Senior Medical Staff (Cardiologists)

Professor Michael Cheung

Director of Cardiology/Heart Research Group Leader

Biography

Professor Cheung trained at the leading Congenital Cardiac centres in the world including Great Ormond St (London), Royal Brompton Hospital (London), Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto) and The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

He is currently Director of Cardiology at RCH, and Leader of the Heart Research Group at MCRI. He is a Cardiologist in the Adult Congenital Heart Disease service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

His area of sub specialty interest is non-invasive imaging (echocardiography and MRI).

Research Interests

The Heart Research based at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute consists of 7 senior researchers, 5 postgraduate fellows and 4 research assistants. He has established a dedicated research laboratory for echocardiography and vascular ultrasound. The group has significant experience and ongoing studies in molecular cardiology, in vitro cardiac assessment, and also invasive assessments of cardiac function. More information is available on the MCRI website or University of Melbourne

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Dr Bryn Jones

Deputy Director of Cardiology/Clinical Lead in Cardiac MRI

Biography

Dr Bryn Jones is Deputy Director of Cardiology and Clinical Lead in Cardiac MRI. He also consults at the Fetal Management Unit at the Royal Women’s Hospital. He graduated from the University of Queensland and completed his Paediatric Training at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane prior to training in Paediatric Cardiology at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. He undertook further Cardiac MRI training at the Royal Brompton Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London before returning to RCH.

Research Interests

Non-invasive imaging (Cardiac MRI, Echocardiography. Cardiac Rehabilitation in Children with Congenital Heart Disease.

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Professor Robert G Weintraub

Senior Cardiologist/Clinical Lead Heart Failure/Transplant Program.

Biography

Professor Weintraub trained in paediatrics at the Prince of Wales children’s Hospital and in cardiology at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.  He worked as a cardiologist in Harefield Hospital and completed his training at the UCSD Medical Center, San Diego.  He is the lead physician for the Pulmonary Hypertension and Heart Transplant service.

Research Interests

Pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and cardiomyopathy, heart transplantation, Global Burden of Disease consortium. More information is available on the MCRI website.

Professor Andrew Davis

Paediatric Cardiologist/Clinical Lead Arrhythmia Service

Biography

Professor Andrew Davis trained in Paediatric Cardiology at the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne and then at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He undertook further training in Paediatric Electrophysiology in Toronto and subsequently at the Children's Hospital in Boston.

Whilst overseas Andrew completed his doctorate on "The paediatric high-resolution signal-averaged ECG". Andrew is the lead clinician of the Arrhythmia Service. Andrew’s clinical interests encompass all aspects of paediatric electrophysiology including syncope, cardiac inherited diseases, pacemaker and defibrillator management and ablation of arrhythmia substrate in children. Andrew played an integral role in the introduction of gene testing for cardiac inherited disease in Australia. Andrew has developed a Multi-Disciplinary Clinic for Cardiac Inherited Disease - sudden death prevention, together with The Victorian Clinical Genetics Service. The Clinic has a close clinical liaison with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. The Clinic sees young family members whose first-degree relatives have died suddenly and unexpectedly from a possible cardiac cause and in addition young family members who could potentially inherit a cardiac disease that runs in the family.

Research Interests

Andrew’s research interest is the prevention of sudden cardiac death in childhood especially in relation to causes of sudden death with a genetic basis.

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Associate Professor Andreas Pflaumer

Paediatric Cardiologist/Clinical Lead Interventional Electrophysiology

Biography

After studying at the LMU in Munich, Germany, followed by Paediatric and Neonatal training, Andreas completed his sub-specialist training in Paediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Disease as well as Electrophysiology at the German Heart Centre (Technical University Munich) in 2006. He spent a further three and a half years in Munich as a Senior Physician in Paediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Disease. In 2009, Andreas moved to Melbourne at the RCH where he is leading the Invasive Electrophysiology. He also holds honorary appointments with the University of Melbourne, the MCRI, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Monash Heart.

Research Interests

Invasive and non-invasive Electrophysiology mapping systems, quality improvement in Ablation and Pacing therapy and prevention of Sudden Death in the Young. More details can be found on the University of Melbourne Website.

Dr Geoffrey K Lane

Interventional Cardiologist

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Dr Lucas Eastaugh

MBBS FRACP FCSANZ

Clinical Lead in Cardiac Catheterization and Intervention/Ventricular Assist Device Cardiologist

Biography

Dr Lucas Eastaugh is a Paediatric Cardiologist with subspecialty training in Interventional Cardiology (diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterisation procedures in patients with congenital and structural heart disease). He is a medical graduate of Monash University, Melbourne and completed Paediatric and subspecialty Paediatric Cardiology training at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.  He undertook advanced fellowship training in Interventional Cardiology at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada and Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts, USA.  Lucas has also undertaken the role of looking after infants, children and adolescents requiring a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) for severe heart failure.  This role involves the initial assessment, acute care post implantation, and long-term management of VAD patients.

Lucas has an honorary appointment at The Royal Melbourne Hospital where he performs interventional catheterization procedures with the Adult Congenital Cardiology team.  He is an honorary research fellow of the Heart Research Group at MCRI and regularly provides outreach outpatient clinic services for North East Victoria.

Research Interests

Interventional Cardiology, haemodynamics and physiology of cardiac disease, implantation, management and complications of VAD.

