Meet our cardiology specialists
Our specialised team of cardiologists includes:
Professor Nicholas Bett
MB BS (Melbourne) FRACP FCSANZ DDU
Previous appointments
- Lecturer Monash University
- Staff Cardiologist, Prince Henry’s Hospital, Melbourne
- Director of Cardiology, Royal Brisbane Hospital
- Visiting Cardiologist, Prince Charles Hospital
- Director of Cardiology, Prince Charles Hospital
Current appointment
- Senior Staff Cardiologist, Prince Charles Hospital
Dr Rustem Dautov
MD PhD FRACP
Dr Rustem Dautov joined The Prince Charles Hospital in January 2017 after 2.5 years of interventional fellowship with Dr Stéphane Rinfret in Québec City and Montreal. His main specialty is Complex coronary interventions: Chronic total occlusions (CTO) and Complex Higher-Risk Indicated Procedures (CHIP). Before going to Canada he did his postgraduate training at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide from intern to clinical and academic cardiologist, including PhD at the University of Adelaide studying effects of nitrite and nitroxyl in cardiovascular system.
Dr Dautov works full time at The Prince Charles Hospital and also goes to Caboolture hospital on regular basis. In his outpatient clinic he is interested to see patients who had bypass surgery in the past and now suffer from angina. He is also keen to review those patients who were told that they have no revascularization option. Apart from clinical work Dr Dautov is involved in clinical research. He is fluent in English, French, Russian and Tatar.
Dr Vince Deen
MBBS FRACP
Dr Vincent Deen is a Cardiologist with a special interest in electrophysiology pacing and general cardiology and has been practicing at the Wesley since 1999. Dr Deen graduated from the University of Queensland in 1986 then completed cardiology training at Prince Charles Hospital and subspecialty training in electrophysiology and Pacing at Prince Charles and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Dr Deen has more than 12 years experience in Clinical Cardiology and is a member of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, the Heart Rhythm Society and the Australian Medical Association.
Dr Russell Denman
Dr Russell Denman is a Cardiac Electrophysiologist,he graduated from the University of Queensland with first class honours in 1989. He completed his cardiology and electrophysiology training in Queensland and at the University of Chicago in 2001. He has been clinical Director of Electrophysiology and Pacing at The Prince Charles Hospital since 2002.
Russell has extensive experience and research interests in the invasive management of arrhythmias, pacemakers and implantable defibrillators. He is currently chair of The Prince Charles Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee and is a founding partner of CardioVascular Clincis St Andrew’s Spring Hill.
Dr Elisabeth Donnelly
MBBS BSc(Med) FRACP
Dr Elisabeth Donnelly is a Director of the Queensland Cardiovascular Group and is an expert in echocardiography. Under her direction, QCG has become well respected for their non-invasive testing services. Dr Donnelly holds clinical interests in acute and general cardiology, echocardiography, exercise stress echocardiography, transoesophageal echocardiography and coronary angiography.
Dr Donnelly is a graduate of the University of Queensland Medical School and undertook advanced training at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, where she was a Senior Registrar in the Imperial College of Medicine. She has been awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, and also undertook a Research Fellowship in Intracoronary Ultrasound with National Heart Foundation.
Dr Donnelly is actively involved in continuing professional education for GPs, and is the director in charge of QCG’s well respected bi-annual GP conference. She also holds extensive teaching and research interest in echocardiography.
Dr Ben Fitzgerald
Dr Ben Fitzgerald is a visiting Echocardiologist at The Prince Charles Hospital. He has subspecialty training in Cardiac Imaging (Echocardiography and CT). He is a University of Queensland graduate and has worked as a doctor for the Royal Australian Navy.
He undertook his Cardiology training in Queensland and his Imaging Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in the USA. His research interests include stress echocardiography and cardiac amyloidosis.
Dr Christian Hamilton-Craig
Dr Christian Hamilton-Craig is a senior staff specialist Cardiologist with academic appointments as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland Centre for Advanced Imaging. He is Chair of the Society for Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (ANZ), and the President of the Australia-NZ Cardiac MRI group (ANZCMR), and chief of the CSANZ writing group on Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring. He is the Queensland representative of the Australian Atheroslerosis Society and a longterm member of the Indigenous Cardiology Outreach Program.
