Prof. Ken McDonald developed the St Vincent's/St Michael’s Heart Failure Unit following his return from his sub-speciality training in heart failure at the University of Minnesota, USA. He has overseen the growth of the Unit into an internationally recognised clinical service and translational heart failure research centre.
The Unit clinical programme provides specialist heart failure services to in excess of 5,000 patients across the spectrum of heart failure. In addition, Prof McDonald has developed the St Vincent's Screening to Prevent Heart Failure (STOP-HF) Programme in association with St. Vincent's Collaborative General Practice Group. The STOP-HF study is first-of-type, pragmatic, prospective trial which showed that natriuretic peptide-based screening and collaborative care can reduce the combined rate of left ventricular dysfunction and heart failure as well as major adverse cardiac events. Initially a research project, this effort is now an established clinical service man
