Recent MRFF funding success

Congratulations to Professor Tom Marwick, Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health, for being awarded $991,198 in MRFF funding to enhance treatment response rates in people with heart failure.

Head of the Imaging Research Unit and Director of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Professor Tom Marwick, along with colleagues at The Alfred hospital and the Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health at the University of Melbourne, has been awarded $991,198 in MRFF funding to enhance treatment response rates in people with heart failure.

The funding will enable Professor Marwick and colleagues to undertake the AMEND-CRT Trial to ensure more patients benefit from this cardiac pacing treatment for heart failure. Some patients with heart failure have unco-ordinated contractions that cause the walls of the heart to contract at different times. The time delays that cause the underlying contraction problems are small (<100 milliseconds) but they can have a huge impact on the efficiency of the heart. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) ‘retunes’ the contraction of the heart so that it beats efficiently, and successful CRT can improve cardiac function and survival. However, although CRT is an accepted treatment option, the CRT selection process is currently inexact, with many patients – as many as 30-50% - failing to benefit.

This study seeks to show that an echocardiographic selection process may reduce the non-responder rate without limiting the selection of patients who will benefit. Echocardiography (cardiac ultrasound) is very suitable for this type of analysis because it obtains images at a very high temporal resolution – much higher than alternative imaging modalities. Professor Marwick has been working on this topic for about 20 years, using various types of technology to ensure the most efficient use of therapies.

This study, funded through the MRFF Clinical Trials Activity and International Clinical Trials Collaborations, brings together Professor Marwick’s imaging team at the Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health, with Professor Jon Kalman’s electrophysiology experts at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and other sites nationally, as well as colleagues in Europe.

Congratulations to the Prof Marwick and colleagues for their funding success, we are very excited to see their research and the impacts it has upon the community.

For more information on the Governments Clinical Trials Activity initiative please visit: https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/clinical-trials-activity-initiative