Young stroke physicians and neuroradiologists with a major interest in cerebrovascular diseases are eligible. Applicants should currently be in training in a European teaching hospital that treats acute stroke patients. The organizing committee will select 20 interventional neuroradiologists and 20 young stroke physicians based on:

  • their application
  • country of origin
  • the expected benefit to the individual and to his/her stroke unit and country

Since the main aim of the course is to enhance interdisciplinary stroke management, pairs of neuroradiologists and stroke physicians from one institution will be preferred. If there are available places, applications from non-European countries may be considered by the organizers. The final decision about the participants remains with the local organisation committee.

The primary goal of the ESO- ESMINT-ESNR winter school on acute interdisciplinary stroke treatment is to join European young stroke physicians and young neuroradiologists in order to enhance interdisciplinary management of patients with acute ischaemic stroke. A series of concentrated high quality teaching sessions and courses on acute stroke management will be offered at a low price.

The secondary goal of the winter school is to perform “hands-on” courses for interventional neuroradiologists and special teaching sessions for stroke physicians.

The winter school will be unique in its kind. Combining plenum sessions, discussions and technical training, it will foster improvement in treatment of cerebrovascular disease and advance research in this complex field, leading to technical developments.

Management of patients with acute ischaemic stroke is a major challenge for stroke physicians: due to the narrow time window for thrombolysis therapeutic decisions have to be taken instantaneously considering a broad range of clinical and radiological information. Given the rapid developments of diagnostic and therapeutic tools within the last few years, complexity of stroke treatment has increased and specialist involvement in stroke management is crucial. Therefore, both stroke physicians and neuroradiologists have to be encouraged to work closely together in order to improve future management of patients with acute stroke.

The aim of the proposed ESO-ESMINT-ESNR teaching course is therefore to unite stroke physicians and neuroradiologists in order to enhance interdisciplinary management of stroke patients. Previous workshops and courses focussed on teaching of either stroke physicians or neuroradiologists. However interdisciplinary courses for both specialists are needed.