CORDA's main focus is sponsoring research into the prevention of heart disease, a major cause of death in the UK. We want to reduce premature death and disability caused by heart disease and stroke by funding high quality clinical research into the development of safe and painless non-invasive methods for early diagnosis of the disease.
The major research areas sponsored by CORDA have included:
We have supported projects at various centres and hospitals including:
We have a particularly strong association with Royal Brompton Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, where we have supported research for a number of years. In addition, The CORDA/Donald Longmore PhD Fellowship has been set up at Imperial College, London, to honour the contribution of one of the CORDA founders, Professor Donald Longmore, to the development of cardiovascular magnetic resonance.
The CMR Unit at Royal Brompton is the largest in the world. In 2008 they saw approximately 5,000 patients and published 63 peer reviewed research papers identifying the value of CMR in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart disease.
The hospital uses two Siemens Avanto scanners alongside the CORDA mobile scanner. In 2010 a Biomedical Research Unit based on Cardiac Regeneration will be opened that includes a state-of-the-art high-field Tesla scanner adjacent to a research catheter laboratory.