Low-dose aspirin as a treatment for strokes
Working as a doctor at a time when brain imaging and clinical epidemiology were emerging, Netherlands-based Professor Jan van Gijn developed an early interest in stroke and the potential for low-dose aspirin as an effective treatment. He went on to set up the three-year Dutch national TIA clinical trial which demonstrated that a daily 30mg dose of aspirin is as effective as 300mg for preventing clots, changing practice globally. In conversation with health journalist Pennie Taylor, the IAF Senior Science Award 2020 recipient describes how it took diplomatic skill and painstaking science to persuade the clinical community to believe his results.