The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will join a new national network of 25 regional stroke centers selected to advance stroke research on prevention, treatment and recovery. Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the US, and the new program, initiated by the National Institutes of Health, aims to allow the most promising therapies to quickly advance to the clinic, to improve prevention, acute treatment, or rehabilitation of the stroke patient. The Centers were announced Thursday by the National Institutes of Health.

“Penn Medicine’s interdisciplinary Stroke Center is poised to offer the newest possible treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation options in the greater Philadelphia region and Delaware Valley,” said Scott Kasner, MD, professor of Neurology and director of Penn’s Comprehensive Stroke Center.

Successful applicants demonstrated experience in stroke research and recruitment, including the ability to enroll underrepresented populations, and were required to offer access to the full cadre of specialties that are involved in stroke care. These include:  emergency medicine, neurosurgery, interventional neuroradiology, vascular neurology, neurointensive care, neuroimaging, stroke rehabilitation and pediatric neurology. The 25 centers are strategically placed in every region of the country.

NIH StrokeNet investigators, working with the broader stroke community, will propose, develop and conduct stroke protocols to be administered within the network and train the future generation of clinical researchers in stroke.

“The new system is intended to streamline stroke research, by centralizing approval and review, lessening time and costs of clinical trials, and assembling a comprehensive data sharing system,” said Petra Kaufmann, M.D., the associate director for clinical research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

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