RESEARCH
EMBEDDED
Australia’s first cardiac hospital has research at heart
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Professor Stephen Nicholls, Program Director of the Victorian Heart Hospital, and Director of the Monash Victorian Heart Institute‘Research and innovation has greatly advanced the treatment of cardiac patients, and it’s important to bring scientific innovations into clinical care sooner.’
Better patient care
Ambulance Victoria data shows that every day around 19 Victorians suffer a cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting, and only one in 10 survive.
The Department of Health estimates more than 300,000 Victorians live with heart disease – and with a growing and ageing population, this number is set to increase.
Prof Nicholls says embedding research and teaching in a state-of-the-art facility means patients will have access to cutting-edge treatment sooner.
‘Better patient experiences are a critical component of how we've designed this building. We want to do great things for a lot of patients and improve their (health) outcomes,’ Prof Nicholls said.
‘There's an incredible opportunity to be involved in clinical trials - whether it's of a new medication, whether it's one of our new devices in our interventional labs or our operating theatres, whether it's even just new ways of delivering the care that we already have.
‘Bringing researchers close to patients and clinicians, enables (researchers) to make discoveries and inventions. It means we can bring those inventions to the clinic much faster.’
Professor Stephen Nicholls explains the benefit of having cardiac research co-located at the new Victorian Heart Hospital
Accessible transcript
IMAGES: View upward from the ground of a section of the hospital, followed by an aerial view of the hospital and surrounding suburb, and view upward of the upper level of the hospital.
VOICEOVER: We're really excited. This is the first standalone heart hospital in the country. The only one of its type in the southern hemisphere.
IMAGES: Professor Nicholls speaking in a conference room of the hospital.
VOICEOVER: This has been an extraordinary journey. My colleagues started to think about a dedicated heart facility probably about a decade ago.
IMAGES: A tracking shot across a section of the hospital façade.
ONSCREEN TEXT: How is research embedded in the hospital?
IMAGES: Professor Nicholls speaking in a conference room of the hospital, followed by view upward of the upper level of the hospital.
VOICEOVER: This project is completely about innovation. We're not just building a heart hospital. We're putting a heart hospital on a university campus.
IMAGES: Professor Nicholls and a colleague talking, silhouetted against a large viewing window, then walking along a corridor flanked by work benches, followed by a view of a research laboratory.
VOICEOVER: We're embedding our research. It brings our researchers close to our patients and our clinicians to be able to make new discoveries, new inventions. We can bring those inventions to the clinic much faster.
IMAGES: Professor Nicholls speaking in a conference room of the hospital.
VOICEOVER: It's important for our researchers. It's important for our patients because it means that our patients will have access to cutting-edge treatments.
IMAGES: An operating theatre, followed by a CT scanner.
VOICEOVER: There are some patients with heart disease where there are no treatments that can help them. We need new solutions.
IMAGES: Professor Nicholls speaking in a conference room of the hospital, followed by doors opening into an operating theatre.
VOICEOVER: If I was a patient in this hospital, there's an incredible opportunity to be involved in clinical trials, new ways of delivering the care that we already have.
ONSCREEN TEXT: A national training hub.
IMAGES: Lights within an operating theatre, followed by a tracking shot moving down a section of a research laboratory.
VOICEOVER: We have an opportunity to be the epicentre for teaching and training the next generation. and they're not just doctors. We're talking about nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians, genetic counsellors, you name it. This is going to be the national hub for where we're going to train people.
IMAGES: An operating theatre, followed by a lecture theatre and research laboratory.
VOICEOVER: Whether it's operating somebody in one of our operating theatres, or putting a new heart valve in one of our interventional cath labs. We can have people sitting our lecture theatres, our meeting rooms watching that, and then we can quickly decamp out into teaching areas and debrief and talk about what we just saw and why that's important.
IMAGES: Research laboratory.
VOICEOVER: We can simulate a whole bunch of new interventional procedures to use across the region, work closely with industry where we know that kind of simulation training is increasingly important.
ONSCREEN TEXT: How will you innovate future treatments?
IMAGES: aerial view tracks across the hospital, followed by close up of theatre lighting.
VOICEOVER: We see this whole building for us being a smaller part of Monash Health. It's not just about innovation from a research and teaching perspective. It really allows for us to innovate the way that we simply just look after our patients on a day-to-day basis.
IMAGES: Upward view of façade of section of the hospital.
VOICEOVER: It’s fundamentally about the patient. We want people home and well and live the lives they want to live.
