His nickname at school was Cardiac – such was Professor John Beltrame AM’s (BM, BS ’86) fascination with the heart. Although, his high school grades didn’t immediately allow him to study medicine. It took Flinders University to provide him with post-graduate access to medical studies, which started the career of a researcher, clinician and teacher who now stands at the forefront of world-leading cardiology developments.

“Flinders gave me an opportunity and I’m forever indebted, especially for the learning environment I found myself in,” says Professor Beltrame, a Clinical Academic and Senior Consultant Cardiologist at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Royal Adelaide Hospital, Research Lead for the Translational Vascular Function Research Collaborative at the Basil Hetzel Institute, and the Michell Professor of Medicine at Adelaide University.

“The heart always made sense to me. Right from the start of my medical studies, I did research electives in the cardiology department – but my interest all started when I was very young. I joined the St John Ambulance cadets when I was 11, and at 15 I was treating patients in the ambulances, and I enjoyed it. I wanted to work in medicine, but when I couldn’t get the grades to become a doctor, I decided to study science, which led me to do research ­– although I still had a passion to do medicine.”

Once he started studying medicine at Flinders, he identifies Professor John Chalmers – the inaugural head of Medicine at Flinders – as a particular inspiration who drove him to purse research work. “I spent 10 years at Flinders, both studying and working at the hospital, and all through those years, it was never about just doing medicine but also about doing clinical research – and that has stayed with me.”

Professor Beltrame says his research is heavily influenced by patients. “They have the problems, and if you listen to them, they teach you. They prompt the questions that make you wonder why we don’t have the answers for them – and that inspires the research.”

This remains an essential aspect of Professor Beltrame’s work in medicine – balanced measures of treating patients, teaching students and driving research. “Without the patients, you don’t get presented with the opportunity to do relevant and valuable research. To see patients get better with treatments that you have instigated, there is no greater reward.”

During research for his PhD, Professor Beltrame travelled to The Catholic University of Sacro Cuore in Rome (working with the Pope’s cardiologist), at Kyoto University Hospital in Japan and Harvard University in Boston. With his expanded knowledge, he returned to Adelaide – and among many research achievements, he identified crucial gaps in existing data, which led to the launch of the Coronary Angiogram Database of South Australia (CADOSA) in 2011.

This has collected data on more than 80,000 cases of invasive coronary angiography procedures, to monitor and improve the quality and safety of cardiac care. With insights gained from CADOSA, Professor Beltrame and his team have developed diagnostic techniques, improved hospital practices, and ensure patients with heart attacks or angina receive the best possible treatment. “It has pulled me towards thinking more about the quality of care of patients.”

For this and other research work, Professor Beltrame has won multiple prizes and Fellowships, and was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2019 for significant service to cardiovascular medicine, and to medical research and education.

He says future challenges include developing treatments for people suffering from cardiac chest pains despite not having significant cholesterol blockages of the coronary arteries. “Previously these people have been neglected, saying there is nothing wrong with them. Now we are driven to re-evaluate them. We’ve established groups locally and overseas to address this, and it’s improving.

“If we go back 20 years, this was considered ‘an Adelaide disease’ because we were the only ones who had identified it, but now it has broad recognition.”

Professor Beltrame’s work has elevated Adelaide as a global leader and focal point in the development of heart treatment. “It’s a team effort, but the work done here has been recognised around the world,” he says. “There is still so much more to do. I didn’t realise that years later I’d still be saying I need to do another research project. Around the next corner, we’ll find the answer. You’ve just got to look.”

 

Professor John Beltrame AM was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award for his distinguished contribution to cardiovascular medicine, research and education, through sustained clinical care, internationally recognised research and academic leadership.