Faculty

Dr. van Gaal received his medical degree from the University of Toronto. He completed his residency training in adult neurology at the University of Ottawa, followed by fellowship training in stroke neurology at the University of Calgary. He joined Vancouver Coastal Health and the Vancouver Stroke Program as a staff neurologist in 2017. He is currently enrolled in the Masters of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, with a supporting scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Dr. van Gaal has an interest in strategies for cost-effective assessment of patients with suspected stroke. He is currently organizing an observational study of emergency-department based CT angiography in the evaluation of suspected transient ischemic attack. He is also assisting with an observational study of the suitability of the Los Angeles Motor Scale for prehospital triage of suspected stroke.