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THE TALENT
JENNIFER COLLER
MOLECULAR CARDIOLOGY UNIT
Jennifer Coller is one of a rare and
precious breed: the clinician-researcher.
This means that she is qualified as a
clinical cardiologist, but has taken time
out from the standard career path to
undertake a PhD.
Jennifer says that her research
training has informed her day-to-day
practice. “Spending dedicated time
amongst the heart failure research
community has allowed me to gain a
better understanding of both the
investigation and medical treatment of
patients with heart failure.”
Supervised by Associate Professor
David Prior from St Vincent’s Hospital and
SVI’s Associate Professor Jock Campbell,
Jennifer’s PhD was focused on how to
better identify people in the community
with heart abnormalities that may lead to
heart failure. These abnormalities were
detected using ultrasound of the heart, a
technique known as echocardiography.
Specifically, she set out to determine
whether the level of a protein marker in
blood can be used to identify people who
are more likely to have these heart
abnormalities.
She says, “Every year, 30,000
Australians are diagnosed with heart
failure – we see many patients newly
diagnosed with the condition come
through the doors at St Vincent’s Hospital
each year. There are many effective
treatments to prevent heart damage, but
by the time we see these people in the
clinic, a lot of damage has already been
done. What is needed is a test to show
who is at risk so that we can intervene
earlier to prevent the disease.”
Jennifer says that studies such as this
require large groups of people in the
community. “We studied a group of people
aged 60 or more who had high blood
pressure or diabetes, or had previous
stroke, or heart or kidney disease and who
were willing to cooperate over a long
period of time. Our group of volunteers was
3,994 strong and they have been followed
since 2007.”
Jennifer says that her study showed
that the marker was good at detecting
some, but not all of the heart abnormalities
that may lead to heart failure. This cast
doubts on its ability to be an effective
tool for selecting people to have
echocardiography. However, she showed
echocardiography was able to detect
significant heart disease in approximately
one quarter of the people in her study, and
it may be a more useful screening tool
than blood testing.
Jennifer will continue to see patients,
with her treatment informed by the
experience she has had over the last 4
years. “I hope to continue to be involved in
medical research, and to see even more
progress not only in treating, but also
preventing, heart failure in the future.”
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