The Australian Government, together with the National Heart Foundation, is announcing a further $12 million for research to improve treatment of people, including children, suffering cardiovascular disease and stroke.
This funding will be provided over four years, from the Medical Research Future Fund’s Cardiovascular Health Mission, to advance ground-breaking work on heart disease and stroke – the nation’s two biggest killers.
The National Stroke Foundation will receive $4 million for research into better diagnosis and treatment of children who suffer stroke, and The National Heart Foundation will receive $4 million from government, matched by $4 million from the Foundation itself, for research into four areas of clinical practice to improve identification and management of cardiovascular disease.
The National Stroke Foundation’s research aims to achieve a paradigm shift in acute stroke care for Australian children, greatly improving survival rates.
The Stroke Foundation will partner with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to design and implement a world-first national Paediatric Acute Code Stroke (PACS) protocol, using innovative decision support tools and advanced imaging technologies.
The project will also involve leading researchers from the areas of paediatric and adult stroke, emergency, haematology, neuroimaging, biostatistics, design science and health economics.
The National Heart Foundation’s research will target four key areas:
- better predicting a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease
- reducing the disease in cancer patients
- addressing poorer health outcomes for women with heart disease, and
- closing gaps in secondary prevention and cardiac rehabilitation.
These were identified as priority areas for research by Australians living with heart disease, consumers, researchers, clinicians and other stakeholders involved in heart health.
Further information on the MRFF is available on the Department of Health website.
