SpeakersYasir Abu Omar.jpeg Organisation: Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Position: Consultant Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgeon Mr Yasir Abu-Omar undertook his training in cardiothoracic surgery in Cambridge, Oxford and London. Prior to that, he completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) at the University of Oxford investigating cerebral injury following cardiac surgery. Mr. Abu-Omar performs the full range of adult cardiac operations. His areas of interest include mitral valve repair, minimally invasive aortic valve surgery, TAVI and surgery for atrial fibrillation. He is also a member of the transplant team at Papworth with a specialist interest in surgical management of heart failure and mechanical circulatory support. In addition, he is a member of the multidisciplinary cardiomyopathy group – specifically offering surgery for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. His research interests include investigating the efficacy of surgery for atrial fibrillation, outcomes of mitral valve surgery and the investigation of end-organ injury following cardiac surgery. He has published widely and is currently the co-editor and section editor of two forthcoming textbooks. He also has a major interest in education and training and is currently the regional training programme director for cardiothoracic surgery. Aubrey Almeida.jfif Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Cardiothoracic Surgeon Mr Aubrey Almeida graduated MBBS from the University of Melbourne in 1986 and two years later undertook four years of military services with the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. He completed his cardiothoracic training in 1999, training at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, whereupon he undertook a graduate Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA. He commenced practice in 2001 as a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and is a member of the senior medical staff at Monash Medical Centre and Epworth HealthCare. Aubrey is a member of the team that pioneered robotic surgery in Australia. Aubrey is the Vice President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons and a Deputy Director of the Epworth Cardiac Sciences Clinical Institute. He is an examiner for the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. He has interests in valvular heart disease, minimally invasive surgery, adult congenital heart disease and surgical education. Tim Campbell.jpg Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Emergency Physician Dr Timothy Campbell (MBBS (Hons); FACEM) is an Emergency Medicine Physician at Epworth Richmond. Tim’s interests include medical education - providing teaching for medical students and doctors in training, as well as nursing staff. Tim also enjoys cycling, furniture making, coffee and spending time with his two young children. Nic Cox.jpg Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Cardiologist
Associate Professor Cox is an interventional cardiologist with experience in managing patients with coronary disease, heart attacks and chest pain. Nicholas was an early advocate for the use of radial access for coronary intervention and has published in this field. His areas of expertise are coronary angiography, stenting, myocardial infarction and heart failure management.
Ron Dick.jpg Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Cardiologist and Director, Cardiac Sciences Clinical Institute Associate Professor Ron Dick is the Director of Cardiac Services Clinical Institute at Epworth HealthCare and the former Chair of Epworth’s Group Medical Advisory Council.
Andris Ellims.png Organisation: Victoria Heart Position: Cardiologist Dr Andris Ellims is a cardiologist and cardiac imaging specialist at Epworth Freemasons, Epworth Richmond and the Alfred Hospital. Dr Ellims trained at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and completed Advanced Training in Cardiology with a Fellowship in Cardiac Imaging (including echocardiography, cardiac CT and cardiac MRI) at the Alfred Hospital. Lachlan Henderson.jfif Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Group Chief Executive Dr Lachlan Henderson is a medical practitioner who has 30 years’ experience in the health industry, joining Epworth in February 2017. Lachlan’s previous executive roles include CEO St John of God (SJG) Subiaco Hospital, Executive Director of SJG Perth Northern Region, CEO SJG Pathology and the Group Director Medical Services and Strategy, SJG. Prior to taking on these roles, he was a General Practitioner for more than a decade. Critical to his success has been his focus on quality patient care and staff satisfaction while enhancing the business and financial outcomes for the organisation. In his career, Lachlan has held a variety of University and Board appointments. He is currently Vice President of the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) and Chair of Cricket Australia. Jennifer Johns.jpg Organisation: Austin Hospital Position: Consultant Cardiologist Dr Johns has worked at the Austin Hospital since 1987 and at Epworth since 1984. Her main interests are echocardiography, management of valve disease and management of heart disease in pregnancy. She is the Cardiologist appointed to the Perinatal Unit at Mercy Hospital for Women. The Unit provides multi-disciplinary management of pregnancy in women with heart disease. Dr Johns was awarded an AM in 2015, for services to cardiology as a clinician, teacher and mentor and for service to the not-for-profit sector. Andre la gerche.jpg Organisation: Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute Position: Head of Sports Cardiology and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Associate Professor André La Gerche (MBBS, PhD, FRACP, FESC) is Head of Sports Cardiology and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute Melbourne. He is also a clinical cardiologist working at the Alfred Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He is an NHMRC Early Career Fellow and a NHF Future Leader Fellow. Major research interests can be summarised as: “exertional symptoms require assessment during exertion” reflecting the fact that resting imaging is a poor surrogate of functional limitation. Andre has developed novel echocardiographic and CMR methodologies for assessment of the right ventricle and pulmonary circulation during exercise. These have been applied to the assessment of heart failure, congenital heart disease, pulmonary hypertension and athletes. He has over 100 peer-review publications and text-book chapters including publications in Circulation and the European Heart Journal. Andre completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne and 4 years of post-doctoral research at the University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium studying the effect of endurance exercise on the heart. In particular, exercise CMR was used to understand the mechanisms of right ventricular arrhythmias. Marco Larobina.PNG Organisation: Epworth HealthCare and Royal Melbourne Hospital Position: Cardiothoracic Surgeon Mr Marco Larobina is a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at the Epworth Richmond Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Private Hospital, and One Heart Cardiology. He has a special interest in adult cardiac surgery, minimally invasive surgery, adult congenital heart disease, thoracic surgery, and aortic valve surgery. He completed his training at the Alfred Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Royal Children’s Hospital. Following this, Marco completed a Fellowship at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and obtained his Fellowship from Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. disease.
