Posted on

PRESTIGE-AF at the Great Exhibition Road Festival 2024

On 15-16 June, the PRESTIGE-AF team from Imperial College London exhibited the PRESTIGE-AF Escape Room as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival (GERF) 2024, a two-day extravaganza of all things science and art taking place in South Kensington, London.

The annual festival welcomed over 50,000 people across the weekend to enjoy hands-on workshops, fascinating talks, performances and installations from iconic museums, research and culture organisations, including Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A).

Located in the Science Museum, the PRESTIGE-AF team ran 10 escape room sessions, allowing around 100 people to try their hand at ‘escaping the clinic’ in the allocated time. The activity calls on participants to work as a team, with a strong focus on the importance of communication to solve various puzzles, crack codes and uncover hidden messages in order to find out the information required to enrol a participant onto the PRESTIGE-AF clinical trial.

This iteration of the escape room included new and improved puzzles and clues, including the opportunity to engage with hundreds more visitors who could not take part in the session but were visiting the Festival.

These visitors were tasked with putting themselves in the shoes of a clinician having to make the decision of whether to prescribe anticoagulants to intracerebral haemorrhage patients with atrial fibrillation, balancing the risks of both conditions.

Over 320 people ended up casting their votes, with the results quite evenly split: 159 voted to prescribe, and 169 voted not to prescribe. However, a higher proportion of those who voted to prescribe were uncertain about their decision.

“It’s funny – it makes you feel stressed to even put a token in, but doctors have to make the real choice,” remarked one visitor.

Overall, these conversations were an opportunity to deeply engage with members of the public with the question that PRESTIGE-AF is trying to answer and showcase the uncertainty involved in the decision-making process.

It was fantastic to engage with so many people at the Festival, and we thank everyone who took the time out of their day to visit us.

Posted on

The PRESTIGE-AF Escape Room takes on ESOC 2024

On 15-16 May, the PRESTIGE-AF team from Imperial College London hit the road once again to bring the PRESTIGE-AF Escape Room to the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) in the magnificent city of Basel in Switzerland.

ESOC is the largest stroke conference in Europe, with over 4,500 participants from 96 countries in attendance for the 10th anniversary! The conference was an extremely exciting and pertinent setting to showcase the escape room, which has become the project’s flagship public engagement activity.

Over the course of the two-days, 8 escape room sessions were run, allowing over 45 people to try their hand at ‘escaping the clinic’ in the allocated time. The activity calls on participants to work as a team, with a strong focus on the importance of communication to solve various puzzles, crack codes and uncover hidden messages in order to find out the information required to enrol a participant onto the PRESTIGE-AF clinical trial.

The escape room has now been exhibited in many different settings from various museums (e.g. V&A, Science Museum) to science festivals and conferences across Europe. The range of audiences at these events has contributed to collecting different insights and feedback on the effectiveness of the activity. Speaking with participants at ESOC proved to be no exception, with the opportunity to have many interesting conversations about the importance of thinking outside the box when it comes to communicating research.

Thank you to everyone who popped by to try out the escape room or to ask questions about the creation of this activity! If you are interested in learning more, please do get in touch.

Posted on

Celebrating International Women’s Day with Prof. Valeria Caso

March 8th marks International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the achievements of women around the world and recognise the areas where improvements can be made.

Prof. Valeria Caso, MD, PhD is work package leader (WP9), responsible for ‘Understanding Gender-related differences’ for the PRESTIGE-AF research project.

It is widely understood that women have been under-represented in studies on overall cardiovascular disease, surgery, and cancer. This underrepresentation is problematic, as it causes generalisations about the impact of how these health conditions affect women to be made without suitable evidence.

Prof. Caso’s work focuses on how to increase the awareness of physicians in raising the participation of women to appropriate levels for randomised clinical trials, as well as how to increase the awareness among female patients to participate in clinical trials, investigate for biological differences in both sexes in intracerebral haemorrhages, AF and stroke outcomes and investigate social-cultural influences in both sexes in stroke outcome.

