NASPAF-ICH

Ashkan Shoamanesh

Senior Scientist

Ashkan Shoamanesh is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Div. of Neurology) and a stroke neurologist at McMaster University, where he holds the Marta and Owen Boris Chair in Stroke Research and Care. He is the founding Director of the Hemorrhagic Stroke Research Program and a Senior Scientist at the Population Health Research Institute in Hamilton, Canada. Shoamanesh’s clinical trials program focuses on advancing treatment and establishing new standards of care to prevent stroke or reduce stroke-related death and disability. He is the principal investigator (PI) or Co-PI of multiple international multicentre randomized trials, including ENRICH-AF (NCT03950076; Lancet 2023), OCEANIC-STROKE (NCT05686070), SATURN-MRI (NCT03936361) and CoVasc-ICH (NCT05159219). He has also held central leadership roles in the ANNEXa-I (NEJM 2024), PACIFIC-STROKE (Lancet 2022) and NAVIGATE-ESUS (NEJM 2018) trials. Shoamanesh is the founding Chair of the Canadian Hemorrhagic Stroke Trials Initiative (CoHESIVE; www2.phri.ca/CoHESIVE) and was the lead author of the first Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations on the Management of Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Shoamanesh has published over 170 peer-reviewed manuscripts in top-tier scientific journals. He serves on the editorial boards of Stroke, the International Journal of Stroke, and the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences. He is an active contributor to international scientific meetings and previously co-chaired the World Stroke Congress (World Stroke Organization) and the World Intracranial Hemorrhage Conference.

His research program receives funding from several bodies, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Institutes of Health, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Brain Canada, the Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund, British Heart Foundation, and multiple industry partners. His contributions have been recognized with numerous accolades from international organizations, such as the American Academy of Neurology (Pessin Award), American Heart/Stroke Association (Globus Award, Siekert Award, Dudley White Award), American Neurological Association (Denny-Brown Award), European Stroke Organization (Young Investigator Award, Scientific Excellence Award), Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (National New  Investigator Award, Barnett Scholarship) and the World Stroke Organization (Future Leaders Program).

Ellison Themeles

Associate Program Manager

Ellison Themeles’ experience includes more than 20 years in the conduct, execution and management of large, international clinical trials involving both medical devices and pharmaceutical agents in the area of cardiovascular disease and arrhythmias.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Gerontology and Sociology, and a Master of Science Degree in Health Research Methodology, from McMaster University.

Jodi Miller

Project Manager

Jodi Miller has more than 15 years experience in academic research. She has been at PHRI since 2012 where she has coordinated large international industry and investigator initiated trials. In her current role she coordinates clinical trials and clinical quality assurance projects in stroke.

Jodi has a BSc in Physics from Mount Allison University and a PhD in Medical Biophysics with a focus on magnetic resonance imaging applications from Western University.