Suffolk physiotherapist wins European Stroke Research Foundation investigator award

^{Ehab Georgy collecting his award at the European Stroke Conference in Athens}

He submitted the paper on behalf of the Suffolk stroke early supported discharge (ESD) team, where he is an advanced specialist physiotherapist.

Mr Georgy received the award at the European Stroke Conference in Athens this spring. He said ‘Our research paper attracted a lot of discussion and interest.

‘This was concluded on the last day of the event by the prestigious award, presented by Michael Hennerici, chair of the European Stroke Research Foundation.’

The paper describes how the ESD service was introduced to provide a comprehensive stroke specialist therapy. It was designed to be comparable to inpatient hospital care, while reducing the cost of acute care.

It reports on the impact of specific characteristics – such as age and gender – and clinical profile – stroke type and severity, functional level and length of hospital stay – on outcomes for the ESD service’s patients.

Disease profiles affect outcomes

Data was collected from all patients admitted to the service from two local acute hospitals between August and October 2016.

The results show that specific clinical characteristics and disease profile affect functional outcomes. They could influence goal attainment and function at the point when people are discharged from the service.

But it also says that more research is needed to identify the specific criteria to be used to stratify stroke patients and identify those with the best chance of achieving optimal outcomes when they are referred to the ESD.

In May, Mr Georgy presented the research paper at the European Stroke Organisation conference in Sweden.