IMAGES: Frame with ‘In partnership with Monash Health (logo) and Monash University (logo)’.
IMAGES: The closing slide is the Victorian Health Building Authority logo, the web address vhba.vic.gov.au and the Victorian State Government logo.
End of transcript.
Survivor welcomes new Victorian Heart Hospital
Keen runner Gerard Bakker once thought nothing of tackling a 5km course most Saturdays. One day last year though, the 66-year-old grandfather’s jog in Belgrave Heights became a matter of life and death.
He felt back pain and before long, ‘I was out,’ Mr Bakker recalls.
But he was ‘in the right place when the wrong thing happened’ - his life was saved by his daughter performing CPR, a nearby defibrillator and paramedics.
‘I remember one of the paramedics said to me: “Welcome back, you are okay, you’ve just had a cardiac arrest.”’
Taken by ambulance to Monash Medical Centre, Mr Bakker had a stent inserted into a coronary artery and is doing well.
‘My cardiac health is good, I am told. I now have a cardiologist who I see regularly.’
Mr Bakker considers himself to be lucky that so much help was at hand when disaster struck, and believes the new Victorian Heart Hospital means more people will be able to access life-saving care.
‘I think it will improve outcomes for people… There is always room for improvement in any system and the new heart hospital is one of those.’
Tailored design from the ground up
The Victorian Heart Hospital is a purpose-built centre of excellence that will enable integration of clinical and scientific resources and expertise as well as the latest technology.
At ground level, the hospital’s emergency department will receive urgent patients, along with a helicopter landing pad on the roof. Patient wards and surgical theatres are on the higher levels of the hospital – all operated by Monash Health.
One level is devoted to research and training.
Home to the state’s leading cardiac specialists and researchers, the Victorian Heart Hospital will provide life-saving diagnosis and treatment for thousands of patients each year.
UP TO 13,500
LABORATORY PROCEDURES
UP TO 2,150
CARDIAC SURGERIES
UP TO 108,000
CONSULTATIONS
Part of improving the experience of patients, patient rooms being on the building’s upper levels means each has a window and views to the outside world.
‘We want to provide patients with holistic, patient-focused care while also delivering world-class education and training opportunities,’ Prof Nicholls said.
‘We’re going to bring research and treatments out of the lab and to patients’ bedsides.’
‘Research and innovation has greatly advanced the treatment of cardiac patients, and it’s important to bring scientific innovations into clinical care sooner.’ added Prof Nicholls.
Learn more about the Victorian Heart Hospital via our dedicated project page.
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The $577 million Victorian Heart Hospital is now officially open. The nation’s first standalone heart hospital is in the Monash University precinct at Clayton in Melbourne’s south-east.
Patients will have access to cutting-edge treatments thanks to the Monash Victorian Heart Institute hub for cardiac research, specialist training and patient clinical trials co-located within the hospital.
Professor Stephen Nicholls is Director of the Monash Victorian Heart Institute and Program Director at the new Victorian Heart Hospital.
He has played a pivotal role in development of the hospital, which combines advanced patient care with research embedded at its core.
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Research at heart of cardiac hospital
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Project Director Samantha Morgan on delivering mental health infrastructure
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Our project directors lead multi-disciplinary teams to deliver the Victorian Government’s multibillion-dollar health infrastructure program.
This includes planning and building new hospitals and emergency care, mental health and aged care facilities, and delivering new health precincts and models of care to ensure our health system meets the current and future needs of all Victorians.
Meet Samantha Morgan. Samantha is one of our Project Directors in the Delivery team at the Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA).
Here, Samantha talks about her role leading the Pathway to 144 Mental Health Beds (Mental Health Beds Expansion Program).
The Mental Health Beds Expansion Program was designed to respond to a key recommendation from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.
Once complete, the program will deliver more acute public mental health beds across Victorian health services to support more people experiencing mental ill-health.
What does your role involve?
As the Project Director, I'm responsible for delivering four mental health buildings across four operational sites as part of the Mental Health Beds Expansion Program. We've taken the design all the way to construction.
Why is the program so important for Victoria?
The infrastructure is one of the enabling activities to change how mental health is delivered in Victoria. The facilities are a very different environment to what's ever been delivered in this state and it's something we're incredibly proud of.
The buildings are informed through co-design, which involves staff, consumers, their families and carers.
That was one of the drivers from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System – that the buildings needed to be responsive, not just around delivery from an operational perspective. They really wanted to change the infrastructure and how people interacted with that infrastructure.
