Stroke: Your Recovery Is Research Data

Every figure in this guide comes from a published source, linked where it appears and kept in CureCircle's evidence base with the source's own words. It is not medical advice. Read on 7 November 2026.

A stroke takes minutes; recovery takes months and years. What comes back, how fast, with which therapy, and what life looks like a year later differs hugely from one person to the next. Hospital records cover the first days well. The long road after, physiotherapy at home, speech coming back, returning to work or not, the role of a partner or a child as carer, is mostly recorded only in the memories of the people who lived it. That is the part research on stroke recovery needs most.

How many people it affects

According to the WHO, "in 2021, stroke was the third leading cause of death and disability globally, with an estimated 93.8 million cases", and "in 2021, there were 11.9 million new cases of stroke".

The records worth keeping

NICE's guideline on stroke and TIA describes the tests that leave records in the first hours and days:

• A brain scan: NICE says to perform scanning as soon as possible and within 24 hours of symptom onset. The CT or MRI report describes the type and place of the stroke.
• Carotid imaging for people who may need surgery on the neck arteries, urgent carotid imaging.
• An MRI after a mini-stroke (TIA), to determine the territory of ischaemia.
• Blood glucose readings during the admission, kept between 4 and 11 mmol/litre.

The discharge summary is often the single most useful document: it lists the scans, the diagnosis and the plan. Therapy notes, a rehabilitation diary and steps or activity data from a phone or watch show the recovery that followed. If you do not have them, ask the hospital for a copy.

What sharing it is worth

CureCircle values every contribution with a public benchmark built from what health data has sold for. A complete stroke story with the records the guideline lists comes to about $70 per licence on the benchmark today. With 90 days of activity data from a phone or wearable during recovery, it comes to about $200 per licence. Every line and its source is on the stroke page.

A licence is not a one-off sale: the same de-identified story can be licensed to several research teams, and you earn a share each time.

Stroke survivors are also paid for their time directly: a published listing offered heart attack and stroke patients $120 for a 30 to 60-minute phone interview.

For carers

After a stroke, a partner, a son or a daughter often becomes the one who knows the whole story, especially when speech or memory was affected. You can share the story of the person you care for, as their legal representative or with their permission. The questions are then asked about them, and the record notes that a carer told it.

Start your story, or read what your health data is worth first.