatives to Improve Quality Improvement in ICH - Rohan Grimley, Ken Butcher and Craig Anderson