Kevin Keenan, MD

Clinician Scientist Development Award in Interventional Neurology

What We Know:
Currently minimally invasive surgery to treat large artery strokes can only be done at special hospitals. The treatment is quite beneficial but also very time sensitive. Sometimes patients are not eligible for
treatment because it takes too long to transfer them from a hospital without the treatment to one with the treatment.

Our Plan to Help:
Dr. Keenan’s research is testing a new device that uses a technique called cranial accelerometry to predict which patients are having large artery strokes. Cranial accelerometry measures the tiny movements of our heads that happen because of the force of the blood flow from each heartbeat, which Dr. Keenan calls the HeadPulse. Early studies suggest that patients with large artery strokes have a different HeadPulse than patients with small artery strokes or no stroke at all. Dr. Keenan will be validating these findings in a large group of emergency room patients.

Predicting which patients are having large artery strokes early on, perhaps even someday in the ambulance, would be tremendously helpful to patients and doctors because we could use that information
to make sure that these patients are immediately sent to hospitals that can treat them.

How You Can Help:
Donate to the American Brain Foundation to support Dr. Keenan’s vital research that could save stroke patients’ lives by early detection, guaranteeing they receive the correct and immediate treatment.

Dr. Keenan is the recipient of the 2019 Clinician Scientist Development Award in Interventional Neurology funded by the American Brain Foundation and Society of Vascular & Interventional Neurology in collaboration with the American Academy of Neurology.