Paola De Rango Award Recognises Improving Stroke Care Access for Women
During the 2018 ESOC Scientific Session on “Sex Influences and Stroke” , the first-ever “Paola De Rango Award” was presented to George Dunn, the current Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) Project Manager within the School Of Population Health & Environmental Sciences at King’s College London. George Dunn was chosen over the other highly qualified candidates, for his ongoing research contributing to a greater stroke care access for women. Through his initiative, the registry since early 2015 has collected extensive data on sex differences particularly related to quality improvement and equality in stroke care access. George Dunn reported, during his ESOC presentation, that preliminary data coming from SSNAP suggests that women were less likely to receive thrombolysis therapy, have considerably longer door-to-needle times and receive less physiotherapy within 72hrs from index stroke. The award selection committee based its decision on the overwhelming relevance, to clinical care decisions regarding priority choices, of the SSNAP results.
About George Dunn:
“George Dunn is the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) Project Manager within the School Of Population Health & Environmental Sciences at King’s College London. SSNAP is a national stroke registry for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. He graduated from Lancaster University with a BA (Hons) degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. George has worked in the registry since early 2015 and has a keen interest in research, particularly related to quality improvement and equality in stroke care.
About Paola De Rango
In order to honour Paola De Rango’s (1966-2016) https://www.ejves.com/article/S1078-5884(16)00114-3/fulltext unflagging dedication to reaching the highest standards of research ethics and scientific methodology to the sole benefit of the patient. As a licensed vascular surgeon for more than two decades, she gained worldwide respect and admiration for her body of research that impacted international guidelines on stroke prevention in patients with carotid stenosis. Between 2007 and 2016, she lead authored more than 20 published papers on the management of carotid stenosis in women. Her dedication to this specialization was a pioneering influence on what later would become a highly popular field of research.
