The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute is an independent, internationally renowned medical research facility, with a focus on diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and associated metabolic diseases.
For more than 97 years, the Baker Institute has been focused on research dedicated to the prediction, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and their related disorders. That focus continues today but medicine is changing and so too the way the Baker Institute goes about targeting disease. Globally, we are witnessing a healthcare revolution driven by scientific and technological advances in areas such as genomics and bioinformatics, enhancing our ability to more precisely diagnose disease and better target prevention and treatment.
The internet and 'big data' is revolutionising our world, providing insights and capabilities that we would think more likely in a science fiction movie than reality. This is no different in medical research. Specifically, in the Baker Institute’s focus areas, they believe that by harnessing big data they can provide greater confidence around disease risk. With these new developments, come new ways of predicting disease, sometimes long before disease appears. This means we can be far more effective in the prevention space. We can accelerate and enhance approaches to prevent secondary disease and disease complications. And we can start to tailor treatment for the individual rather than the traditional ‘one size fits all’ approach. To leverage these new capabilities, the Baker Institute draws on their expertise across a range of areas including basic science, clinical research and public health. This helps to understand the mechanisms and potential drivers of disease, to test these hypotheses in patients and to understand the clinical needs. The Baker Institute also seeks to understand how the environment interacts with our genes and the role of lifestyle. That’s why the Institute is ideally placed to harness this new technology, to personalise medicine and to help people live healthier for longer.
Projects and discoveries underway:
Supporting a groundbreaking trial to improve health outcomes for patients with diabetes in remote Indigenous communities. Diabetes is a significant issue in these areas where socioeconomic disadvantages and limited healthcare access are prevalent. The trial aims to establish a sustainable and effective care model that can be replicated in other Indigenous communities.