SOLVE-HF

Doctor Angela Xun Nan Chen, University of New South Wales

Postdoctoral Fellowship

Years funded: 2026 - 2028

Heart failure is a serious condition where the heart becomes too weak to pump blood properly, leading to poor quality of life, frequent hospital visits, and early death. At present, heart failure affects approximately half a million Australians and costs the Australian healthcare system AUD $2.68 billion per year. Many people are at risk of developing heart failure, particularly if they have conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, or a history of heart disease already. Right now, there are no specific treatments approved to stop heart failure before it starts — I want to change that.

SOLVE-HF is a research trial that will be run in Australia and several other countries around the world. We want to see if its possible to use an existing medication, dapagliflozin, to prevent heart failure in people who are at high risk. This medication is already used to treat diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease. Our goal is to test whether starting dapagliflozin earlier—before any symptoms of heart failure appear—could help prevent heart failure altogether.

People who take part in the study will be randomly given either dapagliflozin (the active medication) or a placebo (a sugar pill), and neither they nor their doctors will know which one they’re taking. They’ll take one tablet a day for 12 months, and we’ll track how well the study runs—whether people stay on the treatment, how many people we’re able to recruit, and whether they complete follow-up. In Australia, we’ll recruit people from three major hospitals in Sydney as a part of the initial pilot study. If the initial pilot study is effective, we will scale this to include more people and more sites Australia-wide.

This study also tests whether using simple blood tests (called biomarkers) can help us find people at the highest risk of developing heart failure—before they show symptoms. If this approach works, it could lead to earlier treatment and fewer hospitalisations.

The results from this study will help us design a larger, full-scale trial. If successful, this research could lead to a new way of preventing heart failure, changing how we identify and treat people before heart damage occurs. Findings will be shared through medical journals, conferences, and with decision-makers to help shape future policies and treatment guidelines. Findings will also be made available to people living with heart failiure or at risk of heart failure through community education initiatives and digital channels.