We spoke with Prof. Caso in anticipation of this year’s International Women’s Day to see what inspires her to do the work she does and in line with this year’s theme of #InspireInclusion, what we can all do to ensure inclusion in regards to stroke research and prevention.

What inspired you to follow a career in health and science?

“Since an early age, I have been thoroughly intrigued by the complexities of the human mind. This interest has led me on a lifelong journey to understand myself and help others. Initially, I wanted to become a neuropsychiatrist for children. This aim accompanied me throughout medical school when my fascination with the human brain deepened.“

How did this experience impact your decision to go specifically into stroke research?

“My path took a significant turn during my specialisation period for neurology. The neurology department director at the time offered me an opportunity that would inspire my career. He offered to send me to a stroke unit in Germany. I chose to go to the city of Kiel, where I had been born.

My time at the Stroke Unit in Kiel was eye-opening, as I was as able to see first-hand how a stroke could swiftly, and often most devastatingly, negatively impact a person’s life – it was profoundly moving to witness. The exposure to stroke medicine marked a pivotal point in my career. Later, while a Ph.D. candidate, I spent time at a stroke unit in Heidelberg, Germany, where I saw, for the first time, the positive effects of thrombolysis therapy, lost or compromised motor functions were restored after treatment delivery. I knew that this was a game changer.

Every day in Heidelberg, I learned of the challenges associated with treatment, as each patient was unique. The successes and setbacks highlighted the intricacies involved in treating and preventing stroke.”

What does inspiring inclusion mean to you?

“Inspiring inclusion means guaranteeing an environment that values, respects and supports all persons, regardless of their background, identity, or circumstances. It is about actively fostering a culture that acknowledges and embraces diversity to achieve the fullest possible participation and contribution from everyone.”

How do we become more inclusive of women regarding stroke research, prevention, and treatment?

“Inspiring inclusion, especially in stroke research, prevention, and treatment, can be significantly enhanced through active mentoring. However, this needs to begin early on for people considering a future in medicine. In fact, continuous guidance throughout the early phases of a woman’s medical career is crucial, as establishing oneself in the medical field requires years of dedication and perseverance. Guidance that is community-centric and highly personalized might also see greater participation of women in stroke prevention and treatment programs.

Specifically, we should focus on engaging with women in familiar neighbourhood settings, where trust has already been established among the members. Here, in-person communication and education, akin to continuous mentoring, could be highly impactful. Likewise, tailored approaches based on the habits and customs of individual groups could also lead to significant improvements in how women perceive and engage with healthcare related to stroke.”

Thank you Prof. Caso for your tireless dedication to create positive change and improve outcomes for women impacted by stroke. You can learn more about the work Prof. Caso does with the PRESTIGE-AF project on the our Partner page.

Posted on

Prestige-AF Annual Meeting – London 2023

On 17th November, the PRESTIGE-AF consortium met in London, UK for the project’s sixth annual meeting – the first in-person annual meeting since 2019.

The meeting was a welcome opportunity to reconnect and hear how each of the twelve work packages are progressing, encouraging collaborative learning and exchange of information. The day began bright and early, as members of the consortium arrived at the beautiful 58 Prince’s Gate building at Imperial College London.

Coordinator of PRESTIGE-AF and Chair of Stroke Medicine at Imperial College London (UK), Professor Veltkamp kicked off the meeting by welcoming everyone and providing an overview of the full day of presentations ahead.

Prof Veltkamp welcoming the consortium at Imperial College London

Dr Eleni Korompoki addressed the consortium by providing a scientific update to attendees both in the room and those joining virtually. After hearing updates from several work packages, the group paused for a well-deserved lunch break.

Members of the consortium trying out the PRESTIGE-AF escape room
Communications Manager, Harry Jenkins, discussing future plans for the project’s dissemination activities

During this break, Communications Manager for the project, Harry Jenkins, ran a session of the PRESTIGE-AF escape room, which had been created to communicate aspects of the project to external audiences. This was the first time members of the consortium were able to try out the experience for themselves. The session was met with much enthusiasm and positive feedback, with the team managing to escape with four minutes to spare!

