Avin Tofiq

I am a doctoral student at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, researching stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases. My academic career began at Örebro University, where I completed a Licentiate degree in 2024. Since 2025, I have been building on it towards a PhD at KI. Alongside my research, I work clinically as a resident physician in neurology at Danderyd Hospital.

My research focuses on stroke and stroke care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of this has been gaining a better understanding of neurological symptoms and sequelae following COVID-19 infection, which was the subject of the first paper in my thesis. I also study how stroke incidence changed during the pandemic compared with the period before, and how stroke care in Sweden may have been affected. Finally, part of my research concerns the pathophysiological mechanisms behind cerebral small vessel disease, which causes a large proportion of all strokes.