His clinical interests are coronary risk assessment and atherosclerosis imaging, valvular heart disease, cardiac imaging research and indigenous health.
Assoc Prof Haris Haqqani
A/Prof. Haris Haqqani is a Senior Staff Specialist Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist with expertise in all aspects of heart rhythm disorder management, including catheter ablation and pacemaker/defibrillator therapy. He graduated in Medicine with honours from the University of Melbourne in 1998 and following residency he undertook advanced training in cardiology and electrophysiology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He completed a PhD looking at the causes of dangerous heart rhythms (ventricular tachycardia) in patients with heart failure before moving to Philadelphia were he did further postdoctoral work at The University of Pennsylvania. In 2011, he was appointed as Senior Consultant Electrophysiologist at The Prince Charles Hospital. He is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Queensland. A/Prof. Haqqani has co-authored more than 50 journal papers, 100 conference abstracts and 10 book chapters, and is a regular invited speaker at national and international conferences. He currently serves as Heart Rhythm Section Editor for cardiology journal Heart, Lung & Circulation.
A/Prof. Haqqani deals with all aspects of heart rhythm disorder management but has a special interest in catheter ablation of complex ventricular arrhythmias.
Dr Julie Humphries
MBBS FRACP FCSANZ FASE BHMS (Ed) (Hons-1st Class)
Dr Julie Humphries completed an Advanced Echocardiography Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. She has a particular interest in heart failure, with a focus on diastolic heart failure. Dr Humphries has expertise in the management of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, diseases of the ascending aorta including Marfan syndrome and bicuspid aortic valve aortopathy, and common adult congenital heart diseases, such as bicuspid aortic valve, mitral valve prolapse, ASD and Ebsteins anomaly.
She is locally and internationally recognised for specialist imaging in LAA appendage occlusion procedures and is involved in the structural heart program at The Prince Charles Hospital.
Dr Humphries completed her cardiology training at The Prince Charles Hospital before heading to the USA. She initially trained as an exercise physiologist, has an extensive background in cardiovascular disease and was once the Director of the Wesley Hospital’s cardiac rehabilitation program.
Dr Emma Ivens
MB BS FRACP FCSANZ
Dr Emma Ivens graduated from Monash University in 1997 with first class honours and completed her physician and cardiology training at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
Dr Ivens has also completed a post graduate echocardiography fellowship at the Prince Charles Hospital, University of Queensland, followed by a further year of specialized training in advanced echocardiology at St Paul’s Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada.
On her return to Australia in 2007, she joined Queensland Cardiology at the Holy Spirit Northside Hospital in Brisbane and is also employed as a VMO specialist at the Prince Charles Hospital. She is widely published in the areas of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, valvular heart disease, complex aortic pathology, pericardial disease and procedural echocardiology including ASD/PFO device closure and in the emerging area of percutaneous heart valves.
Dr Ivens is actively involved in cardiac research and is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. She is available for all types of cardiology consultations, stress testing, stress echocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography and transoesophageal echocardiography.
Dr Gaio Le
BSc MBBS FRACP
Dr Giao Le is an Associate of the Queensland Cardiovascular Group, with special interests in non-invasive cardiac imaging, in particular, transthoracic echocardiography, stress echocardiography, transoesophageal echocardiography, and 3D echocardiography.
Dr Le graduated Medicine with Honours from the University of New South Wales, and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. She completed her basic physician training and cardiology training at St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, Sydney. She completed advanced training in general cardiology procedures and echocardiography at Liverpool Hospital, Sydney.
Dr Le undertook a Fellowship at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, during which time she took particular interest in stress echocardiography and transoesophageal echocardiography.
Dr Le is currently a Visiting Medical Officer practicing echocardiography at The Prince Charles Hospital. In this position she provides echocardiographic support in the care of patients undergoing percutaneous valve procedures, open valve surgery, open coronary revascularisation, cardiac transplantation, and general cardiac patients.