After lunch, the consortium had the opportunity to break into working groups to discuss a range of topics and encourage collaboration across teams. The consortium reconvened to share key takeaways from their respective working groups and continue to hear from work group leaders on their research progress from the past year.

Prof Valeria Caso discussing participation of female patients in trials

To round off the day, the consortium heard feedback from the Executive Committee, who commended the team for their progress and expressed their interest in how the upcoming twelve months will unfold. Prof Veltkamp provided his final remarks and closed the meeting, with an optimistic outlook on the months ahead.

It was a great day and we already look forward to seeing each other again next year (in a soon to be decided location), for our final meeting and celebration of the project!

Posted on

Live Stream of PRESTIGE-AF trial in Italy

PRESTIGE-AF researchers, Prof Valeria Caso and Dr Fracesco Corea live-streamed (in Italian) on March 4th about the PRESTIGE-AF trial in Italy. They presented on the full operation for the study of secondary prophylaxis of cardioembolic stroke in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation and after-effects of cerebral haemorrhage. Coordinated by Prof, Valeria Caso of the Perugia Hospital with about 15 participating centres in Italy. In Umbria, the hospitals of Branca, Citta di Castello, Foligno and Perugia are in fact authorized to recruit candidates. Tune-in!

Posted on

Event: Life After Stroke Series of Interactive Webinars for 2021

PRESTIGE-AF partner, Stroke Alliance for Europe launches Life After Stroke Series of Interactive Webinars for 2021 

Stroke Alliance for Europe has launched a series of free interactive events to build the life after stroke healthcare, research and stroke survivor community, to stimulate debate, improve life after stroke care and build interest for SAFE’s 1st European Life After Stroke Forum on 12 March 2021. 

The opening session on Friday 12 March 10.00-11.30 CET is titled Life after stroke: priorities, challenges and ways forward. The session would be of interest to neurologists, therapists, physicians, allied health professionals and nurses, social care practitioners and stroke survivors.

Registration is FREE and welcome to all. Register via the EventBrite event page

The event includes updates from Sweden, the UK, Ireland and Italy on people’s experiences of the impact of stroke before and during the pandemic, and how healthcare and support services have adapted to meet the challenges of post-pandemic stroke care. All attending will learn about new and creative ways of offering support such as using telemedicine and telerehabilitation and remote methods of looking after stroke survivors.   

Posted on

Women in stroke: closing the gap for equitable prevention and treatment

pile of coloured pill capsules

For World Stroke Day, we speak with Prof Valeria Caso, stroke neurologist and former president of ESO (European Stroke Organisation) on the gender and sex disparities between current stroke research and the reality.

Profile image of Prof Valeria Caso smiling at camera
Prof Valeria Caso’s personal scientific focus has been stroke in women and tackling the gender and sex imbalances in stroke research, prevention and treatment

Thursday 29th October every year, is World Stroke Day. A day to foreground discussions on stroke prevention and treatment and emphasise how many sufferers and survivors there are around the globe. This all culminates in serving the mission to ensure better care and support for survivors and their families and reduce the risk of stroke; new and recurring. There are identifiable factors that influence the possibility of the onset of a new stroke and that of a recurring stroke for survivors. Lifestyle, family history, and other health indications (such as atrial fibrillation) all can play a role, but another element that is hardly known and spoken about is one of the biggest factors; sex and gender.

Stroke is a leading cause of mortality among non-communicable diseases (NCDs) for both sexes however, research shows that stroke is more detrimental to women. We speak with Prof Valeria Caso, stroke neurologist at the University of Perugia Stroke Unit (Italy) and former president of ESO (European Stroke Organisation) about the gender disparities related to stroke and how through studies such as PRESTIGE-AF, the work that is being done to reduce the gap, and ensure equitable treatment and prevention.

Women at higher risk

“Specifically, women have higher overall lifetime risks of stroke along with higher rates of mortality and disabilities”, says Prof Caso whose personal scientific focus has been stroke in women.  “In terms of risk factors for stroke, atrial fibrillation leads to higher incidence and more severe thromboembolic events (blood clotting) for women.  Moreover, women tend to seek medical attention later than men as they are more likely to be living alone.”

