Michael Brainin

President 2018 — 2020

Michael Brainin was elected President Elect of the World Stroke Organisation (WSO) in 2015 and took office in 2018.

Michael Brainin

Michael Brainin was elected President Elect of the World Stroke Organisation (WSO) in 2015 and took office in 2018.

Professor Brainin was appointed in 2000 full Professor of Clinical Neurology and Director and Chair of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Prevention at the Danube University in Krems, Austria. From 1994-2016 he acted as Chair and Director of the Neurological Department of the University Hospital Tulln. In 1997 he set up the first stroke unit in Austria at his institution.

His research focus is on cerebrovascular diseases including acute therapy, recovery and cognition. He has published more than 225 peer-reviewed, PubMed listed articles. His H-index is 49, he has over 20.000 citations.

He has been an invited lecturer and chairperson to more than 1,000 international conferences. He has published and edited several books, among them the Textbook of Stroke Medicine (with WD Heiss, Cambridge Univ Press, 3rd Edition, 2019).

From 2012-2014 he was President of the European Stroke Organization (ESO). Since 2014 he is elected full Board Member of the European Academy of Neurology. He acted as chairman of the WSO Education Committee (2008-2017) for which he has co-directed teaching programmes in many regions of the world. Since 2008, he is Editor-in-Chief of the World Stroke Academy. He directs several postgraduate teaching programmes at his university, among them the WSO supported ESO European Master’s Programme in Stroke Medicine, currently attended by medical doctors and neurologists from 23 countries.

He serves as Associate Editor for the European Journal of Neurology, also as Senior Consulting Editor for ‘Stroke’. He serves on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Stroke, the European Stroke Journal, Neuroepidemiology, the Journal of Neurological Sciences, and Frontiers in Neurology.

Professor Brainin is an Honorary Member of the ESO and International Fellow of the American Stroke Association and Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology. He received several awards, such as the Marinescu Award 2015 from the Romanian Society of Neurology and Honorary Doctorates from Hanoi University, Vietnam, and from the University of Cluj, Romania, an honorary professorship from Zhengzhou University, as well as honorary memberships of the French Neurological Society, Hungarian Stroke Society and Indian Stroke Society.

Words from Michael Brainin, WSO President

President's message

Success and Challenges for the WSO

At our strategy meeting in the first year of my tenure as president in May 2019 in Milan we confirmed our mission and vision which had been laid down at our first meeting four years previously under the presidency of Stephen Davis. The vision was ‘a life free from stroke’ and our mission: ‘to reduce the burden of stroke’.

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Stroke Prevention

WSO - WHF Joint Statement Published in The Lancet

In a joint statement published in The Lancet, WSO and the World Heart Federation signal the stalled progress on stroke and cardiovascular disease prevention and call on goverments to urgently prioritize implementation of population-based appproaches to public health prevention.

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Michael Brainin - How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the stroke care?

Interview

Prof. Michael Brainin talks to Oruen about his role as President of the WSO, how COVID-19 has impacted stroke care around the world and gives further information on the WSO’s plans for the rest of 2020.

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President's Message

Developing a Picture of Stroke Care Provision During COVID19 Pandemic

Around the globe we find ourselves adapting to a new reality. This is a big personal and professional challenge.

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Cut Stroke in Half

Cut Stroke in Half presentation at Global Stroke Alliance

Prof Michael Brainin delivers a virutal presentation that highlights the global opportunity to half stroke incidence thorugh implementaiton of multi-dimensional prevention strategies at global, regional and national level.

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President's news

End of year update 2019

Read my quarterly round up of progress towards our goals and find out what is coming up for WSO and our members.

Latest update

President's message

Message from the President

Listen to the WSO President, Prof. M. Brainin speaking about WSO.

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Research Article

The role of a polypill in primary stroke prevention

International Journal of Stroke article presenting the evidence of the potential of a low dose combination medication in primary stroke prevention.

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Stroke Riskometer

Mobile technologies and stroke prevention

The Stroke Riskometer is a WSO endorsed app that helps people to understand their individual risk of stroke. It supports behaviour change around key stroke risk factors and can be used by health workers in partnership with patients.

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Downloads

Cut Stroke in Half Project Outline

An overview of the key elements and goals and evidence base for the WSO 'Cut Stroke in Half' prevention initiative.

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