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Increased public awareness of stroke through the European Stroke Organisation Conference – ESOC
Public health promotion, media attention, and raising interest in higher education
One of the purposes of the European Stroke Organisation is to develop and promote professional and public education. Stroke Centre West was the local host of the ESO Conference 2018 in Gothenburg. The centre is a cooperation between Region Västra Götaland, the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. The goals of the centre include minimising the number of people getting a stroke and working with health promotion.
As part of hosting ESOC 2018, the local host and a number of local stakeholders identified the opportunity to use the conference to teach the public how to detect stroke in a person and how to prevent stroke through physical movement. They also wanted to spike an interest in higher education and research amongst young people.
Examples of activities:
- Stroke researchers visited four high schools with students in science and healthcare programmes to inform them about stroke and what it is like working as physicians/scientists, with subsequent students’ study visits to the congress.
- Free public seminar, for 250 attendees, on stroke prevention and rehab with a panel of experts and patients.
- Free public lecture, on stroke and physical activity, in conjunction with the annual Gothenburg Half Marathon.
- The local public healthcare provider invited delegates to run in its dedicated starting group Run FAST Against Stroke in the annual Gothenburg Half Marathon. The connection was running as a method to prevent stroke.
- Targeted efforts towards media led to extensive media attention with a focus on the patient perspective.
