'Father' of stroke prevention comes to Vietnam

On the afternoon of December 3, Professor Valery Feigin, 70 years old, came to Hanoi as a speaker at the "Science for Life" seminar held on December 5. He is the director of the National Institute of Stroke and Applied Neuroscience (NISAN) at Auckland University of Technology, the only research institute specializing in the epidemiology and prevention of neurological disorders in New Zealand.

Professor Valery Feigin is the author of one of the world's largest studies on stroke, heart disease, diabetes and dementia using the "Stroke Riskometer" app. The app, developed in 2014, allows users to assess their personal stroke risk on their smartphone or tablet, and assess lifestyle factors to prevent stroke, heart disease and dementia. When viewed in aggregate, the data can provide unprecedented insights into some of the world's most common infectious diseases.

Coming to Vietnam this time, Professor Valery Feigin said he will share the initiative that he and his research team have implemented over the past 10 years on using health data systems to predict stroke risk as well as the latest evidence on its effectiveness.

Professor Feigin began his career as a neuroscientist but shifted his focus to research after a stroke took his father's life.

Professor Feigin’s father, Lev, seemed to have few obvious risks. “He was relatively young, 50, generally healthy, just a little overweight. He smoked, and the most important risk factor was high blood pressure.” Back then, half a century ago, the world had no solution for preventing strokes, even though they were a deadly disease.

Professor Feigin helped change that, winning numerous awards for his stroke research that began after his father's death. Over four decades, Professor Feigin and his colleagues' research helped establish stroke as the second leading cause of death and disability in the world.

The free mobile app Stroke Riskometer that Professor Feigin's team developed provides the perfect interface for communicating health information about stroke, risk factors and how to control them.

According to Professor Feigin, 4 billion people in the world live on an income of $5.50/day. They do not have access to health care facilities, so the Stroke Riskometer can be a reliable source of information about stroke and its risks.

During his career, Professor Feigin has authored or co-authored more than 850 scholarly publications (including more than 440 journal articles, including 109 articles in The Lancet), 12 handbooks, 26 books, and 4 patents.

Professor Feigin's erudition in the fields of neuroscience and epidemiology is recognized worldwide. According to Web of Science, Valery Feigin is among the 1% most cited scientists in the world in all scientific fields in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022. From 2021 to 2022 alone, his citation rate was one every 15 minutes and increasing.