The current project addresses (1) the better, individual understanding of recovery and its underlying mechanisms by a multimodal, multi-domain, longitudinal evaluation of a large number of stroke patients, (2) the development of biomarkers usable in daily clinical life for stratification of patients towards precision medicine and (3) to apply first approaches of personalized neurotechnology-based neurorehabilitation. Such a project requires strong scientific and clinical expertise, up-to-date research equipment in close vicinity to large numbers of patients in the acute as well as in the subacute and chronic stage, requirements uniquely achieved in Sion. In summary, TiMeS will add to the better understanding of stroke and pave the way to novel, neurotechnology-based personalized treatment strategies.
In the global burden report, stroke has been described as the epidemic of the 21st century. This statement is based on the high incidence (e.g., 16.000 new patients/year in CH, 1.5 Million/year in Europe, 15 Millions/year in the world) with up to 20% of patients below 55 years. Despite current developments in stroke treatment, full recovery is still limited to 15-20%. This impacts daily life of the individual patients and their relatives and leads to significant cost for them and the society (29 Billion € in Europe). Remaining deficits of upper extremity function, especially hand function, is the main factor determining the re-integration into professional and social life, affecting independence and quality of life. Efforts in improving neuro-rehabilitative therapy remain unsatisfactory leaving still too many patients significantly impaired with a lack of independence and a need of continuous assistance from health care providers. What are the reasons for the still unsatisfactory recovery? Stroke is a heterogeneous disorder, there is insufficient understanding of the processes relevant for recovery, a lack of understanding of courses and degrees of recovery of the individual patients and an insufficient usage of the available rehabilitative treatment strategies (e.g., based on neuro-technologies), especially in the view of personalized, precision medicine. These facts lead to unsatisfactory treatment effects.
