Trading the glittering sands of the Gold Coast for the bright lights of Leeds, Dr Maggie He hopes her journey inspires more women into cardiology.
Dr He, Gold Coast Health’s Interventional Cardiology Fellow, has been awarded a 12-month fellowship at Leeds General Infirmary in northern England.
The prestigious ANZET-UK Intervention Fellowship, awarded by the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, is one of only three positions in the United Kingdom that the society grants each year, with successful candidates chosen from a competitive field of applicants.
Dr He said she was thrilled by the award and hoped to use her time at one of England’s busiest cardiology departments to expand on the skills she’s learned at Gold Coast Health.
“There will be a very high volume of stenting procedures but specifically what I want to get out of it is more experience with complex cases that we might not have as much exposure to here,” Dr He said.
“They do a lot more complex intervention, including things like calcium modification – drilling through the calcium in your blood vessels that you might not be able to do without this technique.
“And a lot of use of intracoronary imaging, when we ultrasound or take a catheter down the artery itself and get an image from inside the artery, which is pretty cool.”
Less than five per cent of Australia’s practicing interventional cardiologists are female, with women representing only about 15 per cent of the country’s total number of cardiologists.
Dr He hopes her fellowship award highlights the value of cardiology as a profession and draws more attention to interventional cardiology as a specialty.