Gillian Mead, Professor of Stroke and Elderly Care Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, is an international authority in stroke and elderly care medicine. As President of the British and Irish Association of Stroke physicians committee, she led its response to the war in Ukraine and established a new executive lead post in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Her research focuses on disability, physical inactivity and fatigue after stroke. She has demonstrated multiple benefits of fitness training post-stroke and identified new targets for post-stroke fatigue treatment. She showed that fluoxetine given early after stroke reduced post-stroke depression, had no impact on disability and increased fracture risk. Her research in palliative care after severe stroke is of high relevance given the case fatality of one-third after stroke and her research is included in multiple guidelines.