Dr Darren Hutchinson

Paediatric and Fetal Cardiologist 

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Dr Bennett Sheridan

Paediatric Cardiologist/Pediatric Intensivist

Biography

Dr Bennett Sheridan is a Paediatric Cardiologist and Paediatric Intensivist who specializes in critical care cardiology and the provision of mechanical circulatory support. He is a medical graduate of Monash University, Melbourne and completed Paediatric and subspecialty Paediatric Cardiology and Paediatric Intensive Care training with the Queensland Paediatric Cardiology Service and The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

Research Interests

Advanced Heart Failure, Fontan Early Recovery.

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Dr Remi Kowalski

MBBS (Hons), FRACP, FCSANZ, PhD

Paediatric Cardiologist 

Biography

Dr Remi Kowalski is a Paediatric Cardiologist with subspecialty interests in cardiac imaging (Echocardiography, Cardiac MRI, Vascular functional assessment). He is a medical graduate of the University of Melbourne and completed Paediatric and Paediatric Cardiology training at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

He recently completed a PhD focusing on novel non-invasive assessment of vascular function in children with congenital cardiac and vascular diseases. During his research, he spent time in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He pursued further training in Cardiac MRI at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London in 2015.

Remi has been a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital since 2011 and consults in all aspects of Paediatric Cardiology.

Research interests

Non-invasive imaging and vascular function (Cardiac MRI, Echocardiography) in Children with Congenital Heart Disease.

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Dr Jacob Matthew

Paediatric Cardiologist

Biography

Dr. Jacob Mathew is a paediatric cardiologist who specialises in looking after children with cardiomyopathy and heart failure, as well as those who need more advanced heart failure therapies such as ventricular assist device (VAD) support or heart transplantation. 

Jacob completed his training in paediatric and specialty training at the Royal Children’s Hospital and completed further subspecialty training in heart failure, transplant and VAD at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the USA. 

Since returning to Australia he has been one of the two physicians looking after transplant patients in the nationally funded (NFC) paediatric heart transplant program, and is the medical lead for the ventricular assist device program at the RCH.

Research Interests

Outside of his clinical work, Jacob’s interests include the statistical analysis of large clinical datasets, process optimisation and automation, simulation, and the application of improvement science principles to find ways to improve outcomes for the children we look after and to make their medical journey a little easier when possible.

Dr Janet Lang

Paediatric Cardiologist 

Professor James L Wilkinson

Professorial Fellow, Dept. of Paediatrics/Senior Paediatric Cardiologist (retired)

Biography

Prof James Wilkinson trained in the UK where he first worked in paediatric cardiology in Birmingham in 1968. He was appointed as a Lecturer in Child Health at Liverpool University before being appointed to a consultant position in 1975. He stayed in Liverpool for twelve years, becoming director of the Cardiac unit there, before being invited to apply for the vacant position of Director of Cardiology at The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne in 1987. He started in that role in early 1988 and has been a member of the team for thirty years, having been involved in the training of most of the current team. 

Research Interests

He has in the past been involved in research in epidemiology, cardiac morphology, echocardiography, cardiac transplantation and interventional cardiology. Having retired from his full-time position he is no longer actively engaged in research but continues to teach paediatric trainees and cardiology fellows on a regular basis and does occasional outpatient clinics to provide cover for absent colleagues. 

Cardiology Physiology Department

David Scicluna

Chief Physiologist, Physiology Department 

Telephone 9345 5723

Kate Mikkelsen

Co-Lead Physiologist for Invasive and Arrhythmia

Telephone 9345 9765

Erin Date

Co-Lead Physiologist for Invasive and Arrhythmia & Cardiac Physiologist 

Telephone 9345 5709 

Heather Smith

Cardiology IT and Applications Administrator

Telephone 9345 4787

ECG Physiologist 

Pager 5707

Nurse Unit Managers

Nurse Unit Manager / Heart Failure Nurse Practitioner, Cardiology

Caitlin Elliot

Clinical Nurse Consultants

Heart Failure CNC

Artressa Ng

Danica Doroteo

Jacqueline Larson

Dominique Morsman 

Gabrielle Callea

Arrhythmia / Electrophysiology CNC

Vanessa Connell

Cherie Dobie

Pulmonary Hypertension CNC

Samantha Lopez

Kathy Lim 

Cardiology Associate Nurse Unit Manager 

Stavroula Pataridis

Cardiology Outpatient Nursing

Telephone 9345 5943

Outpatient Nursing Specialists

• Clare Mason
• Emily Palhares
  
• Jodie Hislop
• Karly Weihrauch
• Madeleine Blair
  
• Jodie Cuthbert
• Jodie Hislop
• Sage Hay

Administration Department

General Cardiology enquiries

Telephone 9345 4365

Business Manager

Manisha De Silva

Telephone 9345 4830

Cheryl Seenyen

Administrative Coordinator & Secretary to

Dr Bryn Jones 

Professor Andrew Davis 

Associate Professor Andreas Pflaumer

Dr Geoff Lane

Professor Robert Weintraub

Dr Remi Kowalski

Telephone 9345 5713 BH 7.30 am - 4 pm

Carissa Carrafa 

Administrative Coordinator & Secretary to 

Professor Michael Cheung

Dr Lucas Eastaugh

Dr Bennett Sheridan

Dr Darren Hutchinson

Dr Jacob Mathew

Dr Janet Lang

Telephone 9345 5718 BH 7.30 am - 4 pm