Keynote Speakers


Faculty


Aubrey Almeida


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Aubrey Almeida is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. He has special interests in valvular surgery, adult congenital heart disease and surgical education. He is a pioneer robotic surgery in Australia. He has been senior examiner in Cardiothoracic Surgery for RACS and a past president of ANZSCTS.

Bonita Anderson


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Due to 40 years of clinical experience in echocardiography, a 15-year tenure as an academic at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) where she coordinated the Graduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound from 2005 to 2013 and the authorship of two Echocardiography textbooks with contributions to several other echocardiography textbooks, Bonita is frequently invited to speak at national and international echocardiographic conferences. She has also been actively involved in many professional societies and councils including the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), Council of the Australasian Sonographers Accreditation Registry (ASAR), Cardiac Sonographers Working Group for the Australasian Sonographers Association (ASA), and the Imaging Council for the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ). In 2009, Bonita was awarded a Fellowship of the American Society of Echocardiography (FASE) and a Fellowship of the Australasian Sonographers Association (FASA) in 2018.

In 2010, Bonita received the ASA Pru Pratten Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also received two prestigious awards from the ASE: the ASE Meritorious Service Award (2020) and the ASE Sonographer Lifetime Achievement Award (2024).

Vinesh Appadurai


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Dr Appadurai is a multi-modality imaging cardiologist with special interests in structural echocardiography and cardiac MRI. He has completed subspecialty imaging fellowships in advanced/structural echocardiography and cardiac MRI/CT at the prestigious Prince Charles Hospital in Queensland and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago USA. He is currently completing a PhD in advanced strain imaging in myocardial mechanics.

Darryl Burstow


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Darryl J Burstow MBBS, FRACP, FCSANZ, FASE is Eminent Cardiologist, The Prince Charles Hospital, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Queensland and Adjunct Professor, School of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology. After completing advanced training in cardiology at The Prince Charles Hospital, his serious echo education began at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester where he completed an Echo fellowship in the late 1980’s. Following his return to Brisbane, he initially worked in private practice at Wesley Hospital before taking up the position of Director of Echocardiography at TPCH from 1991 until 2016. His clinical and research interests include the Echo assessment of diastolic function and prosthetic valves, Intraoperative echocardiography and Echocardiography education.  He was co-Director of the Echo Australia educational meeting from its inception until 2022.

Jonathan Chan


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Professor Jonathan Chan graduated from University of Queensland in 1998 with 1st Class Honours and was recipient of the AMA memorial prize. He completed his cardiac imaging fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, Harvard Medical School.  He is currently Professor of Cardiology at Griffith University and Eminent Consultant Staff Specialist at Prince Charles Hospital. He is also Director of Echocardiography at Gold Coast Heart Centre.   He has special interest and PhD in Strain imaging and co-authored many publications with the latest textbook chapter on “Strain and Myocardial Work” in the American Society of Echo ASE Textbook of Echocardiography.    Professor Chan is delighted to be involved with echo education for more than 15 years having successfully mentored 12 postgraduate research students and teach as Faculty for Echo Australia, Echo Port Douglas, World Congress of Echo, Cardiac Imaging Australasia, Asian Society of Cardiac Imaging (ASCI), Asia Pacific Society of Cardiology (APSC), CSANZ, and Echo Hong Kong scientific meetings.   Currently, he has the honour to serve on the Editorial board for the Journal of the American Society of Echo (JASE) and European Heart Journal- Cardiovascular imaging (EHJ-CVI).

Natalie Edwards


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Natalie Edwards is a Senior Cardiac Sonographer at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, Australia. She has completed a PhD in the non-invasive assessment of myocardial work and published in many leading international journals and textbooks. She has also been awarded the Brian Haluska sonographer award at the 2019 ASE scientific sessions.

Ben Fitzgerald


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Dr Ben Fitzgerald is a Cardiologist with Advara HeartCare and a visiting Echocardiologist at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. He has subspecialty training in Cardiac Imaging. 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 primary research interest is stress echocardiography.

Christian Hamilton-Craig


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Christian Hamilton-Craig is a multi-modality imaging cardiologist, trained in Australia, USA and Europe. He is a Level 3 expert in Echocardiography, Cardiac CT and Cardiac MRI, and practices from Noosa, Sunshine coast QLD

Julie Humphries


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Structural interventional echocardiologist. Expertise in management of valve disease and LAA closure. Clinical and research interest in aortopathies and connective tissue spectrum disorders.

Chris Kramer


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Chris Kramer BA, ACS, RDCS, FASE, is an Advanced Cardiac Sonographer and Program Director for the School of Diagnostic Medical Sonography at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee Wisconsin, USA. He is active in the American Society of Echocardiography, the Past Chair of the Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, and a Commissioner on the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs and is a member of the Standards and Guidelines committee. Chris has been in the field of echocardiography for the past 19 years, with interests in sonography education, quality, and new technology.

