Royal North Shore Hospital’s Associate Professor Brendon Neuen will establish an international consortium to support those with both heart and kidney disease.
The nephrologist and Director of Kidney Trials will lead the collaboration after being awarded close to $500,000 from NSW Health through a program to drive groundbreaking projects in heart disease.
The grant will support the establishment of the ROCKET Consortium, a global initiative to determine the best way to assess kidney disease progression in people with heart failure.
The collaboration will bring together the team at Royal North Shore Hospital with world leading experts at Harvard Medical School and Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
The project will analyse data from 12 landmark heart failure trials involving more than 50,000 patients to confirm the best approach to track the loss of kidney function in heart failure trials.
As researcher with the Kolling and The George Institute, A/Professor Neuen said their work has the potential to shape how future clinical trials are designed for those with heart and kidney disease, and improve outcomes for people with both conditions.
“Nearly half of those with heart failure also have chronic kidney disease, which means they generally do worse overall and are admitted to hospital more often,” he said.
“However, without a standard method of measuring loss of kidney function in heart failure trials, we are potentially missing opportunities to identify treatments which could protect the heart and kidneys.”
He says the international team is excited by the broad interest in their work to date.
“Our research is already drawing attention from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as it has the potential to inform regulatory standards and the development of new medications for both heart failure treatments and kidney disease.
“With a large share of the community living with heart and kidney disease, we are hopeful our work will improve the long-term health and wellbeing of people affected by both conditions.”