Professor Julie Redfern of Terrigal received her second award this month at the National Health & Medical Health Research Council’s (NHMRC) Annual Awards Night, Wednesday March 30, winning the 2021 NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Grant Award – Health Services (Leadership).
As the Research Academic Director for the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Prof. Redfern has spent 15 years working on systemic changes to cardiac rehabilitation for those who have suffered heart attacks.
Scored on a criteria of research quality and impact, leadership and previous publications, with a nine-ten month review process involving multiple independent scorers from across Australia, the Blackburn Award has recognised Professor Redfern’s leading role in making post-heart attack care more effective, efficient and tailored to the individual’s needs.
“Back when these cardiac rehab programs were developed 50 years ago, we tended to like people to come in to a hospital in groups because it was easier for us as the health professionals,” explained Redfern.
“About 70-80% of people then don’t come at all to those programs because they’re at work, or they’re looking after their family or whatever they have going on in their life.
“We can use digital health systems to find the people that we previously didn’t know were out there.
“Using technology and data, we can flip the way we do things and try be more proactive and reach out to those people to try offer support in a proactive fashion rather than reactive when they turn up at the service.”
Professor Redfern believes winning this award will bring more and better research interest to this area of focus, and will influence more support for the changes her research suggests.
“Unless we change the service model and the system, and have the infrastructure to do that, we can’t actually change the way we do things for patients.”
Haakon Barry