The Baird Institute

Our Mission - To foster research and apply science to improve the outcomes of patients facing heart or lung surgery.

In Australia, diseases of the heart, lungs and blood vessels kill more people than any other disease. Because these diseases affect people of all ages, they can kill your grandparents, your parents, your brother or sister, or even your children.

For a 40-year-old, the risk of having coronary heart disease at some time in their future life is one in two for men and one in three for women.

Risk factors such as poor diet, decreasing levels of activity, obesity, diabetes, smoking and stress can lead to severe coronary heart disease, which is at present, predominantly treated by surgery.

Valuable research into heart and lung disease is being done but little of this time, effort and money is directed to improvements in surgical techniques for the most frequently diagnosed forms of heart and lung disease.

What's New

Fifth Anniversary Dinner

29th March

Doltone House, on the finger wharf at Pyrmont, was the venue for our fifth anniversary celebrations.

The evening began with cocktails and canapes on the deck followed by a sit down dinner and presentations.

Our Chairman, Assoc Professor Paul Bannon, presented a brief history of Royal PrinceAlfredHospital, Professor Douglas Baird and the students who have passed through the Institute and their achievements over the last five years.

Paul also paid tribute to Mr Bill Higgins, declaring him a member of the Chairman's Council. Bill is a patient of Assoc Professor Brian McCaughan who performed a pleuropneumonectomy on Bill to treat his mesothelioma. Bill has donated a considerable amount of money to the Institute for which we are eternally grateful.

Adam Spencer, our guest speaker, recounted his long association with the Baird family, the Institute and his courtship of his wife.

After a video presentation, courtesy of the RPA program, thanks to Carol and Penny, Adam interviewed two of the patients seen in the video, Grace and Finola.

Grace appeared in the very first episode of RPA when Professor Baird implanted her first defibrillator in 1995. Dr Bayfield has since replaced it and she is still doing very well.

Finola is also a patient of Brian McCaughan and she too had a pleuropneumonectomy to treat mesothelioma.

Grace, Finola and Bill were very brave in sharing their experiences with the group and demonstrated that research and surgery are not just white coats test tubes and operating theatres but it's about people and we saw the human face of what the institute is about.

Our thanks to the 205 guests who attended and whose generosity helped us raise $31,000 on the night.