Women are at increased risk with more detrimental outcomes but surprisingly, as Prof Caso tells us, their presence in scientific research is marginalised. “To date, women have been under-represented in major randomised clinical trials. The surrounding  safety and efficacy results for women is not an accurate reflection of reality and this in turn, stroke prevention and treatment recommendations and guidelines are severely distorted.” 

Prof Caso goes further to say that this under-representation has been suggested as a reason why women having more drug-related adverse events. “Specifically, most randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses on the use of antithrombotic agents (anti blood clotting drugs, for example) in cerebrovascular disease have neither performed sub-analyses on sex-related differences nor adequately represented women in their sample size. In 2005, the European Society of Cardiology, and the European Medicines Agency recommended a significant representation of women in clinical trials.”

“In 2016, the Motion for a European Parliament Resolution on promoting gender equality in mental health and clinical research underlined the fact that clinical trials of pharmaceutical products on both men and women are necessary and that these should be inclusive, non-discriminatory and performed under conditions of equality, and inclusion.”

Inclusion – easier said than done

The male-female ratio in stroke trial today still does not reflect the real world situation. Women may be more difficult to include in RCTs because they tend to be older at stroke onset, have more comorbidities, and are more likely to have pre-existing functional impairment. The work Prof Caso and her team will be doing in the PRESTIGE-AF Horizon2020 project is to identify sex-and gender related barriers that may be an undercurrent in the marginalised representation of women in clinical trials of stroke prevention. One of the main goals is to  develop strategies on how to promote gender equality in stroke trial participation. 

Prof Caso says the main objectives to address gender and sex disparities are clear. We need to “understand the attitudes of female and male physicians regarding the participation of women as opposed to men in RCTs of stroke prevention and we need to understand the differential attitudes of female and male stroke patients in such RCTs. This extends to identifying the psychosocial factors underlying the differences. Finally, we will develop strategies to increase awareness of physicians and of patients for the importance of participation of women in RCTs.”

The work of Prof Caso in the PRESTIGE-AF project is summarised on the PRESTIGE-AF website.

Feature image by Joshua Coleman (@joshstyle) on Unsplash

Posted on

Researchers in Focus: Elena Palà and Olga Sánchez-Maroto Carrizo from VHIR (Spain)

It is often we hear about the research going on in the lab but rarely do we shine a spotlight on the researchers behind the work. Here in this series called ‘PRESTIGE-AF researchers in focus’ we will learn more about who is behind the groundbreaking research into ICH stroke survivors’ who have atrial fibrillation and their ongoing treatment.

In this iteration, we meet Elena Palà, PhD student and Olga Sánchez-Maroto Carrizo, project manager who are two researchers from PRESTIGE-AF partner institute, Vall d’Hebrón Institute of Research (VHIR) Neurovascular Research Laboratory.

Elena Palà – PhD student

Elena Palà in a lab coat
  • If you were to explain to a person without any medical background, what is your research about?

Our research is focused on discovering biomarkers in the stroke field. Biomarkers are molecules that can be measured in the blood of patients and may help the physicians in the diagnostic and prognosis of a disease. For example, in the PRESTIGE-AF, we look for biomarkers that give us information about the risk of a patient to have a haemorrhage or an ischaemic stroke in the future.

  • What drew you to this field?

I became a scientist as I like to think that what I am doing will help patients and I think that without science, medicine would not advance. I studied genetics and as I was more interested in translational research than basic research and I ended up doing my PhD on stroke biomarkers.

  • What is your role in PRESTIGE-AF?

In the Neurovascular Research Laboratory, we are responsible for the central biobank of the study. At the moment, and before the clinical trial ends, a lot of work consists of preparing material to be sent to all the sites in Europe participating in the study. Also, we have been in charge of creating a harmonized protocol in order that all the sites process the blood in the same way, and we are in constant contact with the sites to solve doubts. Once the clinical trial ends we will receive the blood from all the included participants and we will perform several experiments analysing biomarkers in order to find the most interesting candidates.

