The NeuroVascular Research Foundation (NVRF), a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, was created in 2001. NVRF was established in order to demonstrate that endovascular therapies for emergency stroke treatment and stroke prevention improve patient outcomes. Online data collection engines (registries) are the means to accomplish this goal.
INSTOR (the INterventional Stroke Therapy Outcomes Registry) was the first registry created under the auspices of NVRF and is the first prospective interventional/endovascular stroke therapy registry in the world.
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J. J. (Buddy) Connors, M.D.

Dr. Buddy Connors founded the NeuroVascular Research Foundation (NVRF) in 2001. This foundation created and manages INSTOR (the INterventional Stroke Therapy Outcomes Registry), the first prospective interventional/endovascular stroke therapy registry. NVRF also created INTRASTOR, the first and only prospective clinical outcomes database for intracranial angioplasty and/or stenting.

Dr. Connors is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of Neurointerventional Surgery and served as president of the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS). He pioneered endovascular treatment of stroke as well as intracranial angioplasty and/or stenting (similar to the now-standard therapy for heart disease, coronary stenting) and authored the first textbook describing endovascular therapy of acute ischemic stroke, intracranial angioplasty, and carotid stenting (Interventional Neuroradiology: Strategy and Practical Techniques, Saunders, 1999). Dr Connors designed or recommended improvements to much of the equipment used in Neurointerventional Surgery and obtained the first patent for cerebral protection for carotid stenting.

In 2004, Dr. Connors founded the NeuroVascular Coalition (comprising the medical societies of Interventional Neuroradiology, Neurosurgery, Neurology, Interventional Radiology, and Diagnostic Neuroradiology) and was elected the coalition’s first co-chair. He was a member of the Scientific Oversight Committee of the American Stroke Association from 2005-2009 and was chairman of the Stroke Task Force and the FDA subcommittee of the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) from 2003 to 2008. He co-authored both national standards papers for Comprehensive Stroke Centers (the Brain Attack Coalition and the American Stroke Association) and is a principal author of the multinational, multidisciplinary writing group for endovascular stroke care quality assurance (in progress).

Currently, Dr. Connors co-directs the world’s premier training course for the emergency interventional/endovascular treatment of stroke (CLOTS, Dallas, TX, 2009-present. http://www.sirweb.org/meetings/CLOTS.shtml).

He is currently a professor of Radiology, Neurology, and Neurological Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, and chairman of the Tennessee Stroke Systems of Care.