European Life After Stroke Forum Scientific Committee
The committee is made up of a range of stroke survivors and academics/professionals who are active advocates for the life after stroke agenda from across Europe. Collectively, they have developed the programmes for all of our European Life After Stroke Forum events.
Fiona Jones MBE is Professor of Rehabilitation Research at St George's University of London and Kingston University. She specialises in physiotherapy, neurorehabilitation and self-management research and has led studies to evaluate self-management approaches within stroke teams in London. She is interested in professional attitudes and skills that influence inclusive approaches to self-management support and sustainability within acute and community rehabilitation settings.
Fiona is leading a study funded by the UK National Institute of Health Research to evaluate the use of Experience–Based Co-Design to explore ways to increase therapeutic activity in stroke units.
Dr Lisa Kidd is a Reader in Supported Self-Management in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, University of Glasgow.
Her research interests include self-management, person-centred care, implementation science, and patient and public engagement. Lisa is leading research focussing on the implementation of self-management support in stroke service provision, particularly how practitioners implement and embed self-management support in their practice.
Lisa inputs into the roll out of supported self-management as part of Scotland's Stroke Improvement Plan. She leads the Supported Stroke Self-Management Network, a network of practitioners, academics, policymakers with an interest in shaping stroke self-management research and practice.
Dr Nuno Ferreira is a Professor of Clinical Health Psychology at the University of Nicosia and has a PhD in Clinical and Health Psychology from the University of Edinburgh. He has published extensively in the areas of General Mental Health Disorders and Psychological Adjustment to Chronic Illness.
Nuno is interested in the use and development of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for long-term or chronic health conditions. He is also interested in the study of the impact of values, acceptance/ avoidance, cognitive fusion and mindfulness on psychosocial and physical outcomes.
Diana Wong Ramos was 34 years old and working as a journalist-editor for a magazine when she had a Cerebral Venous Thrombosis stroke. Her life changed and she had to adapt to her new circumstances. Thanks to exhaustive work with a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team Diana began to regain some mobility and independence.
She has a special interest in patient advocacy and patient engagement and was involved in the creation of the first Portuguese association of stroke survivors www.portugalavc.pt and participated in the redesign of the Stroke Action Plan for Europe 2018-2030.
Dr Liam Healy is a Consultant Stroke Physician and Geriatrician and Clinical Lead for Stroke in Cork University Hospital, Ireland. Cork University Hospital is the busiest inpatient stroke service in the country and one of two thrombectomy centres nationally.
Liam trained in Ireland as a Geriatrician and spent a number of years training in Edinburgh in Acute Medicine and Stroke before returning to Cork in 2015. He is a member of the Irish Clinical Advisory Group on Stroke and a Clinical Lecturer in University College Cork.
Avril Drummond is Professor of Healthcare Research, and an occupational therapist, at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her main area of interest is stroke rehabilitation and she has undertaken large trials, studies and service evaluations.
She is a member of the Royal College of Physicians' Intercollegiate Working party for stroke, which produces the UK Stroke Clinical Guidelines. She is a former Chair of the UK Stroke Forum, she chaired the 'Life after stroke' domain for the Action Plan for Stroke in Europe and is a trustee of the UK Stroke Association.
Hanne Krarup Christensen is Professor of Neurology at the University of Copenhagen and Bispebjerg Hospital. She has worked for 25 years in clinical practice, mainly in acute stroke care, as well as stroke research.
Hariklia Proiosis is Associate Professor of Neurocognitive Disorders and Rehabilitation at the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia, Greece. Her research interests include adult aphasia, visual hemi-spatial neglect, and number processing difficulties in people with aphasia. She is interested in the implementation of theoretical constructs for evaluating neurological cases, and the development of standardised tools for patient screening and testing.
She is President of the Stroke Alliance for Europe and a member of the National Aphasia Association Advisory Council, the Multicultural Task Force and the Academy of Aphasia. She is active in Stroke and Rehab committees in the World Health Organization and the American Congress of Rehab Medicine.
Dr Rosa Suñer-Soler Serra is a researcher at the University of Girona. She is a registered nurse, has a degree in social and cultural anthropology and a doctorate in psychology. Her postgraduate specialisation was in stroke units at the University of Alicante.
Before she became a full-time researcher with a Serra Húnter Fellowship in 2018, she worked as a nurse and held several senior management positions, especially in neurosciences and then became a lecturer of the University of Girona. Her research is in health psychology and health promotion in the healthcare sector, particularly in stroke care and prevention. She is also a member of the Cerebrovascular Diseases Working Group of the department of health of the government of Catalonia.
Dr Carina U Persson works at the Department of Occupational therapy and Physical Therapy at Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SU) in Gothenburg, Sweden and is clinically active at the stroke unit at SU/Östra.
She has worked as a physiotherapist and graduated with a PhD in Medicine and was appointed associate professor in Rehabilitation Medicine at GU in 2019. Carina is a member of the research group Rehabilitation Medicine, GU, and her research areas are within post-stroke rehabilitation and epidemiology. She is a board member of the Nordic Stroke Society, Stroke Centrum Väst Inspirationsforum and Neuro Section of Fysioterapeuterna.
