Biography
Professor Ben Freedman is currently Director External Affairs at the Heart Research Institute (HRI) and Group Leader of its Heart Rhythm and Stroke Prevention Group. He is Honorary Professor of Cardiology at The University of Sydney and former Head of Department of Cardiology, Concord Hospital.
He is also an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He was Deputy Dean of Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney's Medical Faculty, from 2003 to 2012, and received the Faculty's inaugural Distinguished Service Award in 2012.
Professor Freedman’s extensive research, encompassing 300 publications and several book chapters, has enhanced understanding and improved outcomes in areas such as antianginal agents, coronary ischaemia, heart attack treatments and secondary prevention, and atrial fibrillation (AF) screening. In 2015 he formed the AF-SCREEN International Collaboration, which now has over 170 members from 40 countries, including many of the foremost names in AF research. He has led the group in publishing five important white papers now called Frontiers Reviews on screening for AF to prevent stroke, in Circulation, the premier journal of the American Heart Association, and this year a state-of-the-art Review in the European Heart Journal, the Flagship Journal of the European Society of Cardiology. He is co-editor for Australia and New Zealand of the European Heart Journal.
His commitment to mentorship has resulted in success for more than 40 supervised PhD and HDR students, many of whom have become global cardiovascular leaders. His major research interest is stroke prevention in AF and his work is truly multi-disciplinary.
In 2011, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to medicine as a clinician, educator and researcher. And in 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Ministerial Award for Cardiovascular Research Excellence, recognised for his outstanding contribution and life-long commitment to research in cardiovascular disease by the NSW Cardiovascular Research Network.
“To succeed as a scientist, it takes an understanding of the problem leading into an insight into the solution, accompanied by determination and persistence.”
Collaborations
- Collaboration with the Poche Centre to screen for atrial fibrillation (AF) in Indigenous Australians in remote and rural NSW, NT and WA (completed with potential for future studies)
- Collaboration with researchers in Royal Melbourne Hospital to detect AF post-stroke in Australia, Hong Kong and China (SPOT-AF) (completed)
- Collaboration with researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to screen for AF in cardiac clinics, general practice and the community (completed – over 20,000 people screened)
- Collaboration with researchers in Shanghai to screen for AF in community centres (AF-CATCH) (completed)
- Collaboration with researchers in Hanoi (Vietnam) to screen in hospital to detect AF after cardio-thoracic surgery (completed)
- Collaboration with Hamburg and Gutenberg Heart studies (Germany) on screening for AF (completed)
- Collaboration with researchers in Frankfurt (Germany) about epidemiology of AF (ongoing)
- Collaboration with researchers in Oklahoma (USA) to screen for AF in tribal Indian clinics (completed)
- Collaboration with researchers in Toyama (Japan) to investigate the incremental yield of annual screening (completed)
- Collaboration with researchers in Thailand screening in rural areas using village health workers (completed)
- Collaboration with researchers in Malaysia screening as part of an aging cohort study (ongoing)