Alison Halliday

I am a Principal Investigator in the Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial (ACST-2), one of the world's largest clinical surgery trials, involving thousands of patients from 30 countries. Our group reported that prophylactic surgery removing tight carotid artery narrowing (carotid endarterectomy) prevents future fatal and disabling strokes for at least 10 years. This finding has changed worldwide surgical and stroke practice (Lancet 2004, 2010).

National Audit: Our group instigated and reported the UK Carotid Surgery Audit (2005-8), the largest National Audit of carotid surgery in the UK. This work highlighted shortcomings in the NHS process of referral and of carrying out prompt carotid artery surgery; we work with the National Stroke Strategy providing a driver for preventing stroke by improving surgical services (British Medical Journal, 2009).

Collaborative research; government-funded (NIHR): I work with the University of Oxford Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) evaluating two stroke prevention technologies in ACST-2, a large international trial comparing Carotid Endarterectomy with Carotid Artery Stenting. This work enables surgeons, stroke physicians, neurologists, cardiologists and interventional radiologists from many countries to work together.