About NEDA

Professor David Playford is the Professor of Cardiology at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia where he was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, and coordinates the undergraduate cardiovascular teaching program.

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He is a regular invited speaker to National and International conferences where his research has attracted significant international attention.

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David is a Consultant Cardiologist specialising in Cardiac Imaging, having run a specialist echo laboratory, an echo core lab, and an advanced echo fellowship program. His clinical practice is now at Genesis Care where his interests are Cardiac Risk Assessment, Breathlessness and Pulmonary Hypertension, Heart Failure, Valvular Heart Disease and CardioOncology.

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As a researcher of international reputation, he is Principal Investigator of the National Echo Database Australia (NEDA), the largest mortality-linked echo database in the world, and has a number of highly cited publications.

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His Artificial Intelligence program focuses on automation of interpretation of Echo and ECG data. Awards for the AI work include the WA Startup Innovation of the Year award 2019 and the EchoVation Challenge competition in USA in 2018.

Professor Geoff Strange is creator, Director and Chief Investigator of the National Echo Database of Australia and New Zealand.

 

Geoff is a Professor within the School of Medicine at the University of Notre Dame Australia and a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. 

 

He is a member of the cardiology research team at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and he is also the current and founding CEO of the Pulmonary Hypertension Society of Australia and New Zealand (PHSANZ) for which he is also Chief Investigator of the PHSANZ Pulmonary Hypertension Registry.

 

Geoff’s research interests include: Big Data for Cardiovascular Disease (Aortic Stenosis), Pulmonary Hypertension, Congenital Heart Disease and Echocardiography. Geoff has established the Congenital Heart Alliance of Australia and New Zealand, a research entity spanning fifteen centres across the region (initiating 27 M in funding for the National Action Plan on childhood heart disease from The Hon Minister Hunt). Geoff has over 70 peer reviewed publications and scientific abstracts, including various books and book chapters. He is a reviewer of the Journals, JACC, JASE, BMJ, Pulmonary Circulation and Heart, Lung and Circulation. Alongside his academic career and achievements Geoff has eighteen years of senior leadership experience operating at Vice President level in big pharma, bio-tech start-ups and device manufacturers. Geoff specialises in taking scientific and clinical data / concepts, through to commercial success. 

 

Geoff is the Director and owner of Mozaic Solutions, a consulting company set up to meet industry needs from strategic medical marketing, marketing, medical writing, scientific protocol development and trial implementation, advisory and KOL management.

Current Positions:

Scandrett Professor of Cardiology, University of Sydney

Clinical Academic Cardiologist, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

Director of Adult Congenital Heart Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

Co-Director of Pulmonary Hypertension Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

Clinical Director, The Heart Research Institute, Sydney

 

Over 500 manuscripts published in peer review journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Journal of Clinical Investigation and Circulation. Editorialist for The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet and Scientific Reviewer for over 20 journals and grant-giving bodies. 

 

Current H-index 100 and career citations over 65 000 (Google Scholar)

 

Editorial Board Member for Heart; Journal of the American College of Cardiology.; European Heart Journal (International Associate Editor)

 

Extensive experience in research in cellular/molecular biology; animal models of heart disease; clinical research; clinical trials; public health research; developing world research. Active research collaborations in England, Finland, France, India, China, Indonesia and Africa.

 

Over $25M in competitive grant support for original research since 2000

 

Over 100 invited international presentations given to learned societies worldwide

 

Foundation Chairman of  Research at RPA Hospital, 2000-2004

Commonwealth Health Minister’s Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research, for outstanding lifetime contribution, 2002

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science since 2006

Member and then Chairman of Research Committee for the Heart Foundation of Australia, 2000-2011

NSW Health Minister’s Award for lifetime contribution to heart health in Australia 2012

Director of Echocardiography, The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Australia with leadership involvement in the Structural Heart Program.

Senior consultant cardiologist at GenesisCare, Wesley Hospital Brisbane.  

Professor of Medicine, University of Queensland.

President, Structural Heart Disease Australia 2016-current.

Chair, Imaging Council Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand 2022-2025

Chair, Medical Advisory Board, The Wesley Hospital, Brisbane 2014-2017.

Principle, Echo Australia Program 2002-current.

Editor: Journal American Society of Echocardiography CASE Journal 2016-current.

Editor: Echocardiography Journal 2020-current.

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Advisory role with state and federal government (MSAC), and credentialling for Echo in structural interventions 2018-2021.

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International guideline co-author for ASE/EACVI for Echo in Structural Interventions 2021.

