The American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, has expanded its International Stroke Conference with five pre-conference symposia scheduled for February 3, 2026, in New Orleans ahead of the main conference from February 4-6. This expansion represents a significant investment in specialized knowledge sharing across multiple critical areas of stroke care and research, addressing both clinical practice and emerging scientific frontiers.
The State-of-the-Science Stroke Nursing Symposium will provide updates on nursing topics including prevention, management, rehabilitation, and program development, featuring presentations on the top 10 changes in the 2025 acute ischemic stroke guidelines impacting nursing, early palliative interventions, unifying stroke care, and connecting stroke survivors with healthcare systems. Simultaneously, the new Brain Health Pre-Con Symposium reflects the association's growing commitment to optimal brain function across the lifespan, exploring topics at the intersection of vascular neurology, cognitive neuroscience, aging, and public health, including the heart-brain connection, post-stroke cognitive and mental health problems, and the use of AI to improve brain health.
A particularly significant addition is the HEADS-UP symposium (Health Equity and Actionable Disparities in Stroke: Understanding and Problem-solving), a multidisciplinary scientific forum focusing on race-ethnic disparities in cerebrovascular disease. This collaborative initiative with the National Institutes for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) aims to reduce disparities in stroke and accelerate translation of research to improve outcomes for race-ethnic minorities in the US. Details are available in the Program Planner for the HEADS-UP Symposium.
The Stroke in Practice: Stroke Lagniappe symposium (formerly Stroke in the Real World) emphasizes the application of scientific advances in cerebrovascular disease to real-world settings, with this year's topic addressing challenges in acute stroke management. Complementing this practical focus, the Experimental Stroke Science symposium (formerly Stroke in the Lab World) highlights promising new laboratory developments and their potential effects on future stroke treatment, covering topics including intracerebral hemorrhage immunology, subarachnoid hemorrhage, leukocytes, intracerebral hemorrhage pathophysiology, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and intraventricular hemorrhages.
These developments occur against the backdrop of stroke becoming the fourth leading cause of death in the US, according to the American Heart Association's 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics. The expansion of pre-conference programming demonstrates the association's response to the growing complexity of stroke care and research needs. Media interested in attending can register through the association's media portal, while the organization emphasizes that statements and conclusions presented at its scientific meetings are solely those of study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy, with findings considered preliminary until published in peer-reviewed journals.
The association's financial transparency is noted, with more than 85% of revenue coming from sources other than corporations, including individual contributions, foundations, estates, investment earnings, and educational material sales. Corporate donations are governed by strict policies to prevent influence on science content and policy positions, with overall financial information available through the association's public resources. This expanded conference programming represents a strategic effort to address multiple dimensions of stroke care, from bedside nursing to laboratory research, while prioritizing health equity and practical application of scientific advances.
