ABSTRACT NUMBER: ESOC2026OT50 EVALUATING ‘MY STROKE COMPANION’: A DUAL-SITE TRIAL OF A DIGITAL, PERSONALISED SUPPORT PACKAGE FOR STROKE SURVIVORS, CAREGIVERS AND CLINICIANS

Background and aims Recurrent stroke substantially increases disability, healthcare costs and caregiver burden. Despite advances in acute stroke care, post-discharge support for lifestyle modification and self-management remains limited. My Stroke Companion (MSC) is a clinician-personalised digital platform delivering tailored information about their stroke, care and life after stroke to stroke survivors and their families. Methods This trial evaluates whether MSC, delivered at discharge, improves self-management of risk behaviours compared with standard care, and explores usability, acceptability, and potential impact on service offering. Results A dual-site mixed-methods trial is recruiting 120 stroke survivors from UCLH (MSC intervention) and St George’s Hospital (control, standard care). UCLH participants are pseudo-randomly allocated to MSC alone or MSC plus engagement support from the stroke buddy team at 30- and 60-day intervals. Primary outcomes are lifestyle behaviours and self-management. Secondary outcomes include medication adherence, quality of life, mood, fatigue, system usability, engagement with MSC and participant satisfaction. Quantitative analyses employ Bayesian methods with propensity weighting to adjust for baseline confounders. Semi-structured interviews with stroke survivors, caregivers and clinicians will explore acceptability, barriers and facilitators. Conclusions The study will generate comparative data across multiple domains, offering insight into the efficacy of a digital support intervention. Qualitative findings will contextualise usability, engagement and equitable access, while platform usage metrics will be mapped against demographics to explore health inequalities. Conflict of interest