It is wonderful that Joanna's contribution to stroke research and associated small vessel diseases has received such international recognition - congratulations!
ESO Presidential Award 2017
The European Stroke Organisation (ESO) Presidential Award is presented annually at the ESO Conference. The Presidential Award is bestowed upon an advanced career person who has made a significant impact on stroke care internationally over many years, someone who has had an important influence on educational or political development for stroke care across Europe or even worldwide. The achievement thus need not be research based but may involve leadership, mentorship, implementation or changing of attitudes.
During the ceremony, members heard how Joanna Wardlaw is a true leader in the field. She initiated one of the first randomised controlled trials of intra-arterial thrombolysis in acute ischaemic stroke in 1990, and has published and regularly updated the Cochrane Collaboration Systematic Review of available evidence on thrombolysis in ischaemic stroke since 1992.
She has worked on many multicentre randomised clinical trials as imaging lead, steering committee member or UK lead (IST-3, ENOS, PODCAST, Novartis Octreotide trials, SITS-MOST and MAST-Italy). Joanna has led UK NIHR-commissioned projects on cost effective use of diagnostic imaging in stroke treatment and prevention, whose results have been cited in stroke care guidelines worldwide, thereby having impact on patient care.
In 1997, Joanna Wardlaw established the Brain Research Imaging Centre at the University of Edinburgh, and is now a Director of the Edinburgh Imaging Facilities, as well as being part of the SINAPSE Collaboration, a joint effort of the major Universities across Scotland.
More recently, Joanna developed a research programme into the causes and effects of small vessel disease (SVD) on the brain, in particular the role of blood brain barrier (BBB) failure with ageing and its relationship with lacunar stroke and dementia. This has resulted in several high profile publications most recently Neuroimaging Standards for Small Vessel Disease and its contribution to ageing and neurodegeneration (STRIVE) published in the Lancet Neurology 2013. She is currently working on several neuroimaging projects at present, including a collaborative study with 8 other UK universities funded by the Stroke Association, Alzheimer’s Society & the British Heart Foundation and she looks forward to Edinburgh Imaging leading the imaging research for the SVD projects funded by the Fondation Leducq and UK Dementia Research Institute.
Joanna has published more than 550 papers including in high impact journals, which have attracted in excess of 13,000 citations.