Samantha talks about her role as a Project Director at VHBA
Accessible transcript
IMAGES: Image of Samantha Morgan seated in red background, the Victorian Health Building Authority logo is on the bottom left
ONSCREEN TEXT: Samantha Morgan Project Director, Delivery, Victorian Health Building Authority
IMAGES: Shot of Samantha Morgan and man in business attire pointing at a computer with building plans on screen, followed by view of Samantha Morgan speaking.
VOICEOVER: The best thing for me is actually the tangible nature of taking documentation and people's ideas and then seeing these buildings come out of the ground.
IMAGES: Timelapse of a building being constructed with crane lifting building materials, followed by timelapse of clouds going over the Northern Hospital building.
VOICEOVER: Once you've experienced it, it's really difficult to give up.
IMAGES: Shot of Samantha Morgan seated
VOICEOVER: I'm the Project Director on the pathway to mental health program. I've been at the VHBA for just over two years.
ONSCREEN TEXT: What do you enjoy about your role?
IMAGES: Timelapse view of busy construction site with cranes in background followed by birds-eye view of building under construction, followed by successive aerial shots of completed buildings
VOICEOVER: Being a generalist is really important to me. I think it gives you a breadth. You have an understanding of all the different roles that are required to deliver programs or projects of this kind of size.
IMAGES: Close up view of Samantha Morgan being interviewed intercut with a birds-eye view of a garden area
VOICEOVER: The most important things about project management for me is around team, structure, process and vision and direction.
IMAGES: Shot of Samantha Morgan explaining a part of a building to a woman, followed by shot of Samantha Morgan discussing with man
VOICEOVER: You're essentially the coach you're pointing the direction we're going in making sure the right people are in the right places and making sure the tasks that need to be done are being done in a timely way.
IMAGES: Shot of Samantha Morgan and man looking at computer with plant in foreground followed by shot of Samantha Morgan speaking while seated.
VOICEOVER: I think the secret to being a good Project Director is how you manage the relationships with people. There's the formal management of that relationship which is usually contractually driven.
IMAGES: Shot of Samantha Morgan discussing with man in hi-vis in a hallway. Followed by return to Samantha Morgan seated.
VOICEOVER: But the more important thing is how you interact on a personal level while still doing that in a pragmatic way to deliver a program.
ONSCREEN TEXT: Why Health Infrastructure?
IMAGES: Tracking shot of crane moving construction materials, followed by view of Samantha Morgan seated, followed by tilting shot of Samantha Morgan writing notes.
VOICEOVER: The investment that's happening now provides such an opportunity for people new to the industry to really start at the ground level and move through the remainder of their career across a whole variety of opportunities that are sitting in the pipeline.
IMAGES: View of Sam Morgan speaking, followed by view inside a sunny hospital room and a shot of a water feature in garden area
VOICEOVER: If you're interested and you've got the right attitude and you're willing to learn it is an amazing place with so many opportunities and so much variety.
IMAGES: View of Samantha Morgan speaking followed by circling aerial shot of hospital under construction.
VOICEOVER: You shouldn't be concerned. If you don't come from an infrastructure background, if you are a generalist, there's a place for everybody and it's an amazing pipeline of work to be involved in.
IMAGES: The closing slide is the Victorian Health Building Authority logo, the web address vhba.vic.gov.au and the Victorian State Government logo.
End of transcript.
How does each project come together?
We're really pleased in the way the designs have come about and they're very different to the current facilities, which is really important as we move forward.
For us the co-design process was really around big blue-sky ideas that people have, then managing what can actually be delivered within the budget and within the timeline. Bringing those two things together is really our key role in that space, so we get the most out of a once-in-a-generation investment.
What can you tell us about the Northern Hospital project?
We've just delivered 30 mental health beds at the Northern Hospital in Epping, which is quite a large facility. It's in a really obvious point on the road - you can see it from both of the main roads. Eighteen months ago it was a car park!
Through a very strict regime, driven by the contract and challenges of COVID-19, to get there where we have now delivered an amazing looking building - that's something that I will always be able to reflect on.
What does the future hold?
We're now transitioning into a regional mental health beds expansion program where we'll be delivering facilities in regional locations. So, we’re taking real-life contemporary lessons learned and transitioning them directly into the next project, which is a really amazing opportunity for the team.
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Meet Project Director Samantha Morgan
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Youth prevention and recovery care centre expansion and upgrade program
The Victorian Government is investing $141 million to support youth mental health, delivering new and refurbished youth prevention and recovery care (YPARC) centres across the state.