Dr Scott McKenzie
Scott McKenzie is a dual trained general physician and cardiologist. He has completed sub-speciality fellowships in vascular medicine and advanced heart failure and cardiac transplant. Scott is member of the Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Unit team. Scott’s special interests include TeleHealth and remote monitoring technologies, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and anticoagulation including venous thromboembolic diseases. Scott is a senior lecturer with the University of Queensland.
Dr Ryan Maxwell
Ryan completed his medical training at the University of Melbourne prior to relocating to Queensland and completing his resident and basic physician training through the Gold Coast Hospital. Ryan completed his cardiology training through both Gold Coast Hospital and The Prince Charles Hospital before proceeding to a fellowship at TPCH in Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Echocardiography.
Ryan now works as a specialist cardiologist in the ACHD and echocardiography departments at TPCH whilst also covering Redcliffe Hospital as a general cardiologist. Ryan has outpatient clinics at TPCH for ACHD and general cardiology clinics at RDH which are available GP referral.
Dr Akshay Mishra
Dr Akshay Mishra completed his MBBS and MD at the Armed Forces Medical College, India.
He then served for 10 years with the Indian Armed Forces in various field and peace locations including 2 years with the Special Forces.
Upon moving to Australia, Dr Mishra initially trained at the Canberra Hospital before moving to Queensland where he trained in Cardiology at the Gold Coast and Prince Charles Hospitals. He then applied to the prestigious Lenox Hill hospital in New York where he trained extensively in coronary and peripheral interventions.
Dr Mishra’s special interests within Cardiology include primary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction, complex coronary and peripheral interventions.
He is a a Staff Specialist at Prince Charles Hospital and a Senior Lecturer with the School of Medicine, University of Queensland.
Dr Karl Poon
MBBS FRACP
Dr Karl Poon is an Interventional Cardiologist, Associate with the Queensland Cardiovascular Group, and Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He holds special interests in structural heart disease interventions, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement, valvuloplasty, ASD and PFO closure.
Dr Poon graduated Medicine from the University of Melbourne in 2001, and undertook physicians training at St Vincent’s Hospital, Royal Hobart Hospital and Royal Melbourne Hospital, providing him a broad perspective of academic cardiology, as well as exposure to highly sub-specialised fields of cardiology. After three years of cardiology training, he underwent another two years of high volume training in Interventional Cardiology at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. He went into his third year of training as a Senior Structural Fellow at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan, USA, where the first North American transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) took place in 2005. The Hospital remains a teaching centre for structural heart disease interventions.
Dr Poon performed the first successful transcatheter aortic valve implant in the private sector in Queensland in 2015. He has performed over 2000 coronary stenting procedures, and is certified Edwards Sapien TAVR implanter. He is experienced in all manners of complex coronary interventions, with expertise in optical coherence tomography and spontaneous coronary artery dissection. He has published over 30 peer reviewed articles, authored 5 book chapters, and presented at major international meetings, including EuroPCR, TCT and ACC. Dr Poon’s current research focuses on the next phase of TACR, the marriage of imaging modalities in TAVR, and the optimising of valve choices based on individual patient factor. He is also a Staff Specialist at the Prince Charles Hospital.
Dr Chris Raffel
Dr Christopher Raffel is a clinical and interventional cardiologist with a special interest in coronary, structural and valvular heart disease interventions.
Dr Raffel graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Auckland, completing advanced training in Cardiology at Green Lane Hospital, Auckland and obtaining his FRACP in August 2003. Following this he worked, under Prof. Harvey White, with the Cardiovascular Research Unit in Auckland until June 2005. In addition to performing investigator initiated research projects which revolved around the use of novel biomarkers in patients with valvular heart disease, he ran the acute coronary trials at Green Lane amd subsequently Auckland City Hospitals. From 2005 to 2008, Chris took up an appointment as a clinical and research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School. During this period he undertook interventional training in complex coronary, structural and valvular heart disease. His primary research focus during this period was on the development and use of intravascular optical coherence tomography systems for the imaging of coronary arteries. In July 2007, in addition to his clinical duties in the catheterization laboratory, Chris took up the position of Director of Operations of the Cardiology Laboratory for Integrative Physiology and Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. During this time he was involved in the development, and animal testing, of the second generation optical coherence tomography imaging systems. Since 2009 he has worked as an interventional cardiologist in the Cardiology Program at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, Chris is also in private practice with CardioVascular Clinics at St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital Brisbane and St Stephen’s Private Hospital Hervey Bay. He maintains an active academic career both in the context of research programs and supervising research higher degree PhD and MPhil students.
