Up to 80 percent of Australians who could benefit from cardiac rehabilitation don’t take part, leaving them at greater risk of further heart problems.
Bond University Professor Julie Redfern AM wants to change that, securing more than $3 million to lead an international push to make cardiac rehabilitation more accessible and effective.
Professor Redfern, the Director of Bond University’s Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare, has been awarded a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant.
It is the NHMRC’s highest level of research leadership support, with $3,035,320 allocated to support her research into improving cardiac rehabilitation worldwide.
The five-year program will bring together hundreds of researchers, clinicians and people living with heart disease to improve access to and delivery of cardiac rehabilitation around the world.
“Only 15-20 percent of people in Australia actually go to these rehabilitation programs,” Professor Redfern said.
“We know programs are good for those who go, but the majority don’t.”
There were many reasons why people do not attend, she said, including work commitments, transport difficulties and the structure of traditional rehabilitation programs.
“Maybe that model is not the best fit for every person, and maybe we need to be more flexible in the way we actually deliver it,” she said.
“We need to be more flexible rather than so structured. It is a little bit old-fashioned in the way that we are so rigid.”
Cardiac rehabilitation helps people recover after heart attacks and manage their ongoing heart health, but Professor Redfern said gaps in follow-up care could leave people vulnerable to further health problems.
“The biggest problem is that when you've had, for example, a heart attack, you're at 10 times the risk of having another one,” she said.
“So what we want to do is make sure we do all we can to reduce the risk of a second one.”
Professor Redfern said better data collection was another critical gap in cardiac rehabilitation.
“In cardiac rehab, we don't even really know how well people are doing out there,” she said.
“Having systems to fully collect this type of information and then use that to drive better policies and funding and capacity is fundamental to improving it.”
She pointed to the UK as an example of what could be achieved through better national data collection.
“They've been doing this for over 10 years and it's made a huge difference, but we have no such thing here in Australia,” she said.
Professor Redfern urged anyone who had been treated for heart disease to take advantage of cardiac rehabilitation where it was available.
“If you can go to a cardiac rehabilitation program, go,” she said.
“At the very least, make sure you see your GP regularly and develop a good relationship with them.”