Prestigious Heart Foundation Fellowship awarded to Dr Sarah Zaman

Dr Sarah Zaman

Dr Sarah Zaman has been awarded a highly competitive Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her research into the prevention of sudden cardiac death.

An interventional consultant cardiologist at MonashHeart and Post-doctoral Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Dr Zaman was awarded the fellowship (worth $75,000 per annum for two years) from 376 applicants, all of extremely high standard.

Sudden cardiac death is the cause of approximately 20,000 deaths in Australia every year and the majority of deaths occur in heart attack survivors with impaired heart function.

Dr Zaman’s research is trying to identify patients at risk of sudden death.

“I’m one of the lead researchers on the PROTECT-ICD Trial, an Australian-led, international, multi-centre study targeting prevention of sudden death in patients who have suffered a heart attack,” Dr Zaman said.

The PROTECT-ICD Trial targets the important issue of prevention of sudden death after a heart attack through the use of an electrophysiology study, a type of electrical test of the heart.

“In particular, the trial is focused on identifying patients early (within a month) after a heart attack, as the risk of sudden death is much higher during this time period,” Dr Zaman said.

Over 1,000 patients with impaired heart function following a heart attack will be recruited and randomly assigned to either early electrophysiology study with a defibrillator implanted if fast abnormal heart rhythms are seen, or standard care.

“Standard care involves waiting 1-3 months for the heart to recover, with a defibrillator implanted only if there is persistent severe heart function impairment,” Dr Zaman said.

Dr Zaman said this study has the potential to change national and international guidelines for selection of patients for a defibrillator for sudden death prevention.

“Importantly, it has the potential to save lives both in Australia and globally through prevention of sudden death in heart attack survivors.” 

Dr Zaman is grateful for the support and mentorship of Associate Professor Pramesh Kovoor, (University of Sydney) and Professor James Cameron (Monash University).  She also acknowledges the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) for the Early Career Practitioner Fellowship that has supported her research until this time.