Dr Salman Rahman
Dr Salman Rahman is a graduate of the University of Queensland (with First Class Honours), and completed his advanced training in Cardiology at Royal Brisbane Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. He pursued sub-speciality training in echocardiography with a Fellowship at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane. He has been a practicing Cardiologist since 1999.
Dr Rahman performs coronary angiography and trans-oesophageal echocardiography. He consults widely as a general Cardiologist and provides inpatient management at Greenslopes and Wesley Private Hospitals. He is also a Visiting Cardiologist at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane.
Dr Damian Roper
MBChB FRACP
Dr Damian Roper is a non-invasive cardiologist specialising in echocardiography, and Associate of the Queensland Cardiovascular Group. His main interests include the primary prevention of heart disease in addition to the work-up and management of coronary artery disease, valvular disease and cardiomyopathies.
Having graduated from the University of Liverpool Medical School in the United Kingdom, Dr Roper moved to Brisbane where he completed his basic physician training at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. He undertook his Cardiology Advanced Training at The Prince Charles Hospital, obtaining his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2012. He followed this up with a Fellowship in Advanced Echocardiography also at The Prince Charles Hospital, and subsequently moved to the United Kingdom where he completed a second Echocardiography Fellowship at the prestigious King’s College Hospital in London.
Dr Roper’s training has given him expertise in a variety of Echocardiographic modalities, including transthoracic, transoesophageal, and stress echocardiography. He has written a number of publications in peer reviewed journals, as well as being a reviewer for the European Journal of Ultrasound. Most recently, Dr Roper has written a book chapter in the American Society of Echocardiography’s latest textbook, ‘Dynamic Echocardiography’.
Assoc Prof Gregory M Scalia
MBBS (Hons), M Med Sc, FRACP, FACC, FCSANZ, FASE, JP
Cardiologist
- Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Queensland.
- Director of Echocardiography.
The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Australia with principle involvement in the structural heart program. - Senior consultant cardiologist at Heart Care Partners, Wesley Hospital Brisbane.
- President, Structural Heart Disease Australia.
- Chairman, Medical Advisory Board, The Wesley Hospital, Brisbane 2014-2017.
- Principle, Echo Australia Program 2002-2017.
- Editor: Journal American Society of Echocardiography CASE Journal 2016.
- Advanced Imaging Fellowship at The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio 1995-1996.
Dr David Seaton
David is a Nuclear Physician and a Cardiologist. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Queensland in 1986. He underwent his specialist training in nuclear medicine and cardiology at the Royal Brisbane and Prince Charles Hospitals. He is a visiting medical officer at the Prince Charles Hospital. His sub-speciality interests are Nuclear Cardiology and Echocardiography.
Dr John Sedgwick
MBBS FRACP FCSANZ FASE
Dr John Sedgwick is a Senior Staff Cardiologist at The Prince Charles Hospital with expertise in advanced Echocardiography and holds Testamur status with the United States NBE and is a Level A Specialist in CT cardiac angiography. Dr Sedgwick is Co-chair and a founding member of infective endocarditis Queensland (ieQ), a Senior Lecturer with the University of the Queensland and a PhD candidate. Dr Sedgwick is actively involved in teaching trainees and medical students, in addition to his research interests. Dr Sedgwick consults in general clinical cardiology and provides imaging services in all aspects of Echocardiography.
Dr Lisa Walters
MB BS FRACP FCSANZ
Dr Lisa Walters is a founding member of Queensland Cardiology. Since graduating in Medicine from the University of Queensland she completed her cardiology training at the Royal Brisbane and Prince Charles Hospitals, Brisbane. Her post-graduate training includes fellowships in both echocardiography at the University of California, San Francisco and Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Dr Walters now bases her practice in general cardiology and echocardiography at the Holy Spirit Northside Hospital and visits the Prince Charles Hospital.
