Please join me in congratulating Professor Julian Paton for being invited to give the Gaston Bauer Lecture at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand to be delivered in 2024.
The Gaston Bauer Lecture was instituted in 1988 to honour the eminent Australian clinical cardiologist who has contributed significantly to medical education, cardiology and research into cardiovascular disease.
It is an honour, and reflects Julian’s significant contributions to cardiovascular physiology and, of course, by reflection on the excellence of cardiovascular research in the Department of Physiology, which goes from strength to strength!
Julian and his multi-disciplinary team have gone from a concept to a clinical trial within 14 years to develop a new pacemaker. This translational journey started as an idea that led to a mathematical model that made a novel prediction, which they tested subsequently.
After the development of a unique analogue device, a number of rounds of pre-clinical animal testing, numerous patents and setting up a company, the team have arrived at their first-in-human clinical trial to be conducted in New Zealand later this year.
There is excitement and some anxiety too as Julian and his team move to understanding whether the pacemaker will offer improved efficacy over those currently used in human patients.