Lessons Learned From the 2025 International Stroke Conference: Keith Churchwell, MD, FAHA, FACC, FACP

"Fast forward to 2025, and what was once science fiction in stroke care is now reality—it’s truly remarkable."

This year’s International Stroke Conference (ISC), held from February 5-7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California, marked a significant event in the field of cerebrovascular research and treatment. Overall, the conference attracted over 4500 attendees from more than 60 countries, including stroke neurologists, interventional radiologists, emergency medicine physicians, neurosurgeons, and researchers. Throughout the meeting, participants engaged with more than 1400 submitted abstracts covering a wide array of topics such as acute stroke management, prevention strategies, health systems improvement, and advancements in neuroimaging techniques.

ISC 2025 also featured over 10 late-breaking trials, focusing on areas like expanded time windows for thrombolysis, novel adjunctive therapies for thrombectomy, and enhanced post-stroke recovery protocols. While some of these trials were considered “negative” for their results, they will be critical in shaping the future of stroke care and research, Keith Churchwell, MD, FAHA, FACC, FACP, told NeurologyLive®.

Churchwell, president of the American Heart Association (AHA), sat down to discuss some of the main takeaways from the meeting, highlighting the exciting research and innovative ideas being brought to the table. In the discussion, he spoke on the progress made over the decades, emphasizing the contrast between the limited stroke treatments available earlier in his career and the remarkable innovations of today. Churchwell, who most recently served as president of Yale New Haven Hospital and associate clinical professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, provided comment on the global collaboration observed at the meeting, the buzz surrounding advances in acute stroke intervention, and the willingness of researchers to embrace negative study findings as essential stepping stones in stroke care.

Click here for more ISC 2025 coverage.