A new model of care for heart disease: Leaders from Monash Uni and Novartis talk the joint approach to innovation

Pharma News: Professor Stephen Nicholls, Monash Uni and Head, Victorian Heart Hospital and Richard Tew, General Manager and Country President, Novartis ANZ joined Health Industry Hub to discuss a three-way partnership between Novartis, Monash University and Telstra Health to pilot a new model of care in improving cardiovascular health.

More than 50% of patients who have survived a heart attack do not meet the optimal cholesterol levels post-acute care. The GP crisis in our healthcare system is also resulting in access delays for patients.

“The burden of cardiovascular diseases is clear. The question is what we do about it and this is where Novartis, we’re committed to do that. But what we’ve realised is that it’s not something that we can do on our own. We want to build partnerships beyond innovative therapies to support changes to the model of care,” said Mr Tew.

Professor Nicholls said “We’ve got to be smarter in the way that we do clinical trials. We’ve got to see how we embed them in clinical practice, how we use existing data systems safely and how we give opportunities for patients and clinicians to embrace new interventions or to intensify existing interventions…and that’s very different than the traditional clinical trial that have been done.

“It’s a competitive world out there and Australia either needs to develop approaches that make it continue to be an attractive and competitive place to be, or industry will do studies elsewhere. We need to make sure that we have an investment in the health service platforms here that are enabling us to do cutting edge research. That kind of joint approach to innovation becomes a win for everybody.”

Tackling cholesterol – one of the leading risks for CVD – with models of care like that being trialled in the ASCERTAIN study, have the potential to save more than 3,738 lives, prevent over 13,740 life-threatening CVD events like heart attack and stroke and save $66.6 million in health costs over a five-year period.

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