Stroke and its long-term consequences pose major challenges for the lives of those affected and healthcare systems. We study functional recovery of stroke patients beyond the discharge from neurorehabilitation to better understand the dynamics and underlying mechanisms of recovery from stroke. For this purpose, we have established the Interdisciplinary Platform for Rehabilitation Research and Innovative Care of Stroke Patients (IMPROVE). Based on this collaborative platform, we coordinate an observational, longitudinal, multicenter study of functional stroke recovery after patients’ discharge from inpatient rehabilitation in cooperation with five Neurological Rehabilitation Centers in Northern Germany.

In further scientific projects, we have addressed patterns and prediction of self-reported health-related quality of life after stroke using patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). Together with other neurological hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, and the BARMER insurance company, we are running a pilot study of optimized cross-sector post stroke care (StroCare), which receives funding from the German Innovation Fund.