Springfield Healthy Hearts
A living lab for global heart disease action
Local action to revolutionise global action on cardiovascular disease through a living laboratory
Coordinated, practical interventions across healthcare, schools, retail, community spaces and homes that embed heart health into everyday life, generating real-world evidence to inform policy and best practice.
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Springfield Healthy Hearts
This world-first initiative will create a ‘living laboratory’ to demonstrate the power of coordinated action across all aspects of heart health.
Problem
A crisis we can no longer afford to ignore
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in Australia, responsible for one in every four deaths and costing the health system more than $14.3 billion each year. Its impact extends well beyond the heart – as shared risk factors and disease driving processes are contributing to increased rates of cancer, diabetes, frailty, and other chronic conditions, further burdening individuals, families, and an already strained healthcare system.
Despite decades of research and proven prevention strategies, implementation remains fragmented and inconsistent. The result is a growing and unnecessary burden of CVD – particularly in communities with high levels of diversity, disadvantage, and unmet health needs. Up to 80% of premature heart attacks and strokes are preventable, yet current systems are failing to act at the scale and speed required.
If this trajectory continues, the cost of CVD in Australia is expected to rise to $22 billion per year by 2050 – a burden the nation’s health and economic systems simply cannot afford to carry.
At the heart of the problem is a lack of coordinated, long-term action. While we understand the biological, lifestyle and social risks driving CVD, national and global efforts to address them have been siloed, short-term, and insufficient.
To change course, Australia needs a new model – one that mobilises sectors, services, and communities to work together at scale.
Solution
A living lab for lasting change
Considered a world-first, Springfield Healthy Hearts comprises two parts:
- Demonstration of coordinated action in the Living Lab of Springfield, in Queensland. Here, multiple overlapping city-wide initiatives will take place that target residual risk for CVD alongside a longitudinal observation of CVD risk factors and broader health outcomes.
- A collaborative research platform which will attract global researchers, industry and policy leaders ready to utilise our living laboratory to advance their strategic priorities. We aim to position Queensland as the global research epicentre for CVD – and equip Australia with a unique piece of Living Research Infrastructure on heart health.
The Springfield Healthy Hearts program will create a scalable, place-based model for heart health. It’s a whole-of-city undertaking, leveraging multi-sector collaborations to implement innovative, evidence-based strategies for heart disease prevention, treatment, and care – involving health, education, sport, retail and other community segments.
Springfield is a forward-thinking, culturally and socioeconomically diverse city. It is Australia’s largest master-planned community (52ha), with a current population of over 55,000 people.
Springfield is also a diverse community (29% born overseas), with a higher proportion of First Nations peoples than the state or national population average and is rapidly growing (~7% growth rate year on year for >20 years). Given its master-planned scale, Springfield City Group can rapidly and effectively host ongoing engagements in public spaces (shopping centres, parks, libraries), health services (hospital, general practice, allied health) and other facilities (community centres, schools) to facilitate the delivery of city-wide heart health initiatives.
Impact
Local action, global change
Springfield Healthy Hearts aims to reshape how CVD is prevented, managed and studied – delivering lasting impact not just for one community, but for Australia and potentially the world. By embedding practical, coordinated heart health initiatives into everyday life, the program is expected to reduce preventable illness, strengthen local systems, and generate high-quality, real-world evidence needed to inform national reform.
Conservative international modelling suggests that, across Australia, coordinated action on CVD could prevent 1.5 million cases, save $61 billion in healthcare costs, and deliver 2.2 million years of improved quality of life over the next 25 years. In Springfield alone, the program targets more than 2,000 people currently living with CVD and 22,000 with unmanaged risk factors, demonstrating the power of community-level transformation.
The program’s Collaborative Research Platform will amplify this impact by positioning Queensland as a global epicentre for cardiovascular innovation. It will help boost domestic workforce capacity, elevate Australian researchers to the forefront of global CVD research, and attract international talent and investment.
Industry, government and academic collaborators will gain access to real-time, population-scale testing and learning – a rare and powerful environment for advancing breakthroughs in heart health.
In doing so, Springfield Healthy Hearts will leave a lasting legacy: a scalable, evidence-based model for coordinated cardiovascular action. It will show how one community’s commitment can drive a nationwide change – improving lives, reducing long-term costs, and setting a new global standard for prevention-driven public health.
Meet the team
Supported by
Delivery partners
We will see the benefits that come when enough people are focused on the same topic, just as we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lauren Ball
Program Director
Disclaimer
The information provided on this page is for general informational purposes about our Catalyst Partner’s project only - see the Disclaimer.
If you have any questions or would like more information about this project or Catalyst Partnership Grants, get in touch.
