Kennedy Lees

Biography

Kennedy Lees is Professor of Cerebrovascular Medicine at the University of Glasgow, UK, and was Director of the Acute Stroke Unit in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow from 1990-2015, before moving to the new South Glasgow (Queen Elizabeth) University Hospital. He has extensive experience with translational medicine in relation to stroke treatment. Recent research has concerned choice of outcome measures for stroke trials, the training of investigators in their use (such as the Rankin training programme) and the optimal analysis approaches. Professor Lees has helped coordinate multicentre stroke trials, including PROGRESS, ASSIST, MAST-E and CARESS, and acted as chief investigator for the GAIN-International, IMAGES and SAINT I trials. He leads the Virtual International Stroke Trial Archive (VISTA) group, chaired the SAINT and CHANT Trials’ Steering Committee, is a past chairman of the European Stroke Council and currently President of the European Stroke Organisation. He has chaired data monitoring committees for several acute stroke trials including ICTUS, DIAS, ASSIST, mRECT trials, ECASS 3 and NEST-3. He chairs the outcomes committees for several trials, eg NIH-funded CLEAR-3 & MISTIE-3 trials, EU-funded EuroHyp-1 & Precious trials, academically supported SITS-OPEN and cpmmercially sponsored CREGS studies. He is European associate Editor for Stroke. He is a member of the Executive Steering committee and UK Coordinator for the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke (SITS) collaboration, and contributed to pooled individual patient analysis of iv thrombolysis trials in stroke. From 2005-15 he was associate Director of the NIHR stroke research network, responsible for acute research and portfolio management. As President of the European Stroke Organisation, Professor Lees was chairman of the first ESO Conference, held in Glasgow in April 2015 and the second ESOC, planned for Barcelona in May 2016.

Research Interest

Research interests include acute neuroprotection, thrombolysis and thrombectomy for stroke; stroke trial design; and secondary prevention, including blood pressure manipulation and AF detection. *Research: Optimising outcome assessments for clinical practice and stroke trials. *Clinical Trials: VISTA and VICCTA, CLEAR III, EuroHYP-1, ECASS-4:EXTEND, MINOTAUR, Allopurinol and Intima-Media Thickness, RTEASE, FAST, SCOT.