Vlado Perkovic

Vlado Perkovic is an Australian renal physician and researcher who is the Provost at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, having previously been Dean of Medicine & Health at that University between 2019 and 2023.

He is also an Honorary Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health Australia, and a kidney disease researcher leading a number of international clinical trials.

Early life and education

Perkovic was born in Brinje, Croatia and moved to Australia with his family before the age of one. He lived in Melbourne and trained in medicine at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, receiving his MBBS and Doctor of Philosophy qualifications from the University of Melbourne in 1992 and 2005 respectively.

Career Perkovic moved to Sydney and into professional academia after completing his PhD in 2005. The thesis undertaken at the University of Melbourne was entitled "The Cardiovascular Aspects of Kidney Disease". Perkovic relocated to Sydney to take on a position as Associate Principal Director at The George Institute for Global Health (2007-2008), and was appointed Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. Perkovic worked in a number of senior research and executive positions at The George Institute, before being appointed Executive Director of The George Institute, Australia in 2012. In 2017, Perkovic was appointed to lead the non-communicable diseases theme as part of the University of New South Wales Medicine's thematic research strategy. as an authority in the fields of kidney disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and clinical trials. His research is widely cited and has been responsible for changing medical guidelines.

Perkovic is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (1999), the American Society of Nephrology, (2008) and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2016). Some of his previous positions include being President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI, the peak body for Medical Research Institutes), Chairman of the International Society of Nephrology Advancing Clinical Trials initiative (ISN-ACT 2016-), a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Australian Clinical Trials Alliance, (2016-8), a member of the Executive Operations Secretariat, Australasian Kidney Trials Network (2016-) and Chair of the AKTN Scientific Committee 2013-6. He was previously a member of the Health Translation Advisory Committee (HTAC) of the National Health and Medical Research Council (2015-8)

Research focus and publications Perkovic has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers, and his career has been based on clinical research investigating the prevention and treatment of kidney disease, and its complications. As well as epidemiological research identifying important risk factors, Perkovic has led a broad suite of clinical trials and meta-analyses aiming to identify effective interventions that slow the progression of kidney disease and reduce the risk of developing the many complications of kidney disease. Some of Perkovic's key outputs here have been work on diabetic nephropathy published in a range of journals,

Perkovic's research has led to major publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, BMJ, Annals of Internal Medicine, PLoS Medicine and a range of specialty journals. He was appointed to the Editorial Board of the New England Journal of Medicine in 2017, the first Australian to receive this honour.