Stroke Disparities Program- Home

Did you know?

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the U.S.
Minority populations are at a higher risk for experiencing stroke and suffer worse outcomes.

How can the Stroke Disparities Program (SDP) change this?

The Stroke Disparities Program is a clinical research program run by Georgetown University and funded through the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke(NINDS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The program consists of three different projects, all aimed at reducing the impact of stroke in the medically underserved Washington, DC area.

ASPIRE - The ASPIRE Project is a multi-level stroke education and research program. Our goal is to find out what prevents people from recognizing stroke symptoms and receiving immediate treatment for stroke. African Americans are less likely to receive immediate treatment for stroke. In an effort to change this, we are interviewing people in the community, collecting information from all 7 DC hospitals and EMS in order to determine the barriers to stroke. What we have learned is helping us to develop a community stroke education program and provide solutions to assist the hospitals and EMS improve stroke treatment in DC.

PROTECT DC - The PROTECT DC Project is a secondary stroke prevention research program. Our goal is to prevent people who have had an ischemic stroke (a stroke where a blood vessel is blocked) from having another stroke. African Americans are more likely to have an ischemic stroke and don’t recover from stroke as well as other groups. We are trying to overcome this by providing participants with stroke navigators. Stroke navigators educate participants about their medications and things they can do to prevent a second stroke. They also connect participants to resources necessary for their recovery.

DECIPHER – The DECIPHER Project is an observational stroke research program . Our goal is to find out what increases the risk of an intracerebral hemorrhage (a stroke where a blood vessel bursts). African Americans are more likely to have an intracerebral hemorrhage and don't’ recover from stroke as well as other groups. In an effort to change this, we provide additional medical exams to people who have had an intracerebral hemorrhage. These exams are done so that we can see if there medical issues common to all participants. We can use this information to develop a way to screen people at risk for an intracerebral hemorrhage, learn more about intracerebral hemorrhage and improve treatment for this condition.