ADVISORS
A/Prof. Cheng-Hon Yap
MBBS, FRACS, MS – Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Cheng is a cardiothoracic surgeon at St John of God Geelong Hospital and University Hospital - Geelong. He is an adjunct research fellow at the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University and an Affiliate Associate Professor, School of Medicine, Deakin University.
Assoc Professor Yap graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1998. He obtained a Master of Surgery by research in 2006 studying the immunological response to homograft heart valves. He underwent training in Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and the Austin Hospital, obtaining his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2011. He underwent post-fellowship training in the United Kingdom.
He has over 50 peer-reviewed publications. He has an interest in the management of thoracic malignancies and has served as the chair of the lung cancer working group at Barwon Health. He also serves as a proctor and instructor in the field of minimally invasive heart valve surgery, travelling throughout Australia and South East Asia.
He has a wide-ranging clinical practice including Robotic and VATS lung resections, aortic surgery, minimally invasive aortic valve and coronary revascularisation procedures.
Dr. Ramanathan Parameswaran
Cardiac Electrophysiologist & Consultant Cardiologist
After completing his undergraduate and post-graduate (Doctor of Medicine) degrees in India, he moved to Australia and completed his cardiology training at Launceston General Hospital, Tasmania. Subsequently, Ram undertook his subspecialty training in cardiac electrophysiology and device implantation at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney, The Royal Melbourne and The Alfred Hospitals.
He obtained his PhD from The University of Melbourne for his research on mechanisms of persistent atrial fibrillation and the three dimensional activation characteristics of human atrium. He is a recipient of The Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand Research Scholarship and the NHMRC Post Graduate Scholarship and has won the ‘Young Investigator Award’ in the 12th Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society Scientific Session in 2019 in recognition of his substantial contribution to the field of atrial fibrillation.
He has authored several research publications in leading peer-reviewed journals including Nature Reviews Cardiology, Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology and Heart Rhythm.
Ram holds his public appointment at University Hospital Geelong and performs complex ablations of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias and implants a wide range of cardiac devices at Barwon Health and St John of God Geelong Hospital. He has private consulting sessions at Heart Centre St John of God.
David Urpani
B.Eng. & B.Arch. (Hons.), M.Eng.Sc., PhD (AI), GAICD, FIEAust
David is a passionate business technologist, strategist, company director and entrepreneur with a passion for innovation, continual improvement and commercialisation. David thrives at the interface of business strategy and technology and has over 30 years’ experience developing businesses and managing resources and technology to grow businesses.
David currently consults to businesses in the areas of AI/ML, recently bringing his deep AI/ML experience to the area of healthcare. Previously he has held CxO positions and had served on the Board of several start-ups and publicly listed businesses. David co-founded the highly successful on-line business, iSelect Ltd in 2000.