Lab Spotlight: Cardiovascular Research Flagship
Our research agenda is being co-designed with health professionals, policy makers and people with lived experience of cardiovascular disease. The principles underpinning our activities include sustainability, leveraging existing resources, integrating with existing services, scalability, evidence-based practices, and measurable outcomes.
This spotlight features the Cardiovascular Research Flagship at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, led by Professor Seana Gall. With a focus on community engagement and collaboration, the team is driving innovative approaches to prevent, detect and manage high blood pressure across Tasmania, through projects that integrate research, policy and lived experience.
What is your team's vision?
Our aim is to work collaboratively with health professionals, policy-makers, and the community to develop, implement and evaluate interventions to improve the cardiovascular health of Tasmanians.
Tell us about your lab's research or initiatives focused on preventing, detecting, and managing high blood pressure and its complications.
Leveraging our expertise in cardiovascular research and our partnerships with the Tasmanian community, the Flagship addresses two key themes: preventing cardiovascular disease and improving outcomes for those affected by cardiovascular disease. Several of our projects relate directly to improving the awareness, diagnosis or management of high blood pressure in Tasmania, with many others targeting the risk factors for high blood pressure.
What is your team currently working on?
We are working on a range of collaborative projects addressing our aims with a focus on blood pressure. These include integrating automated blood pressure measurement into primary care; improving ongoing screening and management of women with pre-eclampsia; implementing an evidence-based program to prevent hospital readmissions for heart failure; and a new randomised controlled trial in collaboration with Monash University and Stroke Foundation called Love Your Brain, which is a digital platform for stroke prevention (visit https://redcap.link/LoveYourBrain)
What is your team planning on working on next?
Future projects include working with schools and schoolchildren to increase heart health literacy; exploring more non-clinical settings for accurate blood pressure measurement and implementing guidelines around management of people with a hypertensive response to exercise. Our research program is designed and implemented in close collaboration with our Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) that is chaired by John Stevens who has lived experience of stroke.
Has your lab received any awards, grants, or publications for your work related to Hypertension?
In 2024, members of the Cardiovascular Research Flagship published 160 peer reviewed journal articles. Two members, Professor Seana Gall and Associate Professor Quan Huynh, received Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowships from 2025-2028.
Has your lab achieved any results from your work related to Hypertension?
A key initiative in 2024 was increasing community measurement of blood pressure, which we did in collaboration with students from the School of Nursing, ultimately measuring over 400 people across Tasmania.