Tissa is a Professor in Neurology and clinical Associate Professor in Medicine, Western Health Clinical School, and University of Melbourne, Australia. Tissa has adjunct Professorial roles with a number of Universities (La Trobe University, Victoria University, Rajarata University Sri Lanka).
Professor Wijeratne is the Program Director of our Neurosciences & Musculoskeletal System research program.
He leads a successful stroke care program at Western Health where the team manages a large volume of stroke and TIA patients in western metropolitan Melbourne. He leads the World Brain Day program on behalf of World Federation of Neurology with enormous global impact in global brain health with well over 100 million people accessing the contents of World Brain Day campaign year after year.
Research Focus
Our group is interested in basic science, clinical and translational research with a particular interest in small blood vessel disease (brain, eye, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, muscles and bones) which nicely link neurosciences- musculoskeletal system and chronic diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, chronic renal disease, chronic heart failure, rheumatological disorders such as chronic osteoarthritis.
The Department of Neurology provides a range of neurological services (stroke, epilepsy, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy, headache medicine, neuromuscular junction disorders) at Western Health. On site (Footscray campus) there is also a Neurosurgery Unit.
The Department of Neurology has 25 Neurology and Stroke beds located on one floor of the hospital: Ward 3E, Sunshine Hospital. The ward includes an Acute Stroke Unit comprising four beds.
More than 2000 patients are admitted to the Neurology Unit annually making it one of the busiest units in Melbourne. More than 1000 stroke patients are admitted to our stroke service annually making our stroke service the busiest in Victoria.
Ambulant care facilities allow for treatment of patients who require regular infusions for chronic neurological disorders and provide for specialised diagnostic testing.
The Department provides a consultative service to all other units at Western Health (Sunshine campus and Footscray campus).
As one of the busiest clinical neurology services in Australia set up us to be at the fore front of translational research in collaboration with other bright minds at AIMSS as well collaborators within Western Health and other institutions.
According to Nature, Professor Tissa Wijeratne is one of the founders of World Brain Day. His research interests in brain health are wide. One interest is reperfusion therapies in Stroke. He is part of the Melbourne stroke research group and has published several landmark papers in NEJM and Lancet that changed how stroke is managed.
He also leads a research group in Melbourne, which was the first group in the world to demonstrate shared pathobiologies between stroke and COVID-19 associated brain involvement and as such, they coined the term Post Covid-19 Neurological Syndrome (PCNS).
Tissa’s work has also included the description of a novel prognostic index named Serial Systemic Immune Inflammatory Indices. The group is now exploring the potential ways to mitigate post-stroke Neurological Complications, which seem to share the same immune inflammatory pathomechanisms to PCNS. He thinks it will be fascinating 5-10 years ahead of us.
Professor Wijeratne Is one of the national and International pioneers In promoting better care for migraine ad went on to resurrect the Australia and New Zealand Headache Society (wrote the original constitution, designed the original website and the logo for the society In 2014) , established the Migraine Foundation International and Lance-Goadsby International symposium with high Impact on better care for migraine globally.
