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Former PhD student scoops top accolade from cardiovascular journal

Posted on 12 June 2017

A former PhD student in the Department of Health Sciences has won a top accolade from a prestigious journal of cardiovascular science.

Nicole Valtorta, whose paper on the health risks of loneliness and social isolation, was selected as Paper of the Year 2016 by Heart.

Heart measured their top papers based on pageviews, citations and Altmetric, after which the editorial team voted to select the winner from the top 10 papers.

The paper, titled 'Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke: systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal observational studies', has linked loneliness with death from stroke and heart disease.

The study received widespread national and international media coverage when it was published.

Nicole, who was a PhD student at the time the paper was published and has recently completed her PhD, said: “What a wonderful surprise - my colleagues and I are honoured to have won the best paper of the year award from Heart. 

“We see this as a recognition of our work in the field, and as yet another reason to pursue our investigations into how social relationships influence cardiovascular disease outcomes.”

Catherine Otto, Editor in Chief at Heart, added: "We commend Nicole on her excellent research and we are delighted that the Best Paper Award went to a young woman, given the underrepresentation of women in research and science."

Award certificates will be presented at the Heart stand during the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona in August.

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