Cardiothoracic SET trainee at Royal Adelaide Hospital, interest in heart failure, mechanical circulatory support, heart transplantation and coronary revascularisation

Jacob is a cardiology advanced trainee at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. With the unique opportunity offered by this training site in managing advanced heart failure, this project was inspired by his experience with mechanical circulatory support combined with a long term interest in complex congenital heart disease.

Dr. Selvaraj presently serves as a cardiology service registrar at Fiona Stanley Hospital. Heralded for her erudition and adeptness, she commenced her journey in Western Australia in 2021 following a tenure at the esteemed cardiology unit of Royal Darwin Hospital, Northern Territory. Her tenure there was marked by fervent dedication to outreach initiatives, catalyzing her fervor for cardiovascular medicine and propelling her advocacy for heightened awareness and preventative education. Having completed the FRACP examination last year, she now harbors zealous aspirations of pursuing training in cardiology in Western Australia. Notably, her interests are anchored in the intricate domains of heart failure and transplantation, which constitute a substantial portion of the subject matter for her presentation today.

Shaun Evans is a PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders and electrophysiology fellow at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. His research interests include digital health, machine learning, big data, and the diagnosis and management of heart rhythm disorders. In 2023, he was the grateful recipient of the CSANZ Research Scholarship.

Dr Scott McKenzie is a staff cardiologist in the Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Unit of The Prince Charles Hospital and Senior Lecturer of School of Medicine of the University of Queensland and Cardiologist with Queensland Cardiovascular Group. His research interests include heart failure management and diagnosis, telemedicine and heart failure and ventricular assist devices.

Dr Joshua Wong is a cardiologist and PhD research fellow in Cardio-Oncology and Cardiac Imaging at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute through the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Professor Tom Marwick. His PhD thesis is entitled “Detection and control of heart failure risk in cancer survivors”. Dr Wong holds an appointment at The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre/Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He is also completing a part-time fellowship in advanced cardiac imaging at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. His specialty areas of interest are cardio-oncology, heart failure and non-invasive imaging.

Dr Cheng Hwee Soh is a postdoctoral research fellow working at the Imaging Research Laboratory in the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. His current areas of interest revolves around the prediction of cardiovascular diseases, specifically heart failure and asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction. He is also interested in identifying the impact of cancer and cardiotoxic cancer treatment in the development of heart failure.

Dr Miles De Blasio leads the Cardio-Metabolic Physiology (CMP) laboratory at Monash University and is focussed on learning more about the metabolic alterations that occur in the heart, and the influence of the surrounding pericardial fat in the setting of diabetes and obesity. He is an expert in the endocrine and metabolic basis of diabetes and obesity and the impact that these have on cardiac metabolism and function. He is also interested in understanding how diabetes and obesity impair cardioprotective adiponectin signalling which leads to lipotoxic cardiomyopathy.