  • Has there been a turning point or defining moment in your career so far?

I imagine that one important moment will be the day I present my PhD.

  • Briefly, what excites you about your work?

What I like most about working in science is learning new things every day. Also, I like being part of interesting projects like the PRESTIGE-AF, in which I found the opportunity to work with an international multidisciplinary team of experts.

  • Tell me what you like to do when you aren’t working on research.

In my free time I like travelling. Also, I like reading, watching series and doing some sport.

  • What are your professional goals in the next five, and ten years?

I would like to continue working in a position linked to research and science, learning every day and feeling useful in my job.

Olga Sánchez-Maroto Carrizo – Project Manager

  • If you were to explain to a person without any medical background, what is your research about?

My role is to help investigators and Sponsors to conduct clinical investigations, helping them in the design, logistics and management of trials.

  • What drew you to this field?

I have a degree in Biology, but I am not a scientist as people usually think. I am part of the administrative team that each scientist needs for conducting investigations. Investigators focus on their experiments which tend to have them forgetting all the paperwork and logistics that all investigations have.

What is your role in PRESTIGE-AF?

My role is to oversee the clinical trial in Spain, helping the Sponsor and Investigators in the management of the investigation.

  • What excites you about your work?

To try to improve the health and quality of life of patients.

  • Tell me what you like to do when you aren’t working on research.

In my free time, you can find me cooking, reading or practising yoga.

  • What are your professional goals in the next five, and ten years?

I hope, let’s cross the fingers, to stay as today, helping investigators to achieve their objectives for improving the health and quality of life of people.

Posted on

PRESTIGE-AF Study resumes

Stethoscope and Laptop Computer. Laptop computers and other kinds of mobile devices and communications technologies are of increasing importance in the delivery of health care. Photographer Daniel Sone

After almost 3 months of suspension due to COVID-19, the PRESTIGE-AF Study has resumed recruitment of participants

After almost 3 months of suspension, recruitment of participants into the PRESTIGE-AF Study is resuming. In Germany and Spain there are seven and three sites open respectively, with many new sites due to open over the next few weeks. Italy, Austria and France have been given permission to start recruitment into the study for the first time and sites will begin to open from 1st July.   Participant recruitment is still paused in the UK but is expected to resume in the next two months.

It goes without saying that PRESTIGE-AF investigators are proceeding with utmost caution and are regularly reassessing and evaluating for the health and safety of their patients. That being said, this is great news for the consortium, the research and the PRESTIGE-AF project as a whole. Now, work can resume to fulfil the aims of the project; a randomised controlled trial to gather evidence around recommended anticoagulation medication for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation. With stroke being one of the largest public health challenges around the world albeit a growing challenge with increased ageing population estimates, the PRESTIGE-AF work is crucial to help stroke prevention and bettering the treatment and care for brain stroke survivors with atrial fibrillation.

The consortium hope to see a flurry of participant recruitment activity and it has kicked-off to a good start. In Essen, Germany, the first participant was recruited soon after the Study resumed.

It feels as if the world has been in a state of dormancy and COVID-19 has and will continue to impact our lives, professionally and personally. However, with the Study resuming we are slowly coming out of a surreal reality and the team feel uplifted and charged to continue their work on PRESTIGE-AF.

Article photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Posted on

COVID update

We wanted to provide a quick update on how PRESTIGE-AF is progressing at the moment in regard to COVID-19. To ensure the safety and well-being of all participants, the clinical steering committee and the sponsor of the prestige-AF trial have decided to temporarily suspend the recruitment of further participants. For those participants already enrolled in the trials, mitigating measures have been put in place and their safety and health is assured.

This is not a unique circumstance, many research programmes across Europe are also in similar situations and are impacted by the containment measures.

We are closely monitoring the situation and will provide another update when there are any changes.

For further information, the European Commission has placed up-to-date information on their website regarding COVID-19 response and action.

Yours sincerely,
Prof Roland Veltkamp
Imperial College London
PRESTIGE-AF coordinator and on behalf of the PRESTIGE-AF consortium