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

Contributors -

Leonid Churilov Hannah Johns Kate Hayward Bruce Campbell   Emily Dalton Candice Delcourt Natalie Fini Odkhishig Ganbold Carlos Garcia-Esperon Erin Godecke Tim Kleinig Liz Lynch Chloe Mutimer 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

• 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 - Neelam Nayak
• Exercise & Physical Activity After Stroke  - Natalie Fini

• The Stroke Foundation CRE priority setting project - Coralie English
• 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