Cabrini cardiologist and researcher at Cabrini Department of Cardiology Research, Professor Peter Kistler, has been awarded a highly competitive $7 million grant to establish Australia’s first atrial fibrillation ablation clinical quality registry.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an irregular and often very rapid heartbeat caused by abnormal electrical impulses. It affects about 500,000 Australians annually, and can lead to blood clots, stroke and heart failure. AF is a leading cause of hospitalisation with about 200,000 people admitted to hospital every year.

An ablation procedure is the most effective treatment for AF and twice as effective as drugs. It blocks the abnormal electrical activity within the heart.

The registry – The Australian Registry for the Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation (AuRA-AF) – will transform the safety, quality, and access to AF care in Australia, Prof Kistler said.

The $7 million Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant brings together 50 of Australia’s leading clinical experts and researchers in atrial fibrillation ablation, including Cabrini’s Prof Dion Stub, Associate Professor Alex Voskoboinik, Dr Emily Kotschet and Dr Hari Sugumar.

In July last year, Prof Kistler established an AF database at Cabrini, from which a number of research projects have been driven, and which will support the build of the newly funded registry.

“We’ve shared our Cabrini database build metrics with the grant team to use as a template for the design of the new AuRA-AF database,” Prof Kistler said.

“What we’ve established at Cabrini will act as an excellent launch pad for this new database. It will hold similar demographic data and collect information about risk factors related to AF, patient centred outcomes, length of procedures, complications, etc, all to help us improve the safety and quality of AF care.”

All AF ablation procedures are performed in cardiac catheterisation labs (cath labs). As part of Cabrini’s redevelopment, we are constructing a new state-of-the art cath lab, increasing our capacity to perform more AF ablation procedures at our hospital.

*The MRFF grant was awarded to Prof Kistler through his appointments as The Alfred hospital’s and Baker Research Institute’s Head of Electrophysiology, and Monash University’s Centre of Cardiovascular Research and Education in Therapeutics.

Visit Cabrini Cardiac services page