Stories

A 10-year follow-up study on the heart health of Pacific people in Canterbury will generate valuable insights into how risk factors change over time and identify strategies for preventing and managing heart disease.

Cardiothoracic surgeon and researcher Mr Nishith Patel has been awarded the 2023 Foundation100 Fellowship from the Heart Foundation. During the tenure of the fellowship, Nishith plans to better understand a life-threatening condition known as aortic dissection, which is believed to be more common in New Zealand compared to other countries.

The progress made with heart disease over the past 50 years in New Zealand appears to be coming to an end, as the decline in heart disease plateaus for the first time in decades. Three researchers have been awarded funding by the Heart Foundation to investigate the impact of food…

Heart Foundation funding for a new tissue culture system will allow researchers to study beating human heart samples in the laboratory. The system will be used to investigate the underlying mechanisms of heart disease and safely test the effects of drugs on the human heart.

Heart Foundation-funded research is investigating the role of oxytocin in leading to chronic heart failure after a heart attack and also studying the potential of an oxytocin blocker to prevent heart damage.

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.