Virtual Meeting Coming Soon

While sadly we will have to wait another year for the OPSYRIS meeting in Norwich, we can look ahead to the upcoming virtual meeting which should be coming very soon on Friday the 18th of September.

The next OPSYRIS meeting shall be held virtually on Friday 18 September

Many things will of course be different. Apart from being online and physically distant, the meeting will be shorter than those in the past, for half a day 9:30-12:30 (BST). Given the shorter time and online nature of the meeting, presentations shall be in a different format, those of 3-5 minute online videos. On the plus side participation will be free, see the Eventbrite site to register for the event. Also no travel needs to be arranged and it may make sharing of work presented easier. We hope to share video submissions from an online hub with details on this site soon.

The date for abstract submission is passed, but we have already received interesting submissions. Indeed, we are delighted to announce two exciting keynotes from our Australian colleagues, on topics highly relevant to current circumstances. Dr. Dana Wong ,Clinical Neuropsychologist and Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University shall present Remote Assessment and Intervention Delivery in Psychological Stroke Care while Dr. Rene Stolwyk, Clinical Neuropsychologist and Senior Lecturer, Monash University hopes to present Embracing Technology in Cognitive Rehabilitation Post-Stroke: Using Telehealth and Smartphones.

The primary focus will be on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stroke care and research, and overcoming associated challenges. On this theme we will particularly look at remote patient assessments and interventions, resources for people living with stroke, staff training and support of staff well-being. However, we do not want to overlook the valuable contributions of recently completed and ongoing projects in other areas and look forward to a wide range of relevant topics covered.

Rising Star Dr. Yvonne Chun

I began my clinical research career with the stroke research group at the University of Edinburgh in 2014. After being awarded the Chief Scientist Office of Scotland Clinical Academic Fellowship, I conducted an observational study on the subtypes of anxiety disorders after stroke. I found that phobic disorder was the predominant anxiety subtype post-stroke. This led to the development and pilot testing of a telemedicine guided self-help cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety after stroke (TASK-CBT) in a randomised controlled trial (TASK-I RCT). I presented the results of TASK-I RCT for the first time at the OPSYRIS conference in Glasgow in October 2018. I am hoping to take my work forward and evaluate TASK-CBT in a large definitive TASK-II RCT.

I am currently completing my clinical training as a geriatrician and stroke physician. My current research interests include applying evidence-based innovative digital technology to improve stroke care, empower stroke patients, and expedite the generation of robust evidence through efficient and high-quality clinical trials. My ongoing work includes developing an automated conversational agent for stroke patients, using actigraphy as clinical outcome measure in stroke trials, and efficient digitised clinical trial design e.g. TASK-II RCT.

My publications can be found here: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/yvonne-chun(81691fe9-b14c-401c-852e-c8895461eaaa)/publications.html

Rising Star Dr. Yvonne Chun