Rate My Professor Garcia Esperon

Conjoint Associate Professor Carlos Garcia-Esperon is a stroke neurologist and early career researcher in the University of Newcastle's School of Medicine and Public Health. He undertook neurology residency training at Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol in Spain from 2010 to 2014 and advanced training as a Neurologist at Kantonsspital Aarau in Switzerland from 2014 to 2015. Following a Stroke Fellowship at John Hunter Hospital in 2016-2017, he joined as Stroke Neurologist and Staff Specialist in Neurology in 2018. He progressed to Director of Hunter Stroke Services in 2020 and Director of Acute Stroke Services in 2023. In 2020, he completed his PhD at the University of Newcastle titled "Multimodal computed tomography: future applications in acute ischaemic stroke." Additional appointments include Visiting Medical Officer at Prince of Wales Hospital since 2020 and various conjoint lecturing roles at the University since 2019.

His research centers on brain and cardiac imaging, stroke recovery, health systems optimization including pre-hospital triage, and equitable access to acute stroke reperfusion therapies in rural and regional Australia via telestroke networks and multimodal CT perfusion. Involved in over 40 acute stroke clinical trials as co-investigator, he has published more than 100 journal articles, with key works including "Diagnostic Utility of Computed Tomography Perfusion in the Telestroke Setting" (Stroke, 2022), "Role of Computed Tomography Perfusion in Identification of Acute Lacunar Stroke Syndromes" (Stroke, 2021), "Endovascular thrombectomy for acute ischaemic stroke improves functional outcome in patients with large ischemic cores" (European Stroke Journal, 2022), and contributions to landmark trials like EXTEND-IA TNK (New England Journal of Medicine, 2018). He has attracted over $3 million in grants, leading initiatives such as "Changing the Stroke Prevention Paradigm: Hyperacute Cardiac CT for Stroke" ($450,000, 2025-2027). Awards include HMRI Early Career Researcher of the Year (2024), HMRI Foundation Research Team Excellence Award (2024), HNE Clinical and Health Service Research Fellowship (2020), and finalist in Discovery Griffith Award (2022). An emerging leader in CT perfusion imaging, he has presented at over 35 international workshops and conferences. His efforts spearheaded the Northern NSW Telestroke pilot, enabling the NSW Telestroke Network with over 5,000 consultations and 700 reperfusion therapies delivered statewide.