Medical Forum journalist Eric Martin sat down with Dr Michelle Ammerer, an interventional cardiologist from Western Cardiology – based at St John of God Subiaco Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital – to talk about the changes that have taken place in interventional cardiology, and the latest treatments available to doctors and their patients.

Dr Ammerer is one of the very few female cardiologists in Perth and has been recognised as one of the leaders in interventional cardiology, working for nearly two decades in this field – a career decision she credits to the ‘amazing’ team working at SCGH.

“I was really fortunate as a medical student in my last year of training and early on in my intern and junior years to work with the cardiologists at Charles Gairdner Hospital, and they had great personalities. They were good at their work, and I got to see what they actually did in the cath lab operating – which was absolutely amazing,” she said.

“The skill they had in saving people’s lives with the work they did was incredible, I was pretty much inspired from then on to do cardiology, and after my fellowship, I returned as the first female cardiologist at Charlie’s.

“I never really set out to have that as something on my CV, but that is just what happened. I’ve also spent a lot of time on the board of the Heart Foundation, and I’ve worked with them for 14 years on a campaign raising awareness of heart disease in women, as well as a lot of other aspects of heart disease.

Dr Ammerer explained that as an interventional cardiologist she was on the ‘after-hours’ roster at SCGH.

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Season 1

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