Kathy Lau


Biography coming soon.

Jonathon Lindner


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Dr. Lindner is currently the Frances Myers Ball Endowed Professor of Medicine and serves as the Vice-chief for Research for the Cardiovascular Division at the University of Virginia. Dr. Lindner is a physician-scientist with expertise in advanced cardiovascular imaging, vascular biology, and microvascular physiology. He is currently the principal investigator on multiple R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health, and grants from NASA. His research laboratory has pioneered the use of advanced ultrasound methods for microvascular functional assessment, non-invasive molecular imaging, and for site-directed therapy. Dr. Lindner is a Past President for the American Society of Echocardiography. He is the Chair for the Exam Writing Committee and on the Board of Directors for the National Board of Echocardiography. He has served as the chair for NIH study sections and is currently the Co-chair of the NHLBI DSMB for Gene and Cell Therapy Trials. He has received numerous research and mentoring honors locally and from the American Society of Echocardiography.

Stuart Moir


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Stuart is a clinical cardiologist and multi-modality cardiac imaging specialist with expertise in echocardiography (TTE/TOE/Stress/Contrast), Cardiac CT and Cardiac MRI. He is currently the lead for cardiac MR at the Victorian Heart Hospital.

Sam Orde


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Intensive Care specialist & Director of ICU Nepean Hospital, Sydney. Co-Director of Nepean echo lab. Trained in UK (at Oxford + Guy's&Tommy's, London). ICU training in Australia. Completed 2 echo fellowships (incl. Mayo clinic, USA). PhD done assessing use of advanced echo techniques in the critically ill. Particularly interested FOAMed (free open access medical edudcation) eg: echo education site on YouTube = "Echo at Nepean" which has >11.8K followers).

Greg Scalia



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Professor Greg Scalia is a Gold Medal graduate of the University of Queensland, 1987. He was the first dedicated echocardiologist to join Advara HeartCare, having completed a two year cardiac imaging fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, USA in 1996.

Professor Scalia is a nationally respected expert in echocardiography, undertaking a busy schedule of lecturing and teaching in Australia, the United States and South East Asia. He has been co-director of the Echo Australia program since its inception in 2002.

Professor Scalia has been awarded fellowships in the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography. He was awarded a Master of Medical Science by the University of Queensland in 1999 for original research into cardiac diastolic function.

He has been Associate Professor of Medicine at his alumni, the University of Queensland since 2004 and became a Professor in 2018. Professor Scalia is the Director of Echocardiography at The Prince Charles Hospital. Professor Scalia has published over three hundred papers, abstracts and book chapters in peer-reviewed major journals.

Kate Sturwold



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Kate is an advanced clinical measurement scientist at The Prince Charles Hospital. Kate has a passion for education, advanced echocardiography, 3D imaging and strain particularly in valvular heart disease. Kate has a rich career including clinical work and education in the public, private and University sector in Queensland and New South Wales.

Helen Thomson


Biography coming soon.

Stephen Tomlinson



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Dr Stephen Tomlinson is a staff specialist in echocardiography at the Prince Charles Hospital. He undertook subspeciality training in valvular and structural heart disease at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York, USA, and has published a master’s thesis novel echocardiographic techniques to diagnose diastolic dysfunction. He is a national expert in imaging for structural heart disease.

Darren Walters


Biography coming soon.

Jacinta Warburton



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Jacinta has been a cardiac technologist for 20 years and has post-graduate qualifications in cardiac ultrasound, electrophysiology, cardiac devices and a Masters in Health Administration. Jacinta has had multiple abstracts accepted at the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) scientific sessions, has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences (ASA, Echo Australia and WCE) and has performed live scanning at multiple Structural Heart Disease Australia workshops. Jacinta’s main interest is in structural heart disease intervention, heart failure and cardiac transplantation.

Leah Wright



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Dr Wright is a Senior Echocardiographer/ Echocardiography Educator at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, University of Melbourne (Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health). Her main research areas include the echocardiographic detection of subclinical cardiac dysfunction, echocardiography quality control, and incorporating novel imaging techniques into clinical practice. She has published numerous papers and given educational talks nationally and internationally on advanced echocardiographic measures



Contact

Conference Organisers: The Conference Company

Email: echo@theconferencecompany.com

Telephone (within Aus): 1800 193 405
Telephone (Int.): +64 9 360 1240

Address: Level 35, International Tower One 100 Barangaroo Avenue, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia


Acknowledgement of Country
The Conference acknowledges the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who are the traditional custodians of the land on which the Conference will take place. We recognise and pay our respects the Wurundjeri Elders, past and present, and emerging.