Peter Thompson

Biography

Professor Peter Thompson graduated from Medicine and did his postgraduate degree in Medicine at the University of Western Australia.  He trained in cardiology at Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University in Boston.  Professor Thompson is skilled in project management and team management, assisted by his completion of MBA qualifications in 2000. At Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital he was Director of the Coronary Care Unit from 1975 to 2005, Head of Cardiovascular Medicine from 1995 to 2005 and Director of Research from 2005 to 2015. He is currently Consultant Cardiologist and Head of the Heart Research Institute at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Western Australia. He is also Deputy Director of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research.

Research Interest

He has extensive experience with the design and management of large community studies, and has collaborated with the cardiovascular epidemiology group in the UWA School of Population Health over 30 years in monitoring trends in CHD, treatment and procedures using the WA linked data bases. He was joint co-ordinator of the Perth MONICA Centre and continues the follow up of the large cohort from the original study which has recently reported its long term follow-up, showing benefit of evidence based medical treatments.  He has had significant involvement in community studies of Aboriginal cardiovascular health as chief investigator of a project surveying the cardiovascular health of the Perth urban Aboriginal population.  He has had extensive involvement over 30 years in the National Heart Foundation, and his is research has been the basis for national education campaigns on the need for early action on heart attack.