Overseas training fast tracks progress

Published: 25 June 2026

The Heart Foundation’s investment in overseas training for New Zealand cardiologists has helped save thousands of lives. Over more than five decades, we've awarded multiple research and training grants that have brought back world‑class expertise to improve heart care in New Zealand.

Over the past 50 years or so, the Heart Foundation has awarded more than 115 overseas fellowships to early-career cardiologists. As a result, valuable learning from teams at internationally respected hospitals has dramatically improved how we treat heart disease in New Zealand.  

In 1967, inaugural recipient Dr Robin Norris helped set up the first coronary care unit in New Zealand at Green Lane Hospital. He then travelled to London’s Hammersmith Hospital, where he gained critical experience treating heart attacks. Upon his return to New Zealand, he continued to pioneer coronary care. 

Dr Chris Nunn benefited from a Heart Foundation Overseas Training Fellowship over 30 years ago. Training at the University of Florida, he worked on early primary angioplasty trials for heart attack patients. The process involved using a balloon catheter to unblock arteries. 

Following his training, Dr Nunn established a ground-breaking interventional angioplasty programme in New Zealand. As a result, the procedure has saved countless New Zealand lives since. 

“Before then, if you had a heart attack, you received drugs to dissolve blood clots, and then you crossed your fingers,” says Dr Nunn. 

“Today, the sort of interventions that can be applied to save lives are much more sophisticated and the chances of survival are far greater.” 

Waikato-based Dr Sanjeevan Pasupati received an overseas training fellowship in Vancouver in 2015. While there, he learnt how to replace heart valves using a procedure via the groin, instead of major open-heart surgery.  

“The experience he gained was significant and it is now considered a game-changing procedure in our public health system,” says Dr Gerry Devlin, Heart Foundation Medical Director. 

Dr Libby Curtis, a registrar at Auckland City Hospital, was awarded a year-long training and research fellowship, funded by a Heart Foundation Benjamin Fellowship in 2023 at Rennes University Hospital in France. There she gained experience in a leading European hospital specialising in cardiac imaging. 

At the end of her fellowship, Libby returned to New Zealand to take up a consultant cardiologist position at Hawke’s Bay Hospital. The region has a family connection for her, as her grandfather was also a cardiologist in Hawke’s Bay many years ago. 

Dr Allan Plant received practical training in a bold new heart rhythm treatment method.  

A 2023 Heart Foundation Benjamin Fellowship recipient, Dr Plant spent a year at world-renowned French university hospital investigating a new strategy for atrial fibrillation (AF). CHU Haut Leveque is regarded as one of the leading centres worldwide for the management of AF.  

Today, he works as a cardiologist at Tauranga Hospital. 

Dr Devlin says sending early-career cardiologists overseas to learn from the best in the world is a vital part of the Heart Foundation’s research funding. 

“New Zealand has an excellent international reputation, and some of the most prestigious training programmes welcome our doctors. 

“I’m pleased that through the support of our donors we can support people to take up opportunities at renowned clinical training and research centres around the world. I know that the expertise they bring home with them greatly benefits New Zealanders.”