YPARC services provide treatment, care and support to young people aged 16-25 who are experiencing mental health challenges and/or psychological distress. The investment will deliver five new 10-bed facilities – doubling current system capacity.
The new centres will be in:
Delivering Victoria’s health infrastructure investment
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Delivering Victoria’s biggest ever investment in health infrastructure
Accessible video transcript
IMAGES: an animation of the Victorian Health Building Authority logo displays
Voice-over: We’re the Victorian Health Building Authority
IMAGES: montage of aerial view of Monash Hospital emergency department redevelopment; an architectural plan; mental health workers exploring a prototype of a bedroom module; aerial of Sunshine Hospital emergency department; construction workers cementing basement of Victorian Heart Hospital
Voice-over: We’re planning and delivering the Victorian Government’s biggest ever multi-billion-dollar investment in health infrastructure
IMAGES: montage of hybrid operating theatre at Northern Hospital; worker with nail gun; community engagement session at Footscray; Community Hospital community consultation; garden courtyard at Bendigo Hospital; aerial of greater Ballarat with artist impression of new hospital
Voice-over: Partnering with service providers, industry and the community to develop innovative and sustainable health facilities for our growing communities.
IMAGES: montage of workers at concrete pour; aerial of Victorian Heart Hospital construction
Voice-over: Creating thousands of new jobs and supporting our state’s economic growth
IMAGES: Aerial of St George’s Residential Aged Care facility; indigenous man and female health worker; aerial view of artist impression of new Footscray Hospital
Voice-over: To help keep Victoria one of the world's most liveable places, now and into the future
A sliding transition screen then displays the Victorian Health Building Authority logo and the web address vhba.vic.gov.au
Final frame of Victoria State Government logo and text ‘Authorised by the Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne’
End of transcript.
Providing care for all Victorians, closer to home
Our project pipeline will help to ensure more Victorians, regardless of their location, have access to the healthcare they need.
In addition to building new facilities, we’re also investing in upgrading and expanding existing regional facilities, including new medical equipment and technology and modernising mental health environments for consumers.
Through innovative, modern design we’re creating aged care facilities that are dementia friendly and adapting emergency departments to provide dedicated paediatric zones and mental health hubs for urgent care.
Selection of projects in our current pipeline
- New campuses at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital
- Upgrading the Austin Hospital
- Upgrading the Northern Hospital
- New West Gippsland Hospital
- New Queen Elizabeth II hospital
- Second stage of the Wonthaggi Hospital
- Monash Medical Centre redevelopment
- Dandenong Hospital redevelopment
- New Footscray Hospital
- Stage 2 of the Thomas Embling Hospital redevelopment
- New Barwon Women’s and Children’s
- New Melton Hospital
- Royal Children’s Hospital redevelopment
- Frankston Hospital redevelopment
- Warrnambool Hospital redevelopment
- New emergency departments at Casey Hospital and Werribee Mercy Hospital
- A Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug Residential Rehabilitation Facility in Mildura
- Ten early parenting centres across the state
- Increased acute and community mental health services at Goulburn Valley Health in Shepparton
- Three aged care redevelopments at Camperdown, Mansfield and Orbost.
Community engagement
Building a new hospital, mental health or aged care facility is a complex job. It takes a lot of planning, and meaningful engagement with service users, people with lived experience, staff, experts, the local community and a range of stakeholders to help shape the services, priorities and look and feel of a hospital or facility.
Our focus is to take the community on the journey throughout the planning and delivery of a project, so they feel informed and confident their concerns and issues are heard. Whether that’s informing final designs, managing issues proactively or celebrating project milestones with the local community.
Our approach to designing health infrastructure prioritises accessibility, quality, and innovation. By investing in new facilities, upgrading existing infrastructure, promoting community-based healthcare services, and co-designing with local communities, we can help increase access to healthcare Victorians need, closer to home.
Our partners
We work with organisations with specialist expertise in health service design and planning, architecture, engineering, construction, project management, property, and asset management to deliver world-class, innovative and sustainable health infrastructure.
Want to work with us? Find out more about our procurement process.
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At the Victorian Health Building Authority, we’re responsible for planning and delivering the Victorian Government’s multi-billion-dollar health infrastructure program.
We oversee more than 80 health, mental health and aged care projects currently in development across metropolitan and regional Victoria. These include:
- hospitals and ambulance stations
- residential aged care facilities
- mental health facilities
- new and upgraded alcohol and other drug rehabilitation facilities
- replacing and upgrading engineering infrastructure and medical equipment.
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Delivering Victoria’s health infrastructure
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Last updated: 01 July 2025