How to Unfasten the Spanish Stroke Belt? Andalusia Chooses Research

Andalusia in southern Spain, one of the largest regions in the European Union, has made a profound economic and social transformation that has led to establishment of a modern universal public health care system. However, due to its high stroke mortality rates, Andalusia is still known as the “Spanish Stroke Belt”. To fight these figures, successive initiatives culminated in the launch of the Andalusian Plan for Stroke Care, to be developed during the period of 2011 to 2014. In addition, involved professionals have hypothesized that clinical and experimental research may contribute to improving stroke care in our community. To that end, one of the leading institutes of biomedical research in Andalusia, the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS), has selected stroke as a flagship project in the region. Moreover, Seville, the capital of Andalusia, is now conducting a fusion process of its two largest hospitals, with the potential to generate a stroke alliance that will make it one of the main stroke hospitals in Europe (>2000 cases per year). It is anticipated that this will be an excellent platform to facilitate acute-phase clinical trials and speed the translation process from basic research in IBiS laboratories to the clinical setting. Furthermore, the recently created Andalusian Neurovascular Group is ready to develop prospective, collaborative, multicenter research projects that will evaluate interventions in areas of stroke care uncertainty. If we succeed in forging a link between research and health care quality, we may succeed in lowering the incidence of stroke and related mortality in the region in a short period of time.