World Federation for Interventional Stroke Treatment (WIST) Multispecialty Training Guidelines for Endovascular Stroke Intervention

Making endovascular stroke treatment possible: training to save brains (and lives)

“…The training requirements should be based on skills; medical specialty should be of no importance. Indeed, physicians of various specialities experienced in endovascular procedures have long demonstrated that they can gain additional knowledge and training to perform EST and be an extremely valuable part of this developing system [ 12 , 13 ]. The required time for diagnostic neuroradiology training is 12–24 months (on top of years of radiology training), and for interventional neuroradiology it is 12–30 months [ 14 – 23 ].…”

“…Embolization of arteriovenous malformations or spinal angiograms are not part of EST. The WIST guidelines [ 12 , 13 ] present an important evolution, encompassing an individualised approach to operator training. An interventionalist experienced in carotid stenting has already acquired an essential part of the skillset required for EST.…”

WIST guidelines: a global solution to increase interventional stroke treatment

“…An agreement was reached with the General Medical Council and the UK Royal College of Radiologists that experienced clinicians who are not interventional neuroradiologists could -and should -undertake training to equip them with the skills to undertake thrombectomy alone, based on pre-existing knowledge and skills (such as advanced intra-arterial catheter skills). By mapping out a training and credentialing pathway for interventionalists from varying backgrounds, WIST guidelines [4,5] finally provide a truly collaborative, competency-based, global solution for increasing the number of endovascular stroke treatments for eligible patients with acute ischaemic stroke [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The WIST training and credentialing strategy has already been effective in different healthcare systems across the world and, more recently, in Scotland, where safe and effective training according to WIST guidelines has been established.…”