Dr Joseph Kwan Consultant in stroke and neurosciences

Background

Dr Joseph Kwan a senior consultant specialist with over 26 years of experience in hyperacute stroke, stroke rehabilitation and prevention, on a background of general internal medicine and gerontology specialist (residency) training in the UK. He qualified from UK & USA: Bristol (MB ChB 1994), Southampton (MPhil 2000), Edinburgh (MD 2002), UCL at Queens Square (PG Certificate in Clinical Neurology with distinction 2006), Cornell (Plant-based Nutrition 2015) and UCSF (Dementia Scholarship 2015).

Dr Kwan previously worked as a stroke consultant and then head of department in Bournemouth (2006-13), medical director for regional stroke network (2008-12) and honorary professor in medicine at Bournemouth University (2009-18). He then worked at the University of Hong Kong as a clinical associate professor in geriatric medicine & dementia (2013-2018) before returning to Imperial College London. 

Dr Kwan is a senior consultant at the Imperial Stroke Centre, Charing Cross Hospital, London, where he is the director of the Imperial Stroke Education Programme, clinical lead for SSNAP & Quality of Care, and the NIHR Clinical Research Network co-lead for stroke in NW London.

As a clinical academic at Imperial College London, Dr Kwan is active in medical research, education, and professional training. He has published over 140 scientific articles, book chapters and research theses, and won several major awards. He provides specialist stroke advice to the UK Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman for complex stroke complaint cases. He is also a PACES examiner for the Royal College of Physicians UK, and serve on the BIASP Clinical Standard Committee and two European Stroke Organization Committees.

Dr Joseph Kwan is a professional Member / Fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA), American Stroke Association (ASA), European Stroke Organization (ESO), British & Irish Association of Stroke Physicians (BIASP), British Geriatrics Society (BGS), British Society of Physical & Rehabilitation Medicine (BSPRM), Royal College of Physicians (RCP), Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH), World Stroke Organization (WSO), Hong Kong College of Physicians (HKCP), Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (HKAM).

Outside of work, my passion is nutrition and physical fitness, and my charitable work is with Chelsea Football Club Foundation to improve the brain health of the public, preventing TIA, stroke and dementia.

 

My Imperial College London profile is https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/joseph.kwan and Google Scholar profile is https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=lW5sV1cAAAAJ

Expertise

Stroke, dementia

Research & publications

1. Raha O, Hall C, Malik A, D'Anna L, Lobotesis K, Kwan J, Banerjee S. Advances in mechanical thrombectomy for acute ischaemic stroke. BMJ Med. 2023;2:e000407.  https://doi: 10.1136/bmjmed-2022-000407

2. Kwan J, Hafdi M, Chiang LLW, Myint PK, Wong LS, Quinn TJ. Antithrombotic therapy to prevent cognitive decline in people with small vessel disease on neuroimaging but without dementia. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2022, Issue 7. Art No: CD012269. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012269.pub2

3. Malik A, Drumm B, D'Anna L, Brooks I, Low B, Raha O, Shabbir K, Vittay O, Kwan J, Brown Z, Halse O, Jamil S, Kalladka D, Venter M, Jenkins H, Rane N, Singh A, Patel M, Hall C, Fatania G, Roi D, Lobotesis K, Banerjee S. Mechanical thrombectomy in acute basilar artery stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMC Neurol. 2022;22:415. https://doi:10.1186/s12883-022-02953-2

4. Cheung EYW, Chau ACM, Shea Y-F, Chiu PKC, Kwan JSK, Mak HKF. Level of amyloid-β (Aβ) binding leading to differential effects on resting state functional connectivity in major brain networks. Biomedicines. 2022;10:2321. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10092321

5. Chang RS, Leung WC, Vassallo M, Sykes L, Battersby Wood E, Kwan J. Antiepileptic drugs for the primary and secondary prevention of seizures after stroke. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2002, Issue 2, CD005398. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD005398.pub4

6. Wong CK, Huang D, Zhou M, Hai J, Yue WS, Li WH, Yin LX, Zuo ML, Feng YQ, Tan N, Chen JY, Kwan J, Siu CW. Antithrombotic therapy and the risk of new-onset dementia in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2002;98:98-103. https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-137916

7. D’Anna L, Ellis N, Bentley P, Brown Z, Halse O, Jamil S, Jenkins H, Malik A, Kalladka D, Kwan J, Venter M, Banerjee S. Delivering telemedicine consultations for patients with transient ischaemic attack during the COVID-19 pandemic in a comprehensive tertiary stroke centre in the United Kingdom. Eur J Neurol, 2021;28:3456-3460. https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.14750

8. Nogueira RG, Qureshi MM, Abdalkader M, et al. SVIN COVID-19 Global Stroke Registry. Global impact of COVID-19 on stroke care and IV thrombolysis. Neurology 2021;96(23), e2824–e2838. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000011885

9. Kwan J, Brown M, Bentley P, Brown Z, D'Anna L, Hall C, Halse O, Jamil S, Jenkins H, Kalladka D, Patel M, Rane N, Singh A, Taylor E, Venter M, Lobotesis K, Banerjee S. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on a regional stroke thrombectomy service in the United Kingdom. Cerebrovascular diseases 2021;50(2):178–184. https://doi.org/10.1159/000512603

10. Cheung EYW, Shea YF, Chiu PKC, Kwan JSK, Mak HKF. Diagnostic efficacy of voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity in vascular dementia as compared to Alzheimer’s related neurodegenerative diseases—a resting state fMRI study. Life 2021;11:1108. https://doi.org/10.3390/life11101108

11. Bao YW, Chau ACM, Chiu PK, Shea YF, Kwan JSK, Chan FHW, Mak HK. Heterogeneity of amyloid binding in cognitively impaired patients consecutively recruited from a memory clinic: evaluating the utility of quantitative 18f-Flutemetamol PET-CT in discrimination of mild cognitive impairment from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. J Alzheimers Dis. 2021;79(2):819-832. https://doi:10.3233/JAD-200890

12. D’Anna L, Ellis N, Bentley P, Brown Z, Halse O, Jamil S, Jenkins H, Malik A, Kalladka D, Venter M, Kwan J, Banerjee S. Impact of national lockdown on the hyperacute stroke care and rapid transient ischaemic attack outpatient service in a comprehensive tertiary stroke centre during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in neurology, 2021;12:627493.

    https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.627493