Recognize World Stroke Day with Rong LUO
Rong LUO joined The George Institute for Global Health at Peking University Health Science Center in early 2013. As the center coordinator at China International Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and the research coordinator at Primary Care and Population Health Program, she is currently working on a project proposal about stroke rehabilitation with Professor Lijing L. YAN.
On the special day of October 29, World Stroke Day, Rong would like to take this opportunity to share parts of her research on stroke and knowledge about actions and lifestyle behaviors that could avert the occurrence of stroke in response to the goals of this worldwide campaign.
"The fact is, globally, one in six people will have a stroke in their lifetime and stroke claims a life every six seconds, which also reflect the theme of this year’s World Stroke Campaign -- "1 in 6". It emphasizes how widespread stroke is. However, not many people are aware of it," Rong said.
"Stroke is the second leading cause of mortality and disability among adults worldwide, and the third leading cause of death in China. Rehabilitation is an effective treatment for stroke; however rehab services are far from adequate in China, especially in rural China."
Rong highlighted the importance of the role of caregivers. "Care givers are the conduits between the stroke community and the general public in correcting misinformation and providing useful information. Understanding this will lead us to find innovative, sustainable and efficient rehabilitation to improve physical function among disabled stroke patients in rural China. We believe that the novel approaches have important potential implications to not only the patients and caregivers, but also the care delivery system and health policy."
"On the other hand, stroke can be prevented, treated and managed in the long-term. Please join us to commit to six stroke challenges:
- Know your personal risk factors: high blood pressure, diabetes, and high blood cholesterol
- Be physically active and exercise regularly
- Maintain a healthy diet high in fruit and vegetable and low in salt to stay a healthy state and keep blood pressure low
- Limit alcohol consumption
- Avoid cigarette smoke and if you smoke, seek help to stop now
- Learn to recognize the warning signs of a stroke and how to take action
More info about World Stroke Day, please click here.
Learn more about Rong LUO at The George Institute for Global Health at Peking University Health Science Center
What is your job and what does it involve?
I’m the Research Coordinator of The George Institute for Global Health at Peking University Health Science Center, and my responsibilities include:
- Communication and administration tasks: coordinating and managing the research issues (such as maintaining stakeholder engagement, organizing research capacity trainings and workshops), and assist the Director to develop the regulations on research management (such as protocol/proposal review SOP, manuscript submission etc)and research information on funding application, fellowship, conferences, trainings and call for papers.
- Research tasks such as performing literature searches as requested, assisting the director in the preparation and submission of manuscripts and grant applications, especially on stroke and stroke rehabilitation, including the RECOVER trail.
I’m also the Center Coordinator of China International Center for Chronic Disease Prevention, Here are my responsibilities:
- Communicate with sponsors (NHLBI and UHG) and complete the tasks required, such as generating semi-yearly and annual progress reports, financial reports, operational plan and budget, project regulatory issues, etc.
- Communicate with 12 international and domestic partners and promote stakeholders engagement.
- Organize meetings (Annual Council Meeting, Steering Committee Meeting etc.), the capacity building trainings and team building activities et cetera.
How long have you been working at The George Institute/George Clinical?
11 months.
What attracted you to working at The George Institute/George Clinical?
The George Institute is a highly reputed and impacted research institute in the world. The institute focuses on public health and made great contributions on interventional and translational studies on chronic disease. During the 11 months, I have been attracted to the institute because of the democratic and humanized management, academic atmosphere and friendly interaction.
What inspires you in the work you do and why?
Public health was my major of master degree, and I had a dream that I could engage in health studies and projects which can help promote people’s health and improve their quality of life. Now my dream has come true because I'm here. I believe I can get improved quickly by working at the institute and make more contributions to public health in future.
What is your current research focus OR what are you currently working on?
Now I’m involved in grant application for a trial on stroke, it’s named: A randomized controlled trial on rehabilitation through caregiver-delivered nurse-organized service programs for disabled stroke patients in rural China (The RECOVER trial)
What impact will your work have on health and how OR what difference will this make to healthcare and why?
If it is efficient, the proposed research has important potential implications in several domains including research, patients and caregivers, care delivery system, and inequity in health and access to care.
What is your professional background?
I majored in public health and graduated from Ningxia Medical University in 2007. From 2007 to 2012, I worked at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention as a project officer. The experience of coordination, organization, project management, research design and implement were derived and improved during those five years.
To unwind at the end of the day...
I’d like to have a dinner with my families and do excises.
A saying I live by is...
"There's no such thing as a free lunch"
One day I hope to...
Travel the world and see more people’s life.
