World Class Professor Joins Stroke Central Region

8 May 2019

Prof. Feigin – has been appointed Honorary Medical Director for Stroke Central Region

Stroke Central has appointed Professor Valery Feigin to its board of governors as Honorary Medical Doctor. The new role is key to the development of stroke prevention and support services for the central region, including Wellington.

Stroke Central CEO, Lee Pownall says: “Professor Feigin is world renowned for his research and contributions to the prevention and treatment of stroke. He will be a major asset to the stroke community in this region and we are looking forward to working with him to put an infrastructure in place for primary stroke prevention”.

Around 9,000 people in New Zealand suffer a stroke each year.

By 2028, that number is expected to increase 40 percent, to 12,000 people.

Professor Feigin is the director of the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). He is also a director and executive committee member of the World Stroke Organisation, and a World Health Organisation expert on stroke. He is currently the most cited scientist in New Zealand with more than 650 publications, including 340 scientific articles.

“Stroke is a devastating but highly preventable disease. Knowing your risk factors and how to control them is the best way to prevent stroke. However, knowing the warning signs of stroke, getting to hospital as soon as the first symptoms appear and getting the appropriate rehabilitation is the best way to reduce the severity of the stroke and improve your recovery,” says Professor Feigin.

It’s estimated that there are over 56,000 stroke survivors in New Zealand.

Stroke Central is a not-for-profit, member-based organisation that provides support services for stroke survivors and their whānau in the central region, including a stroke community and field officers that guide those affected through the journey to recovery.

As a member-based organisation, Stroke Central aims to make the voices of stroke survivors heard throughout the health sector and recently joined the Federation of Primary Health Aotearoa.

“We act directly for stroke survivors in the central region, as well as providing support and advice through free services. It’s a big win for us that the voices of our members will now be joined by that of a world-class expert on stroke,” says Pownall.

Professor Valery Feigin - Profile

Valery L. Feigin, MD, MSc, PhD, FAAN is the Director of the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences and Professor at the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences at the AUT University of Auckland, and Affiliate Professor of the Department of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, USA. He is also Honorary Professor of the Novosibirsk State Medical University, Russia and a Visiting Professor of the Capital Medical University of China.

Professor Feigin’s prime research interest is in the epidemiology, prevention and management of stroke and traumatic brain injury. He has published over 650 publications of which >340 are scientific articles in journals, including 75 in The Lancet, 10 handbooks on stroke, epidemiology and public health and 18 book chapters (as of November 2018, according to Scopus, his publications were cited over 48,000 times; h-index 70). Professor Feigin is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neuroepidemiology (Impact Factor 3.7) and a member of the Editorial Boards of 10 international medical journals. He is also a Director on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee member of the World Stroke Organization, and WHO expert on stroke.

He is also a recipient of multiple national and international awards, including the McDiarmid Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, World Stroke Organization President’s Award for “outstanding contribution to stroke research and prevention”, Stroke Society of Australasia excellence in stroke care award.

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