Dr Lachlan Dalli with BGRF Chairperson, Chris Wilson
The Foundation awarded the 2025 BGRF Researcher of the Year to Dr Lachlan Dalli, a Research Fellow in Monash’s School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health and Victorian Heart Institute, for his emerging leadership in pharmacoepidemiology and stroke research.
‘I am so grateful to receive this award from the Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation and acknowledge the generous support of my mentors, peers, funders and Monash University over my career’, Dr Dalli said.
Dr Dalli’s research has uncovered significant disparities in adherence to stroke medication, demonstrating that approximately one in three patients discontinue their prevention medications in the first-year post-stroke. He demonstrated that being completely adherent to these prevention medications is associated with enhanced survival, without increasing the risk of falls and led the development of an internationally-endorsed tool, TEN-SPIDERS to standardise the calculation and reporting of patient adherence to medication.
Since completing his PhD in 2022, Dr Dalli has rapidly built a strong academic and leadership profile which has been broadly recognised with many awards. With over 40 peer-reviewed publications, some in leading journals such as Stroke and Neurology, he has contributed to securing more than $3 million in research funding.
A dedicated mentor, Dr Dalli supervises multiple research students at Monash University, advises on the statistical analyses for multiple clinical research projects, and has led national conferences and webinars to build capacity in stroke data science. Dr Dalli is committed to continuing to advance the effectiveness of medicines to prevent stroke and cardiovascular events within Australia and internationally.
The Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation was established in 1994 through a generous bequest from the estate of the late Mr Glen W A Griffiths, in appreciation for the care he received at Calvary Health Care Bethlehem. The bequest provided for the establishment of a foundation, independent of the hospital, to fund Victorians researching life-threatening neurological illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease as well as palliative care and stroke. New methods of treatment resulting from the $10 million provided since it commenced are now used routinely to alleviate suffering.
