Tom Hallahan is an experienced intensive care nurse, ALS instructor and simulation coordinator at Epworth HealthCare.

Tom has broad experience in providing clinical skills and simulation sessions to all health professionals in a safe, supportive and interactive manner.
 

Tess is the Director of Clinical Education and Simulation at Epworth Healthcare. She has an extensive background in the establishment and management of hi-fidelity simulation education centers, the mentoring, coordination and training of facilitators and clinical education program development across Victoria.

Her portfolio also oversees the clinical placements of over 3000 undergraduate students, from 14 education providers, across Epworth hospitals. She has been involved in the design and implementation of national and state health simulation-based training programs along with extensive experience in the development and implementation of team-based clinical skills and simulation programs to all health professionals.

Tess’s main interest is in the provision of interprofessional learning experiences for all levels of health professionals especially utilising clinical skills and simulation modalities. Tess comes from Critical Care Nursing Background in Perioperative and Emergency Nursing. She is a founding member and current board member of the Victorian Simulation Alliance (VSA), a past Executive Committee member of ASSH and has had extensive involvement in Victorian Department of Health’s expert advisory groups across Simulation Based Education and Training, Expanded Settings and Eastern Clinical Training Network committee.

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.

Mr Larobina has a special interest in mitral valve and complex valve disease, aortic surgery, aortic valve replacement and repair, total arterial revascularisation, minimally invasive mitral valve surgery, and surgery for carcinoid heart disease.

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.

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.

Associate Professor Paul Calafiore is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and trained at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne before traveling to the USA where he undertook an Advanced Cardiology Fellowship in Echocardiography at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Upon returning to Australia, Paul was appointed as a Staff Specialist at The Austin Hospital where he introduced transoesophageal echocardiography to Victoria, as well as bringing intraoperative echocardiography – a fundamental advancement to the initiation of mitral valve repair surgery at the Austin Hospital. During his years as Director of Echocardiography at Austin Health and at Epworth Richmond, Paul helped streamline the performance of exercise and pharmacological stress echocardiography as well as 3D transoesophageal echocardiography.

Paul’s specific areas of clinical interest are in valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathies, pericardial disease and adult congenital heart disease. His commitment to sharing knowledge and expertise is clearly demonstrated through his teaching commitments with medical students, cardiology trainees and trainee cardiac sonographers. Paul participates in interventional cardiology programs such as transcatheter aortic valve implantation, MitraClip (a minimally invasive mitral valve repair process), percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion and atrial septal defect closure.

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.

Associate Professor Paul Calafiore is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and trained at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne before traveling to the USA where he undertook an Advanced Cardiology Fellowship in Echocardiography at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Upon returning to Australia, Paul was appointed as a Staff Specialist at The Austin Hospital where he introduced transoesophageal echocardiography to Victoria, as well as bringing intraoperative echocardiography – a fundamental advancement to the initiation of mitral valve repair surgery at the Austin Hospital. During his years as Director of Echocardiography at Austin Health and at Epworth Richmond, Paul helped streamline the performance of exercise and pharmacological stress echocardiography as well as 3D transoesophageal echocardiography.

Paul’s specific areas of clinical interest are in valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathies, pericardial disease and adult congenital heart disease. His commitment to sharing knowledge and expertise is clearly demonstrated through his teaching commitments with medical students, cardiology trainees and trainee cardiac sonographers. Paul participates in interventional cardiology programs such as transcatheter aortic valve implantation, MitraClip (a minimally invasive mitral valve repair process), percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion and atrial septal defect closure.

A/Prof Monique Watts is a heart failure cardiologist and specialist in women’s heart disease who works at Epworth Freemasons and the Alfred.

Dr Watts completed advanced training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital before undertaking a fellowship in advanced heart failure and transplantation at the Alfred Hospital. Dr Watts manages patients with all types of heart failure in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. In recent years Dr Watts has also established a cardiac clinic in North Central Victoria to improve access to specialist care for rural citizens. Dr Watts has also lead the development of the Women’s Heart Clinic at the Alfred Hospital which offers specialised care for patients suffering conditions more commonly seen in women such as the syndrome of MINOCA and contributory causes such as coronary artery vasospasm, spontaneous coronary artery dissection and microvascular dysfunction. Dr Watts is actively involved in clinical research, with multiple current projects in progress in the area of women’s heart disease. She also teaches for the University of Melbourne Clinical School.

A senior interventional cardiologist with twenty years' experience, Martin trained at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and completed specialty training in coronary stenting at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

His primary interest is in the treatment of chest pain or discomfort and he specialises in stenting coronary arteries and bypass grafts. He uses non-invasive CT screening of heart arteries extensively. He also manages high blood pressure, heart valve dysfunction and cardiac arrhythmias.

Martin is active in teaching and is a member of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

Dr Gary Liew is an interventional cardiologist specialising in Cardiac CT. He is the lead author of Cardiac Society of Aust & NZ guidelines on Coronary CT and Calcium Scoring. He graduated from the University of Melbourne and completed Physician & Cardiology training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. After which he undertook a further 6 years of subspeciality training including an interventional fellowship and PhD research at the Royal Adelaide Hospital as an NH & MRC scholar. He helped establish and was Cardiologist in charge of the Cardiac CT service at Royal Adelaide Hospital for 2 years. Gary completed a postgraduate fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a faculty member of Harvard Medical School, USA. He is a Senior Fellow of the University of Melbourne and is active in teaching medical students.

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.

His specialties and interests include interventional cardiology, management of acute coronary syndrome including myocardial infarction, cardiogenic shock, clinical research and medical education.