Angels Stroke Heroes : Inspiring the Global Stroke Community

The Angels Initiative
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The Angels Stroke Heroes podcast series features individuals who inspire the global stroke community with their courage, vision, leadership, and hard work.

  1. 1d ago

    Dr Apostolos Safouris | Lessons From History

    Dr Apostolos Safouris is a distinguished vascular neurologist, chair of the ESO Stroke Unit Certification Committee, and a 2024 recipient of the Spirit of Excellence Award. He’s also an avid reader who told us in the past that the great texts from the history of humanity provided context for his work.   Shortly before this conversation took place in Maastricht, the setting for ESOC 2026, Apostolos announced on LinkedIn that having reached level 30 in Duolingo, he was now able to order food in Dutch. But then we discovered that learning Dutch in fact had nothing to do with eating in Maastricht.  In a wide-ranging conversation, Apostolos talks about trading Athens for Brussels, parenting teenager daughters, progress towards getting stroke centers certified across Europe, and the end of the AI honeymoon.  In some instances AI is being developed for functions humans can do more cheaply, he contends. He also talks about the potential for AI to tone down noise and counter bias in medicine, and concludes:  "If you say I’m going to use AI to solve all the problems, you’re out of your mind. If you say I’m not using AI, well, you’ve been left behind in 2020." In this episode   Living and working in Belgium  Raising teenagers  Progress towards Stroke Unit certification in Europe  Why the process matters  AI and the role of doctors  Reducing noise in medicine  Building stroke networks  Some recommended reading  On Dr Safouris’s reading list  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011) by the Israeli military historian Yuval Noah Harari  Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1995) by Daniel Dennett  Peak Human: What We Can Learn from History's Greatest Civilisations (2025) by Johan Norberg  The Maniac (2023), a fictionalised biography of John von Neumann, by Benjamín Labatut Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    Dr Apostolos Safouris | Lessons From History

  2. Jul 16

    The Rule of Three

    Dr Sandor Nardai is a cerebrovascular disease specialist and chief of the biggest thrombectomy centre in Hungary. As a licensed interventional cardiologist, neurologist and neurointerventionist, he is making an outsized contribution to stroke care in his country.   During a conversation recorded in Maastricht in May 2026, Sandor explained the “triple rule” that governs his career:   “From the very first part of my career, I really wanted to do the three jobs you need to do at the university clinic. So teaching, research, and healing patients. First was research. But then medicine really was interesting, and I thought that, well, if I do a medical degree, I could still be a researcher. And education is just fully integrated into it because it's a medical school.”  Sandor is associate professor and the head of Department of Neurointervention at the Semmelweis University Center of Neurosurgery and Neurointervention in Budapest, Hungary.   It’s a great job to be in, he says.    In this episode:   Committing to the triple task of research, teaching and healing  What cardiologists and neurologists can learn from each other  Learning together on the job  The importance of going abroad  Why stroke is fascinating  Why interventionists have to be team players  Important questions research must answer  Studying for an MBA  A day in his life  Leaving a legacy  Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    The Rule of Three

  3. Jun 30

    In the right place at the right time

    In a conversation recorded in Maastricht during ESOC 2026, Latvian neurologist Kristaps Jurjāns explains how consistency earned Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital in Riga more diamond awards than any other hospital in the world.   He says, “Mostly what gives us these awards is that we do it consistently. We do not drop our standards and our data shows this. I can trust everybody that works in our hospital with the stroke patients to provide acute care at the highest level.”  He describes missing the cut to become an orthopedic surgeon, following his mom into neurology, just temporarily, and then forgetting all about surgery as he learned about stroke neurology from his mentor Professor Evija Miglāne.   It’s “inevitability” that drives him, he says. “If I drop this, who's gonna pick it up? That’s the first question. And the next question is, so if somebody does, am I happy about it? If not, then you have to do it yourself.  Finally, Kristaps explains how working out with a boxing coach eases the transition from hospital to the  Jurjāns household which is currently occupied by three small boys including two-year-old twins.     In this episode:  Cycling from Brussels to Maastricht  Getting an award for getting an award  Why consistency matters  “You have to rise or somebody dies”  Choosing neurology (or not)  Having doctors in the family  Raising boys  Getting in the ring  “What else should I be doing?”  Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    In the right place at the right time

  4. Jun 16

    All the world’s a stage

    In this episode recorded in Maastricht during ESOC 2026, Italian neurologist Professor Danilo Toni reflects on three decades of stroke care transformation in Italy. He describes a flourishing relationship between Angels and the Italian Stroke Association (of which he is a past president), the genius of the data activation program MonitorISA, and the Trojan Horse strategy that paved the way for the proliferation of stroke units in Italy.  He recalls his role in the ECASS trials that fundamentally transformed stroke care, and outlines the most urgent questions that remain unanswered.  A passionate actor who is currently playing King Lear in an offbeat amateur production, he shares his views on the benefits of being on stage:  “Thanks to theater, you can show your emotion without any limitation, without any judgment, not your personal judgment toward yourself, nor the one toward the others ... It’s the best thing I could do for myself. And I always say it is better than any benzodiazepine and any anti-anxiety treatment and antidepressant treatment. And I definitely suggest to everyone should do it.”    In this episode: First encounter with Angels  The genius of MonitorISA  Dramatic changes for stroke neurology in Italy  Benefits of stroke unit care  A Trojan Horse strategy  Becoming a doctor and choosing neurology  The focus on ICH  Past trials and urgent unmet needs  The gratitude of patients and their families  The benefits of theatre  Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    All the world’s a stage

