Fellowships provide life-changing opportunities at a critical stage in early and mid career.
Dr Anna Pilbrow's Update
Inaugural Foundation100 Fellow, Dr Anna Pilbrow, who is now one year into her two-year fellowship, provides some highlights and an update on the progress of her research.
Anna’s project is investigating the use of DNA and genetics to identify people at risk of heart attacks and heart failure.
“It’s been great to see data generated as part of our research being used to support other heart health research in New Zealand.” - Dr Anna Pilbrow
Inaugural Foundation100 Fellowship
Senior Research Fellow Dr Anna Pilbrow has been awarded the Heart Foundation’s inaugural Foundation100 Fellowship.
Her two-year research project will investigate the use of DNA and genetics to identify people at risk of heart attacks and heart failure.
Two earlier examples of Heart Foundation Fellowships are Dr Chris Nunn who received his nearly 30 years ago and Jonathon White who received his 7 years ago.
Dr Chris Nunn
Breaking new ground in the early 1990s with balloons and stents.
Cardiologist Dr Chris Nunn says the Heart Foundation Fellowship he received many years ago enabled him to gain cutting-edge international experience that led to his role in establishing Waikato hospital’s interventional primary angioplasty (during an acute heart attack) programme.
As an Otago Medical School graduate in 1991, Dr Chris Nunn was awarded a Heart Foundation Overseas Training Fellowship. He trained at the University of Florida to study interventional cardiology – the use of balloons and metal tubes or stents to open blocked arteries – a technique which had only recently been invented.
"Many very experienced cardiologists in New Zealand have benefited from these Heart Foundation fellowships and are now recognised worldwide for their work." - Dr Chris Nunn
Dr Johnathon White
Jonathon's Heart Foundation fellowship took him to Columbia University Medical Centre which is an international leader in advanced structural heart interventions, particularly in transcatheter valve implantation.
After earning his medical degree from the University of Otago, Dr Jonathon White completed four years of subspecialty training before heading to New York in 2014 with a Heart Foundation Overseas Training Fellowship.
"My earlier training had focused on intervention in the coronary arteries, whereas the training in New York focused more on the valve and other types of structural heart interventions."
"Fellowships give physicians access to a very condensed and enriched clinical experience that could otherwise take years to develop." - Dr Jonathon White