Australia has produced another world first in the medical industry, with the discovery of a process that will double the life of a heart waiting to be transplanted.

In an incredible breakthrough for heart transplant patients, Australian scientists have reformulated a solution that protects a freshly donated heart, before it goes on ice.

Professor Peter Macdonald from Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute said that tests have shown the reformulated solution can more than double the time from five hours to up to 14 hours, for a donor heart to remain healthy.

The discovery ultimately revolutionises the world's organ transplant processes and will save lives by connecting greater areas of distance and even countries to donated hearts.

It means that heart patients who previously lived too far away from a donor, will no longer be denied a transplant because the heart will now be able to travel to further destinations.

Professor Macdonald who is the head of the institutes's cardiac physiology and transplantation laboratory said “we should be able to take a heart from anywhere in Australia to anywhere in Australasia, so including New Zealand.”

Previously with the limitations of conventional methods, only 40 per cent of hearts could be successfully transplanted.

The new solution could result in an increase in the number of heart transplants in Australia from 80 to more than 120 people.

“We think we can probably increase the number of hearts from 40 percent to 60 percent,” Prof Macdoanld said.

“And if you look at it on a global scale, if we can increase the usability of donor hearts by 20 percent then it has enormous potential....That would be a very worthwhile improvement, particularly if you're on the waiting list for a transplant.”

There are now plans to adapt the concept to other transplantable organs such as the liver, lung, kidney and pancreas.

It is also expected that a clinic trial will begin within a year to test the new solution which contains the drugs cariporide and glyceryl trinitrate.

The American Journal for Transplantation will soon be publishing a paper detailing the new heart transplant solution.