Otago heart researchers are on their way to developing potentially life-saving patient interventions, thanks to vital Health Research Council (HRC) funding.
Christchurch Heart Institute Director, Professor Mark Richards, and his research team have been awarded an almost $5 million programme grant in the latest HRC funding round.
The programme grant joins 16 other project grants, which have a combined total of $18.2 million, awarded to other University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka researchers.
Professor Richards' team will use the five-year grant to embark on a pilot programme combining data from emergency department (ED) cardiac blood tests with clinical documentation, to identify patients at risk of adverse heart events.
The HRC grant is an "essential catalyst to get the ball rolling" on the pilot programme, providing necessary resources for clinicians and analysts, Professor Richards says.
"Successful pilots lead to full-fledged trials and successful full-fledged trials lead to change in international treatment guidelines and changes in standard-of-care clinical practice."
About 100,000 people have cardiac blood tests at ED each year, but less than 10 per cent of those have an urgent heart issue on the day, he says.
However, 50-70 per cent of patients who present at ED with upper or above threshold markers for heart damage, go on to suffer an equal split of fatal or non-fatal heart and other health events in the following year.
"The total number of people involved exceeds those with proven heart attack or heart failure events on first encounter."
By analysing the relationship of the ED marker results to adverse clinical outcomes suffered by patients in the following two years, the research team will be able to define at-risk groups among future patients attending ED.
Contributing features such as age, previous heart disease, risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and possibly other previously unrecognised features that confer risk will predictably place their chance of an adverse event (death, a new heart attack, new heart failure) above 30 per cent.
"We then use this immediately available ED profile to direct patients into appropriate improved or trial management pathways tailored to each newly defined at-risk subgroup," he says.
New management may include anything from simple advice to the ED doctor and family doctor regarding risk management, immediate additional testing, the introduction of previously neglected standard-of-care cardiovascular medications for cardiovascular risks, through to completely new randomised controlled trials of plausibly appropriate therapy in previously unrecognised at-risk subgroups.
"Receiving the funding gives a great feeling of being enabled to pursue a great opportunity to put information, currently under-used, to work to improve patient outcomes.
"With the acknowledgement the grant implies and the opportunity it affords, comes a sense of responsibility to do the work rigorously and to push the new knowledge through to the clinic for patients."
The University has already secured $23.2 million from the HRC for 2026, an increase on the total HRC 2025 funding.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Greg Cook says the results highlight the University's strong performance in an increasingly competitive funding environment, as measures of research impact continue to evolve.
"It is particularly encouraging to see the breadth and diversity of the funded projects.
"These initiatives span a wide range of health innovation, including Māori health, pain management, cancer, cardiovascular disease, childhood wellbeing, disability-inclusive design, infectious diseases, and Alzheimer's disease, reflecting a comprehensive and integrated approach to improving health outcomes in New Zealand."
2026 Programme Grant
Professor Mark Richards, Christchurch Heart Institute, $4,998,662
Myocardial marker enhanced data to improve cardiovascular care in New Zealand (MEDICi-NZ)
This research aims to make widely collected cardiac blood tests fully useful in improving care for New Zealanders at risk of adverse heart events.
Every year 100,000 Kiwis have heart blood tests (troponin and/or BNP) done when they are seen in emergency departments (ED) to undergo assessment for possible heart emergencies. Less than 10 per cent of those tested have an urgent cardiac problem proven on the day. However, evidence suggests test results are powerful predictors of later (in the following year) adverse heart events even when a problem cannot be confirmed at the initial ED visit. The research team proposes to prove and apply this predictive aspect of these frequently conducted tests, combining blood test data with other routine clinical documentation to develop the best ways of converting this information into practical clinical guidelines to improve New Zealanders' heart care.
