National Heart Foundation of Australia
Simon began his own research programme as a Cardiac Research Nurse at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1992 examining ways to best manage chronically ill patients following hospitalisation. In 1997, he published a landmark study showing that a nurse-led, home-based intervention was associated with fewer hospital readmissions and deaths. He was the first non-US based nurse to be awarded the prestigious Martha Hill New Investigator Award by the American Heart Association and the first non-European based nurse to be awarded the inaugural title of Nurse Fellow by the European Society of Cardiology. Simon spent two years at the University of Glasgow, Scotland where he was instrumental in establishing the world-renowned Glasgow Heart Failure Nurse Liaison Service and subsequently persuading the British Heart Foundation to establish a UK-wide service based on his model of care. In 2002 he was subsequently appointed to a “world first” – the National Heart Foundation of Australia/ Roche Chair of Cardiovascular Nursing based at the University of SA. He leads a number of research programs examining the burden of heart disease and the benefits of creating new and more cost-effective roles for cardiovascular nurses in order to minimise the impact of an ageing population.
Simon moved to the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland.