ProfessorJulie Redfern

Project Opportunities

Title: Solving the long-standing evidence-practice gap associated with cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (SOLVE-CHD)

Summary of opportunity:

SOLVE-CHD a 5-year NHMRC Synergy Grant and is about solving the long-standing evidence-practice gap associated with cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention of heart disease. It is a multidisciplinary team effort and the overall goal of the grant is to transform post-hospital secondary prevention and reduce the burden of heart disease by decreasing death, hospitalisation and costs via a program of work that integrates data, technology, partnerships and capacity building.

There are opportunities for exciting and challenging projects available for HDR students, including PhD scholarships with stipend $32K for up to three years.  Some of topics including (but not limited to):

·         Practice change amongst cardiac rehabilitation providers – barriers, enablers and learnings aiming to support patient level electronic record collection

• Potential and evaluation of data-driven quality improvement in sustained management of CHD and cardiac rehabilitation
• Evaluation of service and patient level data to improve reach and equity in sustained managed of CHD
• Virtual reality advice from future self in secondary prevention, and
• Expanding peer support in secondary prevention

Opportunity synopsis:

Most heart disease secondary prevention programs today continue to follow a model established 50 years ago despite fundamental changes in society and medical care. That is, most patients now survive an initial myocardial infarction (MI), have a short stay in-hospital and are discharged with minimal physical morbidity. Evidence demonstrates that with good secondary prevention, many productive life years could be expected for these patients. However, in Australia today, after hospitalisation for MI, 40% of patients are readmitted and almost 20% are dead within 3 years. Traditional cardiac rehabilitation programs have been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality and are indicated in guidelines. Yet, most patients never start these programs and less than 10% of those eligible complete them. Therefore, improving delivery of secondary prevention is a national and international priority. The challenge is complex and requires a multidimensional solution. SOLVE-CHD’s vision is to deliver the solution. Our goal is to modernise post-discharge secondary prevention and reduce the burden of heart disease by decreasing deaths, hospitalisations and costs via a program of work that integrates data, technology, partnerships and capacity building.

SOLVE-CHD is a program of interlinked research that will change practice, advance knowledge and provide better care to underserviced populations. At an individual level, we will develop technology-based interventions and evaluate their impact on uptake, outcomes and cost. At a health services level, we will implement an electronic data-collection and reporting platform for cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention services and evaluate it’s impact on care quality and outcomes. At population level, we will identify and scale-up the most promising interventions, beyond traditional rehabilitation constructs, to tackle the challenges of reach, distance and diversity.

----------Current Research Projects----------

1. MRFF Clinician-Researchers,Adoption, impact and sustainability of evidence-based practice into health care: Co-design and evaluation of projects, systems and processes.
2. MRFF Cardiovascular Health Mission. Identifying and addressing barriers and enablers to implementing best-practice cardiac rehabilitation: the Quality Improvement in Cardiac Rehabilitation (QUICR) Cluster- Randomised Controlled Trial.
3. World Cancer Research Fund. Bridging the gap in physical activity and diet support for breast cancer survivors: a randomised controlled trial in primary care.
4. NSW Health Clinician Researcher peer support project.
5. MRFF CVD Grant, Heart2Heart RCT for Peer Support in CVD
6. NHMRC Synergy Grant [GNT1182301]. Solving the long-standing evidence-practice gap associated with cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (SOLVE-CHD). $5,000,000 (2020-2024).
7. National Heart Foundation Secondary Prevention Stragic Grant: Seconday Prevention for All in Need (SPAN), $1,000,000
8. NHMRC Partnership Grant [GNT1168950]. FirstCPR - Improving health outcomes for people suffering out of hospital cardiac arrest, $1,469,341.20 (2020-2023).
9. NHMRC Partnership grant [GNT1140807]. QUality improvement in primary care to prevent hospitalisations and improve Effectiveness and efficiency of care for people Living with heart disease (QUEL). $828,305 (2017-2021).
10. TEXTCARE Scale-up. Google Impact Challenge, Australia, $750,000 (plus $200,000 in-kind), 2017-2019.
11. Endometriosis Australia Research Grant ($27,094). Co-designing a lifestyle-focused and supportive text message intervention for those or people with endometriosis: ENDOTEXT-ME. Endometriosis Australia (2021)
12. NHMRC Partnership Grant APP2005790. Partnership for precision prevention in CAD (PPP-CAD)($1,413,166)
13. Sydney Informatics Hub Support program Herpes Zoster and CVD research project
14. Texting for Wellness � Breast Cancer and COPD automated support
15. Scoping the potential of research using simulation and digital twins.
16. Hungry for Science - a community outreach program for high school students
17. TEXTBITES: a research study aiming to help teens lead a healthier and happier lifestyle
18. What�s for dinner? Evaluating the nutritional quality of foods associated with the emerging trend of online food delivery services.�
19. NHMRC Project Grant [APP1147430]. Sex disparities in management of myocardial infarction, $615,585 (2018-2021).
20. NHMRC Special Call Grant. A randomised controlled trial of a Team Approach 70 Polypharmacy Evaluation and Reduction for General Practice patients with dementia: the Australian TAPERdem study[APP1139616], $586,840,2017-2020.