• Charles Sturt’s Three Rivers DRH to collaborate with Murrumbidgee Local Health District and NSW Health’s Agency for Clinical Innovation on two-year project
• The research will investigate the use of Acute Coronary Syndrome Clinical Pathways in patients presenting with heart attack symptoms to hospital emergency departments
• The research has attracted $252,000 in National Health and Medical Research Council funding and commences this month

A new research collaboration led by Charles Sturt University is aiming to improve clinical decision making in emergency departments for patients presenting with heart attack symptoms.

The title of the project is ‘Enhancing Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) Clinical Pathway Use in Emergency Departments’ and aims to understand why an ACS Pathway is, or is not, used when patients present to the emergency department with symptoms of a heart attack.

The research will aim to identify what changes should be implemented in emergency departments of differing sizes and remoteness to support clinical decision-making now and as Australia’s health system becomes digitalised.

The research team is comprised of researchers from Charles Sturt’s Three Rivers Department of Rural Health (DRH), Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) and NSW Health’s Agency for Clinical Innovation.

Dr Claire Seaman and Associate Professor Elyce Green, both with Three Rivers DRH, are joined by Clinical Nurse Consultants from MLHD Ms Cindy Earl and Ms Penny Patterson, as Chief Investigators.

This is not the first time this research team has collaborated. Representatives from Charles Sturt and MLHD worked on an earlier study, published in 2024, that investigated other aspects of ACS pathways.

“Our MLHD co-researchers are experienced in the local delivery of cardiovascular and emergency nursing care,” Dr Seaman said.

“This partnership builds on our earlier study which arose because they noticed a gap in contemporary evidence for using ACS pathways in rural hospitals.”

The research team has secured $252,071 in funding from the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council’s Collaborations in Health Services Research Grant to conduct this study.

Dr Seaman said the funding will ensure the research is completed faster and findings are relevant to a rapidly changing health technology and service delivery landscape.

“It also means dedicated research upskilling for the team’s clinician-researchers and reduced administrative burden so they can also maintain their clinical workloads.”

Dr Seaman said the project will seek to understand how current guidelines for emergency department patients with heart attack symptoms are used in practice in different types of hospitals.

“It aims to inform changes to better support clinician decision-making to ultimately support timely treatment for patients across rural, regional and metropolitan locations,” she said.

The project commences this month and will run until May 2027.