Bond University PhD student Bridget Abell has been awarded both the Best Exercise and Physical Activity Paper Award and the People’s Choice Award at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association.
As part of her PhD studies, Bridget’s focus was on the research literature about exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation, and examining how it can be better used to improve clinical practice.
Dr Tammy Hoffmann from the Centre of Research in Evidence-Based Practice at Bond University was impressed with the result. “For a PhD student to win a prize at a national conference of this calibre is a very big deal,” she said. “And for Bridget to win two prizes, including a People’s Choice award is certainly a huge achievement to date.”
Bridget was delighted to win the awards. “I was honoured to present the findings of two projects which have comprised my first year of my PhD studies with the Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice,” she said.
“My particular presentation titled ‘Reducing mortality with the exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation: is it what patients do, or how well they stick with it?’ was well received, winning both awards – with the People’s Choice Award voted by conference attendees.”
The Annual Scientific Meeting took place in Sydney at the end of August, and attracted a wide range of health professionals including researchers and exercise physiologists from around the world. It is one of the major national forums for the exchange of ideas and discussion of clinical and research issues relating to cardiac rehabilitation and heart disease prevention.
Further information about the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association can be found at the following site: http://www.acra.net.au/
Bridget Abell’s supervisors in research are Dr Tammy Hoffmann and Professor Paul Glasziou.