A/Prof Amanda Gilligan is Director of Neurosciences at Epworth Eastern Medical Centre and Director of the Epworth Neurosciences Clinical Institute. She is a consultant neurologist with a specialist interest in stroke medicine and ongoing associations with teaching and research projects, particularly in stroke therapies.

She graduated from Monash University in 1989 with honours and she completed her clinical training in neurology at the Royal Melbourne and the Austin Medical Centres. Her first research position was as the clinical coordinator for the first thrombolysis trial for acute stroke in Australia in 1992. With a NH&MRC postgraduate scholarship, she completed her PhD at the National Stroke Research Institute (now part of the Florey Institute) exploring the opportunities to treat acute stroke patients with multiple modalities, across Australia. She has subsequently been involved in many acute and secondary prevention trials for stroke patients.

She has played a key role in the development of neurology services at Box Hill, in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Inspired by her sabbatical leave with Professor Pierre Amarenco at Bichat University, Paris, France in 2011, she has been energetically promoting new ways to provide the rapid access to urgent medical care for patients with stroke and TIA. She has ongoing affiliations with Monash and Melbourne Universities and Austin Health.

In 2016, she was appointed as Director of the Neurosciences Unit at Epworth Eastern, and developed a specialised rapid TIA assessment service. In 2018, she was appointed as Epworth Neurosciences Clinical Institute Director, to provide leadership in clinical services, research and education across the 11 Epworth sites.

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.

A/Prof Michael Wong has particular interests in device implantation (leadless pacemakers/subcutaneous defibrillators/CRT) and treatment of complex atrial/ventricular arrhythmias using contemporary catheter ablation techniques. His PhD research described novel findings on predictors and mechanisms for lethal cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. He has received numerous awards including the Ralph Reader Prize from the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand/World Congress of Cardiology, the Young Investigator Award from the North American Heart Rhythm Society and the National Heart Foundation Paul Korner Innovation Award. Michael is currently Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at Western Health and a National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow.

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.
 

Associate Professor Ernesto Oqueli  is a Consultant Cardiologist and Interventional Cardiologist. He completed his Cardiology training and then worked as a Cardiologist at the Favaloro Foundation, a heart hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, founded and directed by Professor Rene Favaloro the Pioneer of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery. Ernesto was appointed by the Favaloro Foundation as the personal physician of the president of Argentina from 2001-2003.

He trained in interventional Cardiology at the Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. He worked at Western Health before moving to Ballarat in 2009.

Ernesto is the Head of Cardiology Ballarat Health Services and is a Clinical Associate Professor affiliated to Deakin University.

Associate Professor Ian Fraser is active in general medicine and nephrology.

He has appointments in nephrology and general medicine at Royal Melbourne Hospitaland Epworth HealthCare.

He is Chair of Victorian State Committee for RACP, and a member of the NAP.

Associate Professor Neil Strathmore has expertise in pacemaker & defibrillator implantation, follow up and removal. However, he is also interested in arrhythmias, valve problems, heart failure and general cardiology. He is widely recognised as a leading teacher of medical students.

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.

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.

George is an interventional cardiologist, primarily based at Epworth Richmond but sees patients at the Austin Medical Centre and Box Hill Hospital. He obtained his medical degree at Melbourne University and his cardiology training was at the Austin & Repatriation hospital.

He has developed a strong interest in training up and coming cardiologists as well as being involved in research activities at both hospitals.

Hendrik is a cardiologist with a special interest in heart failure management. Hendrik graduated from the University of Melbourne, undertook physician training at Royal Melbourne Hospital, and then advanced training in General Medicine at the Alfred, followed by Cardiology advanced training at Epworth Richmond and Flinders Medical Centre. In 2011, Hendrik did Fellowship training in Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology at The Alfred.

Hendrik's clinical interests include management of refractory heart failure; acute decompensated heart failure; the role of device therapy in heart failure treatment; use of inotropic support in specific heart failure settings; pulmonary hypertension; and cardiac amyloidosis.

Dr John Morgan completed his medical and cardiology training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital including 18 months of intensive care in addition to 3 years of cardiology training. He completed a 2 year fellowship in echocardiography at RMH and then spent a further 2 years at Massachusetts General Hospital as an echocardiography fellow specialising in all forms of echocardiography including transthoracic, trans-oesopheageal and stress echocardiography including both research and clinical components.

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.

Dr Robert Xu is a Cardiothoracic surgical trainee based at the Epworth Richmond Hospital. He has previously worked as a registrar at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia.

Dr William Wilson trained at the University of Melbourne and completed advanced cardiology training through the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He completed two overseas clinical fellowships, in Scotland (Edinburgh Heart Centre) and Canada (Toronto Congenital Cardiac Centre for Adults). He is a cardiologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, specializing in percutaneous coronary intervention, adult congenital heart disease and structural cardiac interventions. He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Melbourne with a focus on congenital heart disease.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Professor Peter Barlis is an internationally-recognised Interventional Cardiologist with the Northern and St Vincent’s Hospitals in Victoria and Professor of Medicine with the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences, the University of Melbourne. After graduating from the University of Melbourne, he completed cardiology training at Austin Health followed by a Master of Public Health with Monash University.

In 2006, he secured a fellowship and scholarship at the prestigious Royal Brompton Hospital, London and then completed his PhD at the Thoraxcentre, Erasmus University the Netherlands, on the use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in cardiology. OCT harnesses the properties of infrared light to look inside blood vessels in ultra-high resolution.

Peter has since overseen OCT’s uptake across the region with over sixty centres in Australia and New Zealand benefiting from his foresight. He is internationally renowned for his interventional and imaging academic output, and early development programs for novel therapies in cardiovascular disease. He has maintained connections all over the globe, and continues to attract industry support for his research.

Peter runs an active research group in biomedical engineering focused on coronary imaging and computational modeling with an interest in the development of innovative cardiovascular technologies.

Professor Silvana Marasco is a cardiothoracic surgeon at The Alfred and Epworth Hospitals. She is currently the Deputy Director of the Cardiothoracic Unit at The Alfred. She performs all adult cardiac and thoracic surgery as well as heart and lung transplantation and mechanical assist device implantation.

Research interest's focus on transplantation related topics, surgical innovation, and chest trauma. She has completed a Master of Bioethics, focusing on the ethical issues related to VAD implantation and cessation. She has over 100 peer reviewed publications and book chapters, has been awarded over $5M in research funding and has just completed her PhD thesis.

Stephanie Oxley is the Nurse Unit Manager of 2 Lee Wing at Epworth Richmond.

Stephanie has experience in Coronary Care, Cath Lab and Intensive Care nursing, with an interest in the management and escalation of STEMI in the acute setting. She has been involved in developing the Code STEMI process at Epworth Richmond.

Stephanie is passionate about supporting staff in escalating patient care, and leadership development opportunities for critical care nurses.