Prof Sheila Martins is founder and president of the Brazilian Stroke Network, Neurology Professor at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Coordinator of the Stroke Programme at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, and Chief of Neurology and Neurosurgery Service at Hospital Moinhos de Vento (a private hospital affiliated to Johns Hopkins Institute).  

In 2008, as advisor of the Ministry of Health, she started the organisation of the National Stroke Programme and has since dedicated herself to developing policy, building stroke units, and organising stroke systems not only in Brazil but around the world. 

She launched a WSO certification campaign for stroke centers in Latin America in 2021, expanding it to other developing counties after she assumed the WSO presidency in 2022. 

Prof Sheila is admired and adored by a generation of young stroke doctors whom she inspires and influences to change stroke care in their own hospitals and countries.  

In this episode of the Angels Stroke Heroes podcast, she talks about the importance of taking opportunities when they’re offered, about changing her mind about becoming an engineer, and about what drives her to continue working around the world to change outcomes for stroke patients. 

In this episode 

• Inspiring young doctors in Latin America 

• The importance of hearing ‘you can do it’ 

• The opportunity that changed everything 

• Not becoming an engineer 

• The beauty of changing patient outcomes 

• Making a difference in the world 

• Working with the World Stroke Organization 

• The love of dance, cinema and friends