St Vincent's Hospital: Helping Lead Cardiothoracic Research

We are excited to report that St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney is once again at the forefront of cardiothoracic transplantation and heart failure research.

With a legacy that began more than 38 years ago, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute’s collaborative research into innovative transplant technology will transform the lives of heart transplant patients.  

With the support of the Federal government through the Medical Research Future Fund, and generous philanthropy from our donors through our Heart Lung Innovation Fund, the team at St Vincent’s and Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute are hoping to deliver the world's first durable heart.

It is hoped a fully functional artificial heart, developed over the past 20 years, will be trialled at both St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne within the next 12 months.  This will be led by Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute’s Professor Chris Hayward, who is also a cardiologist at St Vincent’s Hospital.

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“This really is the holy grail of transplant medicine, and we’re happy to be involved at the pointy end because it hasn’t happened overnight, there’s been a lot of work to get to this point.”
Professor Christopher Hayward
St Vincent's Hospital Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiologist

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The artificial heart will be trialled on heart transplant recipients, testing the device and its functionality, before being removed and replaced by the human heart they were due to receive. The potential impact of this development was recently showcased on Channel Nine News and can be found here

The St Vincent’s Hospital Heart and Lung Transplantation program is one of the largest and longest running programs in Australia, with survival rates which exceed that of the international benchmarks.  To find out more about the program and how you can support  our Heart and Lung Innovation Fund, please visit our website.


Generous supporters like you have provided more than $16 million over the last five years to enable innovative cardiothoracic treatment and care at St Vincent's.  We are incredibly grateful for your on-going support and helping us to care for our community.  

Kind regards

Shanthini Naidoo
CEO
St Vincent’s Curran Foundation

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