The aim of the NHMRC-funded Centre of Research Excellence in rheumatic heart disease is to develop targets for rheumatic heart disease control in Australia and a costed, stepwise strategy for achieving them. END RHD CRE Investigators and Partners meetings were held at the University of Sydney in May, complementing meetings arranged by RHD Australia.

Investigators and Partners of the END RHD CRE met formally throughout the week of the conference to set the agenda and determine the priority projects for the first year of the CRE based on three themes: epidemiology and bioscience, implementation and translation, and the RHD community.

For an overview, the END RHD CRE prospectus now available on the RHD Australia website. An all investigators meeting was also conducted, bringing together investigators from other RHD research projects including the AMOSS RHD in Pregnancy study based at the University of Technology in Sydney, the “Improving Secondary Prophylaxis for Rheumatic Heart Disease” study and the “Evaluating the genetic contribution to Rheumatic Heart Disease pathogenesis in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities” project both based at Menzies School for Health Research in Darwin as well as a number of other researchers engaged in rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.

For further information contact END.RHD.CRE.SMB(AT)telethonkids.org.au