Healthy Rural Hearts research project

The New England region has one of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in New South Wales. The HealthyRHearts research project worked with patient lists for people aged 45-70 years who need to come in for a heart health assessment. It was a randomised controlled trial, with the intervention group receiving up to five telehealth dietetic consults from rural dietitians, specially upskilled for the study. The usual care group received detailed feedback about their nutrition. Both groups were managed concurrently by their GPs, with study information available to doctors. 

Research papers from the study are listed below:

The effectiveness of medical nutrition therapy for people at moderate to high risk of cardiovascular disease in an Australian rural primary care setting: 12-month results from a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-025-13096-8

The effect of telehealth-based medical nutrition therapy on cardiovascular disease risk factors in a rural population: a secondary analysis of outcomes related to nutrition, health and well-being from the healthy rural hearts randomised controlled trial https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12966-025-01819-3

Healthy rural hearts: The feasibility of a telehealth nutrition randomised controlled trial for rural people at risk of cardiovascular disease https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1357633X241247245

HealthyRHearts – reducing cholesterol in rural adults via telehealth-based medical nutrition therapy: protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial, Schumacher TLL, Herbert J, May J, Ramanathan S, Brown LJJ, Guppy M, Williams A, Rollo MEE, Attia J, Collins CEE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12872-023-03306-8

Developing a telehealth medical nutrition therapy (MNT) service for adults living in rural Australia at risk of cardiovascular disease: An intervention development study https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jhn.13193

COVID vaccine booster trial – Armidale – completed

The first COVID-19 vaccine developed in the Southern Hemisphere, which was developed by Adelaide-based company Vaxine Pty Ltd uses recombinant protein technology. The new vaccine has been trialed as a booster by the University of New England’s Medical Centre.

It is hoped this Australian trial will accelerate local access to this locally designed protein-based SpikoGen® vaccine which uses an insect-cell manufacturing approach already used for commercial vaccines against influenza and human papilloma virus.

Overall, the trial showed that the SpikoGen® booster was well-tolerated and demonstrated good cross-antibody responses against COVID-19, regardless of the primary vaccine course received. 

The trial has been published:

Immunogenicity and safety study of a single dose of SpikoGen® vaccine as a heterologous or homologous intramuscular booster following a primary course of mRNA, adenoviral vector or recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine in ambulatory adults, Yoshikazu Honda-Okubo, Dimitar Sajkov, Bruce Wauchope, Joseph V. Turner, Brendan Vote, Anna Antipov, Greiciely André, Yuri Lebedin, Nikolai Petrovsky. Vaccine, Volume 49, 2025, 126744 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2025.126744.