Stroke care major focus at annual neuro symposium
In an effort to continue discussing some of the latest advancements and knowledge about topics in neurocare, Adventist Health is hosting its fourth annual Central Coast Neuroscience Symposium led by distinguished experts on Oct. 30.
The conference will deliver evidence-based updates to enhance stroke clinical knowledge — from triage, to surgery, endovascular therapy, bedside care, and more.
Maria Irthum, the Neuroscience, Stroke & Spine Coordinator for Adventist Health, told the Business Times that what helps their symposium stand out is that they attempt to pick a slightly different neuro topic every year.
The first year the symposium was held, the focus was on spine interventions; the second was on oncology and cranial tumors, and then the third year was neurocritical care and trauma.
This year’s focus is on the evidence-based review of the complexity of stroke care.
“Stroke care has always been on the potential agenda because both Sierra Vista and Twin Cities are primary stroke centers, as the other hospitals in our community are as well,” Irthum said.
She added that in May of this year, the hospitals relaunched their neurointerventional program.
“This means we have a neurointerventionalist who can go into the brain to retrieve ischemic clots and can also do middle meningeal artery embolizations for subdural hematomas, which is the new gold standard for that population, angiograms, spinal angiograms, and a few other different things,” Irthum said. “Another reason we picked stroke care this year was that we just introduced Dr. Kate Nam, a neurologist, into our AH practice here in San Luis Obispo, so it was a great year to focus on this topic.
The idea for the symposium comes from Irthum’s love of learning, as well as Sierra Vista and Twin Cities’ partnership with UC San Francisco’s Department of Neurosurgery.
She said that through that partnership, one of the goals was for UCSF to help the hospitals — then under the umbrella of Tenet Health — launch their brain and spine clinic by recruiting physiatrists to the community, which has been a success, Irthum said.
As the partnership continued, Irthum said one of her “dream goals” was to do an educational event.
“I’ve always been super passionate about education and ongoing competency, and so we just decided that we could partner with UCSF to do a neuroscience symposium every year, and that they would help with supplying us a keynote speaker,” she said. “Their keynotes are often involved in doing very cool things with research technology, pushing the edge in terms of contemporary practice, and so it’s really neat to have one of their speakers here because they’re usually doing like international-level research.”
This year’s keynote speaker is Ethan Winkler, a clinical professor at UCSF. Winkler is also a neurosurgeon who cares for both adult and pediatric patients, performing both open microsurgery (techniques using high magnification and very fine instruments) and minimally invasive procedures.
“The fact that we can provide really high-level education with speakers from other universities as well as providing a keynote speaker from UCSF at a very low price currently compared to what’s out there in the market, I think is incredible,” she said.
Adventist Health officially acquired Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and Twin Cities Community Hospital from Tenet Healthcare on March 29, 2024, in a $550 million transaction.
Irthum said that Adventist has been in full support of the event since the acquisition.
“I find they are more supportive than Tenet,” she said. “I would say they are equally passionate as I am about education and so when they met with me and my role and my responsibilities, they said that they would absolutely support this every year no matter what. They called it a priority.”
Irthum noted that the event is also growing, as in the first year it was mainly the company’s internal team attending. Now, she says, they are receiving RSVPs from not just across the state, but from across the country.
“That’s another area where Adventist helps. They have a great marketing network throughout and so we are getting registrations from places I have never even heard of,” she said with a laugh. “Everyone always says that it’s such a beautiful area to come visit.”
The event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 333 Madonna Rd in San Luis Obispo. Those interested in learning more should visit adventisthealth.org/central-coast/about-us/neuroscience-symposium.
email: [email protected]
