Stories

New Zealand cardiologists are once again heading overseas to gain experience and skills at world-leading international hospitals, with the support of the Heart Foundation. Closed borders over the past few years interrupted travel but these training positions are now being keenly sought after again.

New research is investigating if some antidepressants affect blood cholesterol and blood clotting, which could inform treatments for people with both depression and heart disease.

Dr Pritika Narayan will investigate a striking pattern of premature heart disease across consecutive generations of selected families with ancestry linked to the Fiji Islands and explore a possible genetic cause, as part of a three-year research project and fellowship awarded by the Heart Foundation.

The Heart Foundation has awarded Wellington doctor Allan Plant an Overseas Training and Research Fellowship to work in France where he will learn the latest technology with the team who developed catheter ablation treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart rhythm problem.

Dr Sandra Hanchard, Research Fellow at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, has been awarded the Heart Foundation’s inaugural Pacific Research Fellowship.

The Heart Foundation’s ongoing investment in overseas training for New Zealand cardiologists has saved tens of thousands of lives.

A 2020 Heart Foundation-funded research project investigating a new treatment strategy for heart failure patients is showing exciting early results. Now we’re funding a new project to see if the same strategy could be used to prevent people going into heart failure in the first place.

The Heart Foundation has awarded its John Ormiston Fellowship to Dr Bernard Wong, who will spend a year at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong. There he will undertake research and clinical practice and learn up-to-the-minute intervention procedures, some of which are not yet available in New Zealand.

The Heart Foundation is co-funding research to see if a simpler test could be used to identify treatment strategies for people who’ve had a heart attack. If successful, some people will avoid transfer from regional hospitals for more invasive tests, and those requiring treatment such as stents will get it…

The Heart Foundation has granted researcher Dr Jichao Zhao a three-year fellowship to investigate ways that the latest modelling and digital simulation could be used to improve treatment for a common heart problem in New Zealand.

Future New Zealand heart transplant patients are set to benefit from a Heart Foundation training fellowship that will see a New Zealand doctor working at a leading Canadian Hospital.

Dr Nicola Scott has received a Heart Foundation research grant to investigate a newly discovered heart protein that could be used to treat a debilitating heart condition.