The Wesley Hospital recently ran a spotlight interview with me about cardio-oncology. I wanted to share it, because it captures something my earlier clinical post do not: how I came to this work at all, and why I think patients deserve to hear that story too.
The piece is titled “Where cancer care and cardiology meet: what is cardio-oncology?” and you can find it on the Wesley Hospital website under About Us > News. Rather than the practical referral questions I covered in my previous post for referring doctors, the interview speaks to everyone: patients, families, and clinicians alike. It explores the field through my own path into it, including the moment that changed how I think about medicine altogether.
Formal fellowship training in cardio-oncology remains uncommon in Australia. I completed mine in Toronto with the University Health Network, working alongside the breast, lung, lymphoma and bone-marrow transplant teams at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, one of the world’s leading cancer centres. Over that time I carried out around a thousand cardio-oncology consultations across a wide range of cancers.
Coming home, one thing became clear to me: patients here should not have to travel to receive this kind of care. There are only a handful of specialists in the field in Queensland, and part of my motivation for speaking publicly about it is simply that many people, including doctors, do not yet know the field exists.
A cancer diagnosis can be frightening enough without having to worry about your heart as well. If you are a patient or a family member reading this, I want you to know that our treatments are good, and when we pick up heart problems early, we can usually help to manage them well. There is more help available now than ever before.
And if you are a doctor reading this, that message applies to your patients too. It costs nothing to ask the question.
