Conducting Prevention Research

The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and Wake Forest School of Medicine will lead a $29.9 million effort to help stroke survivors prevent another stroke by controlling blood pressure.

The six-year study, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, will compare the effectiveness of in-person care to remote monitoring with a Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff among 3,200 stroke patients.

Recurrent strokes can be prevented, which inspired Cheryl Bushnell, a neurologist and director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Wake Forest, and co-principal investigator Wayne Rosamond, professor of epidemiology at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, to look at which prevention methods work best.

“In particular we hope to identify optimal approaches to care for those at the highest risk for having uncontrolled high pressure and another stroke: African Americans, the elderly and people with physical and cognitive disabilities,” said Rosamond.

Gillings will receive $8.2 million to lead data coordination of this study that could impact stroke care across the country.

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