Cardiovascular disease — heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and related conditions — remains Australia's leading cause of death, killing approximately 18,000 Australians per year. Despite significant advances in treatment, CVD costs Australia's health system approximately $12 billion annually. Significant inequities exist: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians die from heart disease at more than twice the rate of non-Indigenous Australians. Rural Australians die more often from heart attack because they can't get to hospital in time. Grant funding supports heart research, cardiac rehabilitation, prevention programmes, and the access initiatives that close the CVD gap.
Scale
Major conditions
Risk factors
Indigenous Australians and CVD
NHMRC
Cardiovascular research grants — major funder.
Department of Health
Heart Foundation Australia (partially government-supported)
Prevention and research.
AIHW
CVD data and monitoring.
Heart Foundation Australia
Major cardiovascular funder:
- Research grants
- Prevention campaigns
- Community programmes
Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
Cardiovascular and diabetes research.
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
Major cardiac research.
St Vincent's Heart Research Institute
Cardiac research.
Menzies School of Health Research
Indigenous heart health research.
Various hospital cardiac foundations
Most major hospitals have cardiac research foundations.
Research
Primary prevention
Indigenous heart health
Acute cardiac care
Cardiac rehabilitation
Heart failure management
Congenital heart disease
Women and heart disease
Stroke prevention and recovery
Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) — damage to heart valves from repeated streptococcal throat and skin infections triggering immune attack on the heart — is essentially eliminated in most high-income countries. But in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia:
- Children get streptococcal infections
- Untreated infections lead to acute rheumatic fever (ARF)
- Repeated ARF causes permanent heart valve damage
- Young people require heart surgery or die prematurely
RHD in Aboriginal communities is an avoidable disease requiring systematic treatment (penicillin prophylaxis) and prevention (WASH, streptococcal treatment). Grant funding for RHD elimination is funding the removal of a condition that should not exist in Australia.
Indigenous cardiac equity
The Indigenous CVD mortality gap is one of the most significant health inequities in Australia. Applications specifically addressing Indigenous heart health — particularly RHD elimination and culturally safe cardiac care — are high-priority.
Prevention
CVD prevention — blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking — is highly cost-effective but systematically under-funded relative to treatment. Applications for CVD prevention programmes, particularly in high-risk populations, are compelling.
Rural access
Rural Australians die more from heart attack because they can't get to a catheterisation laboratory in time. Applications that improve rural cardiac care — STEMI networks, telemedicine for cardiology, defibrillators in rural areas — address a genuine equity issue.
Cardiac rehabilitation gap
Only about 30% of eligible patients attend cardiac rehabilitation after a heart attack. Applications that increase cardiac rehabilitation access and completion — through telehealth, home-based programmes, or community delivery — improve outcomes.
Tahua's grants management platform supports cardiovascular health funders and cardiac organisations — with programme participant tracking, clinical outcome measurement, rehabilitation completion data, and the reporting tools that help heart health funders demonstrate their investment in reducing Australia's cardiovascular disease burden.