Flinders University cardiologist Professor Derek Chew is the lead author of a paper that has been awarded the $10,000 Medical Journal of Australia/MDA National prize for the best research study in the MJA in the previous 12 months.

The authors also received the Sir Richard Stawell Memorial Prize of the Medical Society of Victoria for “the most clinically significant research article” published in the MJA last year.

The article reported the findings of a team of Australian and New Zealand researchers, led by Professor Chew (pictured), which investigated variations in emergency treatment of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) in both countries.

Drawing on the data for 4398 patients, the SNAPSHOT ACS study highlighted inconsistencies and incomplete implementation of evidence-based treatment recommendations, showing that the quality of treatment and outcomes varied according to the hospital in which patients were treated.

In particular, the study offered a unique insight into the challenges of providing timely and effective ACS care for patients with complex comorbidities and for those from rural and outer metropolitan areas.

“Effectively delivering these insights to key decision makers at clinical, health service and health policy levels to enable the design and implementation of fully integrated approaches to ACS care remains the ‘translational’ promise of this initiative,” said Professor Chew.

Professor Michael Kidd, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders, described the study as an exceptional piece of research and said the awards were well deserved.

“Its potential impact on policy and practice in ACS care in Australia and New Zealand is profound,” he said.

The study’s findings were widely reported in the mainstream media.

The paper is available online.