Patrice (Patty) Lindsay, RN, PhD, has made outstanding contributions to stroke care in Ontario, Canada and globally.
Dr. Lindsay worked closely with Dr. Michael Hill through the Canadian Stroke Network (CNS) on the Canadian Stroke Strategy (CSS) — a partnership between CNS and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Patty has led and co-led the evaluation strategy and best practice guidelines development for CSS and was instrumental in improving stroke care across Canada. Most provinces now have a stroke strategy at the provincial government level, and good stroke care saves health-care dollars.
Collectively, major publications by Drs. Hill and Lindsay have and will change stroke care. These include comprehensive best practice guidelines for stroke care, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which span the breadth of stroke care from prevention to rehab and the breadth of stroke health-care providers. They also put together a major paper on the economics of stroke care in Canada (in Stroke), showing that simple interventions such as stroke unit care — a major nursing intervention — could save several billions of dollars. Patty has been instrumental in leading these efforts.
Patty has made and will make significant contributions globally. Through the World Stroke Organization, she is working to develop common stroke guidelines, to establish common administrative data definitions for stroke and to establish ICD-11 definitions of stroke. These initiatives will have long time-horizons for bearing fruit, but the work done now to harmonize global efforts in these areas, under her leadership, will be critical.