  5. May 5

    A decade of Angels 

    The Angels Initiative is 10 years old. In a special birthday edition of the Angels Stroke Heroes podcast, we talk to project lead and cofounder Jan van der Merwe about a decade of Angels, the organization he and Thomas Fischer brought to life in May 2016.   Ten years later, the Angels Initiative has reached every goal, and exceeded every target.   It is estimated that more than 50 million stroke patients will receive evidence-based care in Angels hospitals by 2030.  With over 300,000 registered users on the Angels website, it is the world’s largest stroke community, a truly global movement that spans multiple continents including Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Over 200,000 courses have been completed in our online learning platform, the Angels Academy. World-wide, more than 9,000 hospitals and 1,000 prehospital teams have met the standard for hospital and EMS awards.   The target of 1,500 hospitals by December 2019 was reached in 2018, and the number of registered Angels hospitals now exceeds 10,000. The Angels-supported schools-based awareness program, FAST Heroes, has reached more than one million children and two million grandparents. And the strategy to convert 1000 Angels Regions by December 2027 overshot its target earlier this year.  We asked Jan about the tragic event that became a trigger for an extraordinary intervention in stroke care, about the strategic model that underpins the organization, and about doing things for the right reasons.   In this episode:   God’s plan & doing things for the right reasons  The devastating moment that led to the launch of Angels  A multi-platform behavior change strategy  Insights about complexity and time  The real meaning of awards  The power of communities  A shocking experience that further shaped his understanding of the mission  ‘They need not wait to see what others do’  The next 10 years  Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    A decade of Angels 

  6. Mar 31

    ICH care bundle – a call to action

    Evidence that a combination of actions performed together can reduce death and disability in intracerebral haemorrhagic stroke (ICH) was a call to action for the Angels Initiative to devise a set of tools that supports and standardizes implementation.     That task fell to Madeline Bucher and Ines Carvalho who, in this episode of the Angels Stroke Heroes podcast, join us to tell the story of designing a checklist for change.    Intracerebral haemorrhage is the most serious and least treatable form of stroke. And while the past three to four decades saw great strides in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke, the fate of ICH patients remained largely unchanged, until the conclusion of studies such as the INTERACT3 clinical research project in 2023. INTERACT3 showed that timely administration of a care bundle that included lowering of systolic blood pressure, strict glucose control, treatment of fever, and rapid reversal of anticoagulation led to less disability, lower rates of death, and better overall quality of life.     During ESOC 2025, INTERACT3 lead investigator and WSO president-elect Prof Craig Anderson made the case for the care bundle in a panel discussion with Professors Pachi Moniche and Robert Mikulik that was initiated and recorded by Angels.     This discussion was the starting point for Madeline and Inês after they accepted a brief to create standardized tools to support the implementation of the ICH care bundle in hospitals.    In this episode  A call to action  What was in the brief  A multi-platform strategy  Scripting the critical moves  Ask the experts  The five platforms in action  More science, please  Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    ICH care bundle – a call to action

  7. Mar 30

    Dr Sheila believes in you

    Prof Sheila Martins is founder and president of the Brazilian Stroke Network, Neurology Professor at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Coordinator of the Stroke Programme at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, and Chief of Neurology and Neurosurgery Service at Hospital Moinhos de Vento (a private hospital affiliated to Johns Hopkins Institute).   In 2008, as advisor of the Ministry of Health, she started the organisation of the National Stroke Programme and has since dedicated herself to developing policy, building stroke units, and organising stroke systems not only in Brazil but around the world.  She launched a WSO certification campaign for stroke centers in Latin America in 2021, expanding it to other developing counties after she assumed the WSO presidency in 2022.  Prof Sheila is admired and adored by a generation of young stroke doctors whom she inspires and influences to change stroke care in their own hospitals and countries.   In this episode of the Angels Stroke Heroes podcast, she talks about the importance of taking opportunities when they’re offered, about changing her mind about becoming an engineer, and about what drives her to continue working around the world to change outcomes for stroke patients.    In this episode   Inspiring young doctors in Latin America  The importance of hearing ‘you can do it’  The opportunity that changed everything  Not becoming an engineer  The beauty of changing patient outcomes  Making a difference in the world  Working with the World Stroke Organization  The love of dance, cinema and friends  Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    Dr Sheila believes in you

  8. Feb 17

    The pursuit of unanswered questions

    In this episode we talk to Swiss neurologist Urs Fischer, who is the Director and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland, president of the Swiss Neurological Society, and president-elect of the European Stroke Organization.   He is also cofounder of the ESO ESMINT ESNR Stroke Winter School, and the Asian Stroke School, and actively involved in the European Stroke Master Program in Bern.  What he really likes about these programs, is “the snowball effect.”, he says. “You have to reach the right people who then go home and motivate their colleagues to improve the stroke care in their hospital.”  His interests have always straddled the human and natural sciences, Urs says of his decision to become a neurologist. “The brain is the interface between these two worlds and neurology is the perfect match.”  He’s also a prominent clinical scientist who has described himself as being infected by the “trial virus”, constantly seeking to answer the next unanswered question about managing acute stroke.  In this episode:  ·      His vision for the European Stroke Organization ·      Starting the Stroke Winter School ·      The Stroke Master Program success story ·      Staying connected and building communities ·      Being infected by the “trial virus” ·      Becoming a neurologist/stroke physician ·      The importance of playing the cello  Find out more about the Angels Initiative: www.angels-initiative.com

    The pursuit of unanswered questions
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The Angels Stroke Heroes podcast series features individuals who inspire the global stroke community with their courage, vision, leadership, and hard work.

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