Dr Ravat Headshot.jpg Organisation: Fortis Hospital, Mumbai Position: Senior Interventional Cardiologist and Head Dr Hasmukh Ravat has extensive experience of clinical and invasive cardiology, and primary interest in coronary and peripheral angioplasty. He joined private practice at Wockhardt-Fortis Heart Hospital after completing fellowships in Australia. In fifteen years, he has performed more than 16,000 cath lab procedures with 6000 coronary angioplasties. Thirty percent of these are high-risk patients, patients with cardiogenic shock or primary angioplasties. Dr Ravat has participated in several national and international conferences and live workshops, and has more than twenty-five scientific publications. He is also a teacher for a super speciality course in cardiology. D Rollo pic- 2015-10-15 - 885.jpg Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Cardiologist Dr David Rollo is a cardiologist with Epworth HealthCare. His special interests are the way in which doctors think and how they communicate risk. He has particular interest in Bayesian reasoning, and in the disconnect between cognitive conceptualisation and behavioural change. Prash Sanders.jpg Organisation: University of Adelaide Position: Director, Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders Professor Prash Sanders is a clinical and academic electrophysiologist. He undertook his Cardiology training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, electrophysiology and doctoral training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, before taking up a postdoctoral training in Bordeaux, France. Professor Sanders was appointed to the Knapman-National Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiology Research at the University of Adelaide and as Clinical Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2005. He has since established an internationally recognised electrophysiology laboratory and research group which is at the forefront of strategies for the treatment and management of atrial fibrillation. Professor Sanders is an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and has published >300 peer-reviewed publications. He has received a variety of accolades including being named the 2010 Australian Medical Researcher of the year under the age of 40, receiving a NHMRC Achievement award for the highest ranked Practitioner Award in 2013, and most recently the RT Hall Prize from the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand in 2015. James Sapontis.jpg Organisation: Monash Health Position: Cardiologist Dr James Sapontis is an interventional cardiologist with a special interest in complex coronary intervention. He has worked both in the United Kingdom and the United States where he focused on chronic total occlusion angioplasty. His clinical research is related to CTO-PCI, complete revascularisation, and the use of left ventricular support devices. He is a national and international proctor in CTO-PCI and helps trains interventional cardiologists in C.H.I.P (Complex Higher-risk and Indicated Patients) angioplasty. Leon Simons.jpg Organisation: St Vincent's Hospital Position: Endocrinologist Associate Professor Leon Simons has continuously participated in research and education, clinical trials and lipid clinics since 1971. He is a co-founder of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society. Photo - Mr Peter Skillington.jpg Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Cardiothorarcic Surgeon Mr Peter Skillington is a specialist cardiothoracic surgeon. He also performs routine coronary artery bypass graft, heart valve and aortic surgery. He is Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Unit of the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Deputy Director of the Cardiac Sciences Clinical Institute, Epworth Hospital. His chief research and clinical interests are aortic valve replacement utilising the ROSS procedure, for which he is a world expert, an operation which he has pioneered in this country. His other main area of interest is in adult congenital cardiac surgery, an area in which he has performed over 900 congenital cardiac surgery procedures since the 1990s. He has previously been President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS), and also he has been Chairman of the Board of Studies for Cardiothoracic Surgery Training in Australia and New Zealand (RACS).
. SPARKS, P - CONFIRMED headshot 12092013.JPG Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Director of Electrophysiology Dr Paul Sparks is the Director of Electrophysiology at Epworth HealthCare and also holds an appointment as Cardiologist & Electrophysiologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. He completed his MBBS at Melbourne University in 1988 and attained his FRACP in 1996. Paul completed a PhD in 1998 in cardiac electrophysiology. His post doctorate studies were at the University of California, San Francisco, USA from 1998-2000. Paul has also received a number of prestigious awards including the Young Investigator Award in Research for The North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology in 1998, The Ralph Reader Prize for The Cardiac Society of Australia & New Zealand in 1998 and the Premiers Award for Medical Research in 2000. He is actively engaged in clinical arrhythmia research at Royal Melbourne Hospital with an emphasis on atrial fibrillation, stroke prevention and the effects of Omega-3 fatty acids on the heart. He is currently running studies analysing sudden arrhythmic death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and attenuated approaches to ablation of paroxysmal AF. He is responsible also for the clinical supervision and training of other electrophysiologists and PhD candidates. Paul speaks fluent Italian. WALTON, Tony - CONFIRMED 14082014.jpg Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Interventional Cardiologist Prof Antony Walton is an Interventional Cardiologist based at Epworth Hospital, and is a Professor in Medicine at Monash University. He is Deputy Director of Cardiology and Head of the Cardiac Labs at The Alfred, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at The Baker Institute. His training in Cardiology was at the Alfred Hospital and further postgraduate training in Interventional Cardiology was undertaken at Stanford University Medical Centre in the United States. His professional interests include general and interventional cardiology, with particular interests in structural heart disease and hypertension. The developing areas of percutaneous valve replacement and interventional techniques for the treatment of common conditions such as hypertension are particular interests. He has published his clinical and research work in peer reviewed manuscripts on subjects including the novel techniques of percutaneous aortic valve replacement and renal denervation for refractory hypertension.
Michael Yii.JPG Organisation: Epworth HealthCare Position: Cardiothoracic Surgeon Mr Michael Yii is a senior cardiothoracic surgeon at Epworth Eastern Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, with special interest in arrhythmia surgery and clinical trials. He established the concomitant AF program at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne in 2001 and more recently the Totally Thoracoscopic Epicardial AF Ablation programme for Standalone AF at Epworth Eastern. | RegistrationSelect Your Tickets |
