Dr Caleb Ferguson RN PhD is a Senior Research Fellow at the Western Sydney Nursing & Midwifery Research Centre and based at Blacktown Hospital in Western Sydney Local Health District, where he leads a program of atrial fibrillation and stroke prevention research. Dr Ferguson is a doctorally prepared registered nurse with over 15 years of clinical experience in stroke, neuroscience and cardiovascular care, including over a decade in acute stroke care. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Nursing), University of Stirling, Scotland (2005), Master of Health Leadership, University of Tasmania, Australia (2012), and a PhD, University of Technology Sydney, Australia (2015). His PhD focused on optimising the uptake of anticoagulation for patients living with atrial fibrillation at high risk of stroke. Having only completed his PhD less than 5 years ago, Dr Ferguson has published over 90 academic works including > 50 peer-reviewed academic papers, 15 editorials, 10 book chapters and co-edited a research methods textbook (h-index = 19). He has contributed to the development of national clinical practice guidelines including the National Heart Foundation Australia and Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand Australian Clinical Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation (2018) and the Stroke Foundation Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management (2017). He also writes regularly for The Conversation. 

Currently, Dr Ferguson leads the Heart Foundation funded INFORM-AF study, co-designing digital-based education programs for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Recently, this program has received funding from the NHMRC (Emerging Leader Investigator Grant 2021-2026) to undertake an RCT and explore translation and implementation of this intervention. It is hoped that this will improve the quality of life of patients with AF, reduce potentially avoidable hospitalisations and healthcare resource utilisation and help fight the rising tide of stroke in Australia. 

Alongside Professor Richard Lindley, Ferguson co-leads the Western Sydney Clinical Frailty Registry examining the impact of frailty in older adults admitted to Blacktown Hospital. Dr Ferguson is appointed as the Deputy Director of the Implementation Science Platform for SPHERE, he is a Managing Editor for Contemporary Nurse and the Cardiovascular Nursing Section Editor for Heart, Lung, & Circulation. He is co-editor of the widely used research methods textbook Whitehead & Ferguson (2020) 6th Ed Nursing & Midwifery Research, Elsevier. Ferguson supervises numerous HDR students and clinician-led studies in WSLHD, primarily with focus on chronic care, cardiovascular disease, frailty and stroke prevention. He is an elected Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and the Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia & New Zealand.