General News
25 October, 2024
Lister House project aiming to make heart failure diagnosis more accessible
Heart failure project aim to bring care to remote communities.
University of Notre Dame Australia health researcher Professor Simon Stewart is partnering with Horsham's Lister House medical clinic as he looks to develop better tools to detect heart failure in a world first project.
The project is hoping to make tools to diagnose heart failure more accessible in regional areas.
"Australia has an aging population ... we're living longer, but that tends to wear the heart out," said Prof Stewart.
"We're particularly interested in a condition called heart failure, [which] sounds dramatic, but it really is a wearing out of the heart.
"Typically, if you want to find someone with heart failure, you have to refer them onto a specialist and a specialist lab.
"It would be nice if we had technology, that can help us image the heart and screen people to find this condition so we can manage them better and they live longer."
With the project, Lister House is using artificial intelligence technology that will help practice nurses not familiar with imaging the process in finding and imaging the heart.
"The artificial intelligence actually lights up the landmarks of the heart and helps catch images," said Prof Stewart.
Artificial intelligence is also being used to produce a report on a patient's heart health.
"So for the first time, we have the capacity, using a combination of practice nurses and this artificial intelligence and new technology to actually screen someone who's at risk of having a failing heart in GP practice," said Prof Stewart.
"We're providing access to technology, to investigations, that you wouldn't normally get, and this is a world first project."
Lister House chief executive and nurse Amanda Wilson said she is excited for her clinic to be involved in the project as it helps address a common health concern in Horsham and the Wimmera.
"We knew part of our community issues we have here in Horsham and the Wimmera is [we] have a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease," said Ms Wilson.
Ms Wilson said the project will allow Lister House to diagnose patients with heart failure earlier, and then try to give them a better health outcome over time.
The project is being carried out in two phases, the first of which is finding people to practice on.
"If anyone in the community wants to come and let us look at your heart, It doesn't matter how old you are [or] anything about you at all, because we need to continually practice to get our skills better," said Ms Wilson.
The second phase is looking for patients over 60-years-old who meet certain eligibility criteria to participate in a trial.
"There's no cost to patients going forward, there's a large amount of technology that's used in the background, [and] we've got three very experienced practice nurses and nurse practitioners who actually have an interest in improving the quality of life for people with heart disease in the Wimmera," said Ms Wilson.
The project is hoping to take the technology to rural and remote communities where opportunities for this kind of care are harder to come by.
"We're trying to bring it back to have that as an early detection center that then can have better health outcomes down the track," said Ms Wilson.
"[Patients] won't have to do all that traveling just to [see a specialist]."
The aim to bring this technology to remote areas is what lead Prof Simon Stewart to bring this project to the Wimmera.
"When we're looking at this new technology, it strikes me that it's a bit silly to put it in places where it's not needed," he said.
"When we were looking at what this offered, this is two lots of artificial intelligence and this new portable technology, where would it work best."
In Australia, the tyranny of distance means that many people live far away from specialist services. They still suffer from the same illnesses, but the timeliness of care is not as great as if you lived in a city.Professor Simon Stewart
Prof Stewart believes this technology would be most effective in places like Africa where people have the least access to specialised services.
"In Australia, the tyranny of distance means that many people live far away from specialist services. They still suffer from the same illnesses, but the timeliness of care is not as great as if you lived in a city," he said.
"So when we looked around, we were looking for some really proactive health care teams who were dedicated to the community that had the willingness to take on something new, because you have to be brave.
"It just so happened that [Lister House] provided that leadership and put their hand up."
Lister House nurse Casey Kosch said she is excited to be a part of a project that is being brought to rural communities.
"Some of us who have been working in the industry for a long time have wanted to be a part of a project, and I think this is a really good opportunity for us to give back to the local community as well," she said.
"If we can end up picking up this chronic illness early, it's going to help out families, it's going to help out friends."