Interview with Prof. Yvo Roos
Patch Platform Presentation (2016)
How was your experience presenting at ESOC?
I’ve seen ESOC grow over the years to become – in my opinion – (one of) the most important stroke conference. So, presenting at ESOC is one of the best ways of reaching a very large audience. What I like about ESOC is the friendly atmosphere – presenting at ESOC is really telling your friends what you did and what you discovered. What also helps are the conference venue places – Barcelona for instance is of course a wonderful city! The interview videos after the presentation, which are put at the ESO website, are also a great initiative to reach a huge audience.
Any important secondary analyses or other trials on this topic since your presentation at ESOC?
We presented the next year at ESOC and published ourselves some more in-depth information of our initial findings and more important – as our findings were somewhat unexpected – some other groups have indeed found similar results. Despite this, platelet transfusions are still widely used in patients with an ICH while on antiplatelet therapy. It shows how difficult it is to change a ‘firm believe’!
What is the key message to stroke physicians?
Search for evidence – keep asking yourself the question – why do we do what we do? Secondly, a ‘negative’ trial does not exist – such a study is important – you learn that a certain therapy does not work, so we have to shift our focus! Keep trying – innovate! And last, but not least – be very careful with so called ‘non-inferiority’ – it is a difficult area – nearly impossible to explain to our patients! Finally – keep up the good work!
