Accolades

Premier's Public Sector Awards 2005

Congratulations to Pfizer Australia's Cardiovascular team who set up these programs, then won 'Gold' for Service Delivery on Friday, 4 November 2005 at the 2005 Premier's Public Sector Awards:

• Families' Health at Heart: Clinical Support Service for Familial Hypercholesterolaemia
• Sydney West Area Health Service - Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research

The Families' Health at Heart program was established to support individuals and identify new family members with a common, but not well publicised, genetic condition called Familial Hypercholesterolaemia or FH.

People with FH are born with increased cholesterol, showing no signs of symptoms and are at major risk of developing heart attacks at a young age. They are also over represented among people with lifestyle related diseases, heart attacks and sudden death. As FH affects half of the family it is essential that affected young members of a family are identified early and offered support. 'Case finding', following up relatives when a FH case is found, is the unique cost-effective method for identifying new FH individuals. The case-finding program has used community network bases and, since the beginning of 2004, identified over 277 new FH individuals and contacted over 265 relatives. In other words, the Program has saved 644 lives in less than 2 years.

Other candidates for Service Delivery included: Department of Housing, North Coast Area Health Service, south Eastern Sydney/Illawarra Area Health Service, Department of Community Services.

4 November 2005