New Cardiac Care Video

Watch our new research impact Cardiac Care video that features our team discussing our research and how our partnership with the Heart Foundation helps develop patient-centred outcomes that informs programs, policy, and advocacy. 

ACvA Finalist

We were very pleased to be selected as finalist for the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA) Translation Award for 'markedly improving the low uptake of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs, by identifying barriers and providing scalable and implementable solutions. Through the establishment of the CHAP program, we have delivered improved access, attendance, and completion of CR for those living in rural and remote Australia'. Prof Robyn Clark was in attendance at the award ceremony on 23 February in Sydney.

More Data Received

We have now received our second CATCH data extract from 1 July 2021 to 31 December 2022 (the period that CATCH web was used) which we are in the process of cleaning. The next data extract including 6 month follow up data is due early April 2023 including data on emergency dept visits, causes of death and hospital admissions. We were also planning on including data from SA Pathology but this is no longer an option in our time frame. 

State-wide CR (CATCH) Dataset Audit Reports

With the data from our first CATCH extract from 2016 to 2021 (prior to CATCH web), a State-wide snapshot for all CR services in SA has been provided to services mid-February 2023. Based on this audit, we can see that the median wait time for referral to commencement of CR is 40 days based on 84,064 eligible patients. Due to the large amount of missing data during this period, a CR Outcomes Workshop was scheduled for the end of February for CR clinicians to discuss issues and develop strategies to improve data collection. If you would like a copy of the de-identified audit report, please send us a request via email.

CR Outcomes Workshop

Last Friday 24 February 2023, the CHAP team in conjunction with a number of key organisations (logos on the left) delivered a workshop for clinicians on 'Solutions for evaluation of quality outcomes of CR in SA' that was attended by approximately 50 clinicians (both face to face and online). Guest speaker Prof Robyn Gallagher from University of Sydney was a highlight providing great information about the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (ICCPR).

This interactive event provided a great opportunity for attendees to discuss and identify issues with collecting CR data and to come up with recommendations to improve through the Statewide Clinical Network. The recording from the day will be uploaded soon to our website so watch this space.

CPD Session Recordings Available Online

The recordings from our monthly Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions from June 2000 to December 2022 are available to watch or listen on YouTube here.

Modules in CATCH web

CATCH web can further support your patients enrolled in CATCH telephone or face-to-face programs by providing further education on the CR Quality Indicators including: 
Diabetes… Keeping life sweet: To help your patient understand what Type 2 diabetes is and how it can increase the risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases ask them to view the video located in Module 7.
Goal setting… On the road to somewhere: It’s important to know where your patient is going before they start on their journey. This video in Module 1 can help your patients set SMART goals to increase their chances of success.
Specifically for heart failure patients… Failure is not an option: Your patients will gain a better understanding of their heart failure by watching this video in Module 2. 
If you would like access to CATCH web or have any questions, please email us.

The Book that Everyone Should Read

We still have some hard copies of this book "Have you Planned your Heart Attack?" to give away. Email us to provide postal address and to advise how many copies you would like. This book could save your life! Written by Dr Warrick Bishop.

SOTS 2023 | 8-10 May 2023 | Perth

Dr Joyce Ramos and the team have submitted an abstract on 'What speaks to the heart of women with cardiovascular diseases in cardiac rehabilitation?' for Science on the Swan (SOTS) 2023.

ACNAP 2023 | 23-24 June | Edinburgh, UK

Dr Alline Beleigoli and Ms Katie Nesbitt with the team have submitted two abstracts on 'Completion of cardiac rehabilitation leads to improved clinical outcomes in 10,954 patients within 365 days following an acute coronary syndrome or revascularization procedure admission' and 'Cardiovascular disease patient reported experiences with a web-based, interactive, clinically integrated cardiac rehabilitation program' for the Annual Congress of the Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professionals (ACNAP) 2023.

SARHRE Conference | 24-25 June 2023 | Novotel Barossa

The team have submitted a number of abstracts for the inaugural SA Rural Health Research and Education (SARHRE) Conference including:
-'What speaks to the heart of women with cardiovascular diseases in cardiac rehabilitation?'
-'Telehealth is associated with higher cardiac rehabilitation completion rates among patients with cardiovascular diseases living in rural and remote areas'
-'Missed opportunity: Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy prescription in patients with acute coronary syndrome who attended secondary prevention/cardiac rehabilitation programs'.

World NCD Congress 2022 | 25-30 June 2023 | Toronto, Canada

Dr Alline Beleigoli and team have submitted an abstract on 'Telehealth,  reduction of waiting time and primary care support are key to cardiac rehabilitation participation in people with low socio-economic status in rural Australia' for the World Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Congress 2023.

ESC Congress 2023 | 25-28 August 2023 | Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dr Alline Beleigoli and team have submitted an abstract on 'Translating Cardiac Rehabilitation evidence into practice: Adherence to the quality indicators after a quality improvement program: results of the Country Heart Attack Prevention (CHAP) Project' for the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2023.

Katie Nesbitt, Alline Beleigoli, Stephanie Champion, Lemlem G Gebremichael, Norma Bulamu, Huiyun Du, Rosy Tirimacco, Robyn A Clark, On behalf of the NHMRC Country Heart Attack Prevention (CHAP) Project Team, Development and evaluation of a co-designed website for delivering interactive self-directed cardiac rehabilitation, European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 2023;, zvad026, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjcn/zvad026

Hila Ariela Dafny, Stephanie Champion, Lemlem G Gebremichael, Vincent Pearson, Jeroen M Hendriks, Robyn A Clark, Maria Alejandra Pinero de Plaza, Aarti Gulyani, Sonia Hines, Alline Beleigoli, Cardiac rehabilitation, physical activity, and the effectiveness of activity monitoring devices on cardiovascular patients: an umbrella review of systematic reviews, European Heart Journal - Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes, 2023;, qcad005, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjqcco/qcad005

Click here to see article included in AgedCare News published 10 February 2023 on 'Monitoring devices and apps helps cardiac rehabilitation: new research' based on the above systematic review. Well done team.

Novartis Cardiology Conference (NCC) 2023 | 11 - 12 February 2023 | Brisbane

Prof Robyn Clark provided a great presentation at the Novartis Cardiology Conference on 'Big Ideas in Heart Failure - models of care'.

Post Novartis Cardiology Conference Meeting | 28 February 2023 | Glenelg

Following the success of the Novartis Cardiology Conference, Prof Robyn Clark was invited to share her highlights and present on 'Consenus into practice: Can we change the outlook for hospitalised HFrEF patients?'.

American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Congress
30 May - 2 June 2023 | Colorado, USA

Dr Joyce Ramos has been accepted to present a poster on 'A preliminary-analysis investigating the web-based cardiac rehabilitation needs and preferences of women in rural Australia' in Denver, Colorado.

MedInfo 2023 | 8 - 12 July 2023 | Sydney

Dr Maria Alejandra Pinero de Plaza will be presenting two papers that will also be published in IOS press indexed in PubMed on 'Piloting a big data epidemiology approach to support frail, homebound, and bedridden people' and 'A human-centered approach to measuring the impact of evidence-based online resources' at the World Digital Health Congress in Sydney.