Charles Darwin Uni researcher works to reduce fatal heart disease

New PhD graduate Alice Mitchell is working to reduce fatal heart disease in Aboriginal communities.

Alice Mitchell's new app aims to reduce the rheumatic heart disease problem in indigenous communities.

In today’s Higher Ed Daily Brief: curing fatal disease, Curtin’s judicial appointment

Take heart

Newly minted PhD graduate Alice Mitchell is making progress in reducing the high incidence of rheumatic heart disease which afflicts some Aboriginal communities.

Dr Mitchell, who graduates with her degree tomorrow from Charles Darwin University, has developed the “Take Heart” smart phone app to help indigenous people with the treatment regime to deal with this curable, but often fatal, disease. The app reminds patients of the date their next injection is due and sends reminder alerts.

Dr Mitchell said that many children and young people who need treatment stop having the injections, which are painful and must be administered every 3-4 weeks for ten years. She previously worked as a bush nurse in Arnhem Land and recalled the case of boy she knew whose treatment was interrupted when he was a young adult. “He stopped treatment thinking he was okay, he was only 20 when he died,” she said.

Remote communities in the Northern Territory have some of the highest rates of rheumatic heart disease in the world. It is caused by repeated exposure to strep infection, which can lead to acute rheumatic fever and then fatal heart disease.

Dr Mitchell estimated that in the community of Maningrida, one in 20 children had the disease, which is entirely preventable. Her PhD thesis is titled: “That heart sickness: Exploring Aboriginal young people’s experiences of rheumatic fever care from childhood to adulthood”.

Uni nabs judge

Western Australia’s new chief justice, Peter Quinlan, has another appointment — as a member of Curtin University’s law school advisory board. Only appointed to WA’s top judicial position two months ago, Justice Quinlan will help the school engage with industry “to shape the future of education, teaching and research at the law school”. He was the state’s solicitor-general before being appointed chief justice.