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Researchers who have spent more than 40 years working to reduce the impact of stroke have won the Prime Minister's top science prize.
The team at the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neuroscience have developed digital tools for patients and doctors, including an app to help people estimate their stroke risk and learn how to reduce it.
Read more on the winnters of the Prime Minister's Science Prizes on Our Changing World.
Professor Valery Feigin at Auckland University of Technology, the team leader, told Morning Report stroke risk was "quite significant" even in people under 60.
New Zealand had an unexpectedly high level of stroke incidence overall - fourth highest in the OECD countries - particularly in Māori and Pacific people.
"They have two or three times greater risk of having a stroke compared to New Zealand Europeans and they have worse outcomes," Valery said.
The institute had recently completed a study showing the risk of stroke in New Zealand over the last decade had increased statistically significantly, particularly in young people - a trend found in studies overseas.
Everyone over 20 needed to know their risk of cardiovascular disease, the factors contributing to it and how to control those factors, Valery said, and the key in doing something about it was motivation.
The Stroke Riskometer was free and allowed people to monitor their success.
"We are focusing on lifestyle risk factors which are also common not only for cardiovascular disease and stroke but for all major non-communicable disorders.
The institute was also developing software for doctors, called PreventS-MD, based on the app.
Valery said the software was close to being rolled out in Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ Waitematā and then across New Zealand.
Dr Jonathan Tonkin from the University of Canterbury won the MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize, for his work developing new ways to forecast how biodiversity might respond to environmental threats so that it can be protected.
The Prime Minister's Science Communicator prize was won by Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu for her work on Covid-19, explaining the technical aspects of immunology, vaccines, the SARS-CoV-2 virus and infectious diseases.
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