Dr Yong Shen Wee
Dr Yong Shen Wee is a General Cardiologist with interest in Vascular Medicine (Hypertension, Marfan Syndrome and Aneurysm), preventative cardiology, especially cholesterol management and cardiac genetics.
From Malaysia, he graduated with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from The University of Melbourne. Completing his Basic Physician training with the Royal Australasian College of Physician, at the Gold Coast Hospital, he successfully completed his Advanced Training in Cardiology, at The Prince Charles Hospital. He then continued training under the renowned Professor Malcolm West for Vascular Medicine at The Prince Charles Hospital.
Dr Wee has published and presented papers and abstracts extensively, both locally and internationally. He is also a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland and previously teaching Fellow at both the Bond and Griffith Universities.
He currently runs the Aneurysm clinic and bi-monthly Marfan clinic at the Prince Charles Hospital including outreach clinics to Charleville and Dalby. He also joined Professor Julie McGaughran and Professor John Atherton at the RBWH, for the Cardiac Genetic clinic, besides running five other General Cardiology clinics. He represent cardiology department in the Prince Charles hospital as Medical Champion, as well as in the Infection Control Committee.
Dr Paul West
Dr Paul West is a Clinical Cardiologist and consults on all cardiology conditions and has a special interest in pacing and electrophysiology. Dr West has rooms at the Wesley Hospital as well as Ipswich and a clinic at Warwick once a month. Dr West is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Vish Wijesekera
Having completed medical school in Auckland, Vish Wijesekera trained at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and completed his advanced training in cardiology at The Prince Charles Hospital. He did post fellowship training in Adult Congenital Heart Disease at The Prince Charles Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and St Paul’s Hospital Vancouver.
He is currently a full time Adult Congenital Heart Disease Specialist and also part of the Marfan Syndrome and Cardiac Aneurysm Clinic. Dr Wijesekera visits The Townsville Hospital and Rockhampton Hospital for Adult Congenital Heart Disease outreach clinics.
Dr Yee Weng Wong
MBBS, MHS, FRACP, FCSANZ
Dr Yee Weng Wong is a Clinical Cardiologist with special interests in management of cardiomyopathy, heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and cardiac transplantation.
Dr Wong graduated from the University of Adelaide, and completed his post-graduate clinical training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre, in South Australia. After obtaining his Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physician, he completed further post-fellowship training and research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in North Carolina, USA. During this time, he participated and co-ordinated multi-national clinical trials in heart failure and cardio-metabolic diseases and was part of NIH sponsored Heart Failure Clinical Research Network. He also obtained a post-graduate degree of Master of Health Sciences in Clinical Research from the Duke University School of Medicine. Upon returning to Australia, Yee Weng undertook additional clinical training in cardiac transplantation at the Prince Charles Hospital.
Dr Wong remains active in clinical trials and health services outcome research in heart failure and cardiac transplantation. He has presented at local and international conferences, as well as published numerous peer-reviewed articles and authored 3 book chapters. He is a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Queensland and is a member of the Queensland Statewide Heart Failure Services Steering Committee.
Dr Wong is a full-time Staff Specialist at the Prince Charles Hospital, and consults regularly at the Redcliffe Hospital.
Contact us
Heart and Lung Clinic
Location: Main Building, The Prince Charles Hospital
Phone: (07) 3139 4207
Cardiac Investigations Unit
Location: Cardiac Investigations Unit, Ground floor, Main Building, The Prince Charles Hospital
Phone: (07) 3139 4248
Coronary Care Unit
Location: Ground floor, Main Building, The Prince Charles Hospital
Phone: (07) 3139 4000
Ward 1A
Location: Level 1, Main Building, The Prince Charles Hospital
Phone: (07) 3139 4398
Ward 1B
Location: Level 1, Main Building, The Prince Charles Hospital
Phone: (07) 3139 4428
Refer a patient
To refer a patient to this service, view the Cardiology referral guideline. GP and Specialist Referral Hotline: 1300 364 938