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Key opinion leader for development of new structural intervention and imaging technologies

25 years of clinical cardiology experience in private and public practice.

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Extensive publishing (H-index 26, 130 papers) and clinical teaching at local, national, and international level.

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Supervisor of PhD and Masters’ students (University of Queensland and Griffith University), medical trainees and fellows.

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General practitioner training programs and teaching syllabus development.

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Advanced Imaging Fellowship at The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio 1995-1996.

Cardiologist | St Vincent’s Hospital & St Vincent's Private Hospital Melbourne

Postdoctoral Fellow | Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute

Wilma Beswick Senior Research Fellow | Melbourne University

Deputy Medical Director (Research) | East Timor Hearts Fund

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Elizabeth is a cardiologist and World Heart Federation Salim Yusuf Emerging Leader. She gained her medical degree from the University of Melbourne with honours (2010) and qualified as a cardiologist in 2017.

 

Alongside her medical and cardiology training she undertook additional studies at Imperial College London (2007-08, laboratory-based research in pulmonary hypertension) and Harvard University (2015-16, biostatistics and epidemiology).

 

Her PhD, completed in 2022 at the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute, focussed on young cardiac arrest and received the Paul Korner PhD Medal and was a finalist for the Premier’s Award for Clinical Research.

 

She is the Wilma Beswick Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a clinical lecturer for Melbourne University (SVH Clinical School). She is an Associate Editor for European Heart Journal Case Reports and Heart, Lung & Circulation, a regular peer reviewer for international cardiology journals and sits on the St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne Ethics Committee.

 

She is also Deputy Medical Director of the East Timor Hearts Fund, travelling to Timor-Leste regularly to provide volunteer cardiac services. She is also a Designated Aviation Cardiologist and a Designated Aviation Medical Examiner (DAME). 

Dr Majo Joseph graduated from the University of Melbourne and completed his physician and advanced cardiology training at the Austin Hospital. He completed a two-year Cardiology Fellowship in Echocardiography at the University of Toronto, Canada, before returning to Australia to take up the position of a staff specialist and Director of Echocardiography in the Department of Cardiology at Flinders Medical Centre.

 

He is an Associate Professor at Flinders University and runs the Flinders Echo Research Group with a special interest in advanced echocardiography. He has presented his research at national and international meetings and is the author and co-author of many abstracts and manuscripts.

 

He is involved in medical student teaching and cardiology trainee education and mentorship. He is committed to cardiac sonographer education and is founding member of the South Australian echo committee as well as involvement in the state wide structural intervention committee, NEDA steering committee and CQ university Echo course. He was  part of the organising committee for the World congress of echo held in Adelaide in 2022 and the imaging lead for the Cardiac society meeting.

 

Dr Joseph has expertise in cardiac imaging, aortic diseases and structural heart disease and is part of the heart failure and endocarditis service at flinders medical centre.

Professor Simon Stewart PhD DMSc is a NHMRC of Australia Senior Principal Research Fellow based at the Institute for Health Research, University of Notre Dame Australia.

 

An experienced health services researcher, he has made important contributions to our understanding and response to an evolving epidemic of chronic forms of heart disease in many parts of the world.

 

In recognition of his research and leadership, among many awards, he is currently a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), American Heart Association (FAHA) and Heart Failure Association (FHFA).

Associate Professor David Prior is Director of Non-invasive Cardiac Imaging and Head of the Heart Failure Clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.

 

He is on the board of management for the National Centre for Sports Cardiology and is also the Clinical Director of Cardiology at Albury Wodonga Health.

 

After training in cardiology at the Alfred Hospital, he completed a PhD in heart failure at the Baker Heart Research Institute and subsequently an imaging fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA.

 

He has worked at St Vincent’s Hospital since 2000 and also holds a position as Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. Major clinical and research interests are in heart failure management, echocardiography, cardiac MRI, sports cardiology and pulmonary hypertension.

Professor Liza Thomas is a Conjoint Professor at Sydney University and Adjunct Professor at University of New South Wales. She is Clinical Lead for cardiac imaging at Westmead Hospital.

 

Her research focuses particularly on echocardiographic evaluation of atrial dynamics and function, chemotherapy related cardiomyopathy, amyloid and Fabry cardiomyopathies, cardiac involvement in chronic kidney disease and pulmonary hypertension. Liza is actively involved in teaching and supervises PhD and Masters students.

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She has been and invited speaker at national and international meetings and has published over 180 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She is on the editorial board of JACC CV Imaging, JASE and is section editor for Heart, Lung and Circulation and is a member of the CSANZ Board.