Our research facility in Hoppers Crossing is trialling innovative interventions to reduce high rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease in the community.
We know there's a higher percentage of people reporting type 2 diabetes in the City of Wyndham compared to the State average. We also know this area has more people who are overweight or obese compared to the national average.
That's why the Member for Tarneit, Dylan Wight, paid a visit to our facility last week to find out more about our unique care programs to improve risk factors for diabetes and heart disease and to keep people out of hospital.
The facility, run by researchers and clinicians from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, is trialling new ways to detect disease early.
Many people from the Wyndham area have already benefitted from this facility, including a record number of people who signed up to take part in a genetic heart risk trial that we launched in 2020 and which ran for several years. Our results showed that nearly 20% of people who participated had either dangerously high cholesterol or blood pressure or were deemed to be high risk for developing heart disease. Another one in three people were referred for more advanced testing which identified calcium deposits in the heart's arteries for 65% of participants, which can be a marker of increased risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The significance of these results shows the importance of knowing your risk (by getting a heart health check) and following advice on how to minimise it, says Associate Professor Melinda Carrington, a study investigator and manager of the Baker Clinical Trials and Research Centre.
We've also conducted important studies to understand if COVID-19 causes damage to the heart chambers and blood vessels and impacts functional capacity, and to determine if best practice management such as exercise could restore function. Many people from the Wyndham area and surrounds took part in this study. Thankfully, the study found that it's unlikely that there is a cardiac cause for impaired functional capacity and it found exercise rehabilitation seemed effective.
Other trials have focussed on:
- Testing a new drug for people with early-stage or asymptomatic diabetes to avoid heart failure, a common long-term complication of the condition.
- Improving secondary prevention and survivorship after developing heart disease through nurse management and the use of an e-health app to deliver cardiac rehab in the home.
- New screening program to help those 10+ years on from a cancer diagnosis better understand and address the potential toxic impact of cancer treatment on their heart.
- Special screening to identify people with pre-symptomatic heart failure to allow intervention before the disease progresses to a serious stage.
Tarneit MP, Mr Dylan Wight said: "It was great to visit and see the fantastic and important work being done right here in Hoppers Crossing in the fight against diabetes and heart disease".
See the clinical trials available at our research facility, which is co-located with HeartWest at 153 Heaths Road, Hoppers Crossing.
