About Us

Our Stroke Research Group at King’s College London is a multidisciplinary group (epidemiologists, stroke physicians, GPs, social scientists, statisticians, health informaticians and health economists) focused on stroke and with a wider interest in vascular long-term conditions and analytics.

We investigate risk, short- and long-term outcomes after stroke and the quality of care provided. Our core data sets include the South London Stroke Register (SLSR) and the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP).

Our data – the South London Stroke Register

The South London Stroke Register (SLSR) is a long-running observational study (since 1995) which investigates the incidence (how many strokes occur per year) and outcomes of stroke. The study focuses on the population of a defined geographical area within South London, overlying Lambeth and Southwark local authorities.

To ensure our results are reliable, we aim to identify all people who have had a stroke who live in our area. This is done by rigorous monitoring at places they are likely to attend for care. We screen records of the major hospital stroke units within and bordering our area; the records of CT and MRI brain scans; and relevant outpatient clinic lists. People who are eligible are invited to participate; there is no change to care for people participating.

The fieldwork team comprises doctors, research nurses and other trained researchers. Participants are interviewed within 48 hours (if practical and comfortable for the participant), 3 months after their stroke, annually for 5 years, then at 10 and 15 years after the stroke. These interviews collect data on physical, cognitive and mental health alongside stroke symptoms and care. Information about the stroke type, hospital care and relevant test results is collected from the health record. The first interview usually takes place in hospital, subsequent interviews at a convenient place for participants (either via face-to-face or telephone), usually their home or care home.

With modern care, more people survive stroke than ever before; but we don’t have a good understanding of the needs of survivors in the years following their stroke. MRI brain scans are now very widely available, meaning that mild stroke can be more easily detected than was previously possible. The impact of changes such as these are not well understood. The SLSR remains important in future to monitor these changes in stroke and its diagnosis and care over time.

Improving the lives of stroke survivors with data

Our research programme, funded by an NIHR Programme Grant (NIHR202339), is addressing stakeholders’ calls for better quality data to inform decision making, particularly around medium and long-term outcomes of stroke. We are running a series of Policy Labs, collaborative workshops which bring together stakeholders with research, policy, practitioner and experiential expertise in stroke and health data to deliberate evidence, understand barriers and constraints to change, and use this to inform policy and practice. The report from our first Policy Lab is available here: How can we harness data to improve the lives of stroke survivors?

More about our research programme, outputs and the South London Stroke Register: Improving the lives of stroke survivors with data | King's College London