Building Assessment of Current Status of Stroke Rehabilitation Based-on WHO STARS Framework

There are over 12.2 million new strokes each year. Globally, one in four people over age 25 will have a stroke in their lifetime. Tremendous progress has been made in managing stroke in the hyperacute phase with intravenous thrombolytics and mechanical thrombectomy, and stroke remains the leading cause of severe disability. The need for rehabilitation for stroke survivors is substantial for the foreseeable future. Neuroscientific evidence for rehabilitation demonstrated the importance of early rehabilitation with high doses. However, the practice of rehabilitation for stroke survivors is vastly different due to policy for healthcare coverage, infrastructure for rehabilitation, human resources of rehabilitation, awareness of rehabilitation services, and more. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched ‘Rehabilitation 2030’ in 2017 to highlight the unmet need for rehabilitation. As a part of this effort, The WHO developed the Systematic Assessment of Rehabilitation Situation (STARS), a health system assessment to evaluate the existing rehabilitation services in a standardized manner. This course will offer the perspective of the health systems science for stroke rehabilitation in various countries.