A childhood dream realised for Melanie

Melanie dedicates her research to heart disease

Dr Melanie Spratt has a special connection to The Prince Charles Hospital. After being born with congenital heart condition pulmonary valve stenosis, Melanie has been cared for by the TPCH cardiac team her entire life. Now she’s working with them researching heart disease.

Pulmonary valve stenosis is a thickening of a heart valve that causes a valve to not open or close properly.

“Thankfully, I was found to have a mild case, but I still needed to be monitored closely and had regular check-ups throughout my life,” Melanie said.

Now, a cardiac scientist and research fellow at The Prince Charles Hospital as a clinical cardiac scientist and research fellow, Melanie dedicates her time to finding new drug treatments to save the lives of those with heart failure.

Shortly after completing her PhD, Melanie received a New Investigator Grant from The Common Good to pursue her research which involves collecting tissue samples to test different drugs to see if they can treat heart arrhythmias.

Knowing that heart conditions affect so many Australians made the young researcher want to pay it forward to see what he could do to help fight heart disease.

“The hope is to increase the rate of screening of new medicine used in heart failure to rapidly progress from bench to bedside,” Melanie said.

“Growing up with a heart condition myself has definitely sparked an interest in learning about hearts and helping people that way.

“I am so grateful for the role that medical research can play in making lives better.”