Australian cardiologist
Clara Chow is an Australian cardiologist who is the program director of community-based cardiac services at Sydney's Westmead Hospital.[1] She is a professor of medicine at the University of Sydney in the field of cardiovascular disease epidemiology, prevention, treatment and innovation.[2] In 2019, she was appointed the academic director of the Westmead Applied Research Centre, a collaborative centre with a mission to better understand the causes of cardiovascular disease and translate their research to new treatments. She has also held the role of academic co-director of the Charles Perkins Centre since 2016.[3]
Career
After her medical training, Chow completed a PhD in medicine at the University of Sydney[4] followed by a post-doctoral position at McMaster University, Canada. She held the role of director of the Cardiovascular Division at The George Institute for Global Health from 2014 to 2017, where she now is a professorial fellow.[2]
In 2020 Chow was selected as president of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, the first women to hold the position in the 68 year history of the cardiac society.[5] She was appointed director of the Australian Stroke and Heart Research Accelerator, a centre funded in 2021 through the MTPConnect-supported Targeted Translation Research Acceleration initiative to support entrepreneurship in cardiovascular health.[6] In 2023 she was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.[7]
Awards
Chow's research and clinical innovation have been recognised in a number of awards, including:
- 2024 Finalist for Premier's NSW Woman of Excellence.[8]
- 2023 Member of the Order of Australia (for significant service to medicine as a cardiologist, and to research).[9]
- 2023 Elected Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences[10]
- 2022 Brilliant Women in Digital Health Awards.[11]
- 2020 NSW Women of the Year Award (finalist).[12]
Research
Chow has built a strong track record as a clinician researcher spanning the areas of cardiovascular disease prevention, clinical trails and the evaluation of digital health innovations as effective tools for the cardiovascular disease. She has been successful in receiving government funding for her research, listed as the Chief Investigator on 17 grants since 2003. She has embedded the idea of 'frugal-innovation' in to her research program looking at how simple technological tools like SMS can be used to improve healthcare delivery for cardiovascular disease.[13] In 2017 and again 2019, Chow and her team were the successful recipient of funding from technology giant Google as part of their Impact Challenge to help them design and evaluate digital innovations for prevention and treatment of heart attacks.[14][15]
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