The Council was put together to provide expert guidance, feedback and advocacy to the PICSA Board and its members regarding the development and publishing of profession related clinical guidelines, position statements and any other governance documentation the PICSA Board aims to publish for the purposes of furthering the Cardiac Physiology profession in Australia.
Council Members are invited Cardiac Physiologists who are peer endorsed and recognised experts in the field of Cardiac Physiology. They have contributed to the development and expansion of the Profession either through education or advocacy activities over the course of their career (either past or present). Council members may or may not be members of PiCSA.
Jason Riley
Jason commenced his initial training in Cardiac Physiology at the Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane in 1995 and gravitated quickly into the fascinating world of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing.
In 1999 he moved to London and spent 3 exciting years as the Senior Technician in Pacing/EP at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London.
Since returning to Brisbane in 2001 Jason has set up 2 companies, Epicentre Medical and CEPIA.
Epicentre Medical is a team of highly skilled cardiac physiologists specialising in electrophysiology and implantable devices. They provide professional scientific services to hospitals, private cardiology practices and medical device companies in areas such as 2D and 3D mapping and ablation procedures, bradycardia / tachycardia / resynchronisation interventions and follow up, and the management of cardiac device clinics, both in-clinic and remote services.
CEPIA (Cardiac Electrophysiology Institute of Australasia) is an independent government accredited training organisation providing education to medical professionals in the field of cardiac electrophysiology.
CEPIA also runs the Australasian Cardiac Devices Conference (ACDC), whose aim is to advance and improve the clinical standards and practice in the field of cardiac devices.
CEPIA also publishes an iTunes app called “PPM Genius – Pacemaker & ICD Companion”, the ultimate device implantation and follow up assistant, developed to assist medical professionals involved in the care of patients with implantable cardiac devices.
Jason is passionate about cardiac electrophysiology and devices, training, education and the improvements in clinical and professional standards.
Tony Forshaw
Tony Forshaw is the course coordinator for the Graduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound at QUT. Through this role, he is a strong advocate for improved standards in sonography and provides education and training to sonographers throughout Australia and New Zealand. Tony continues to maintain a clinical role working in private practice at Hearts 1st in Brisbane and is the founder of the Echo Guru educational website. Tony is the current president of the Australasian Sonographers Association.
Susan Boucaut
Sue has been associated with cardiac sciences for all of my working life. It all started at The Prince Charles Hospital Queensland in April 1970. Sue retired as Director of Cardiac Sciences at the Prince Charles, Redcliffe and Caboolture Hospitals in September 2013. During her career Sue has strived to represent Cardiac Sciences to enhance our standing and recognition within Queensland Health, and on a wider national basis. Sue has served on a number of local and statewide committees including the position of Queensland representative for the CSANZ Affiliates Group. Her commitment to tertiary student education was recognised when she was awarded an academic appointment as Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland in 2008, after being awarded an academic title as Associate Lecturer in 2005. In November 2013, Sue was delighted to be granted life time membership of the Professionals in Cardiac Sciences Australia (PiCSA). Sue is now very much looking forward to serving as part of the newly proposed Council of Clinical Advisors with PiCSA. She has a continued strong commitment to supporting the concept that governance and educational standards for cardiac scientists/physiologists are best managed and implemented by those who have the skills, experience, knowledge and respect of their peers to set standards and provide accreditation. She has encountered many challenges during her career; the biggest of these has been the recognition of our profession as an entity within health services. Sue hopes to be able to do all she can to support cardiac sciences/physiology to maintain the current strong commitment to ethical and responsible service delivery by qualified and well supported practitioners.
Bonita Anderson
Bonita has over 30 years’ experience as a clinical cardiac sonographer and echo educator/academic. An Accredited Medical Sonographer, Bonita holds a Diploma in Medical Ultrasonography (Cardiac), a Master of Applied Science (Medical Ultrasound), and was awarded the Advanced Cardiac Sonographer (ACS) credential from Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI) in 2015. She also has a Fellowship of the American Society of Echocardiography and an Associate Fellowship of the Australasian Sonographers Association. Bonita was recently appointed to the American Society of Echocardiography’s Board of Directors as the inaugural International Member.
Bonita is also the author of “Echocardiography: The Normal Examination and Echocardiographic Measurements” and “A Sonographer’s Guide to the Assessment of Heart Disease”. These textbooks are included on the course syllabus for many echocardiography programs within Australia and the USA.
Bonita also “founded” the Graduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound at the Queensland University of Technology. This was the first university-based, cardiac ultrasound ASAR-accredited program which was first offered in 2001. Bonita ‘retired’ from QUT after 15 years service.
Sharon Kay
Sharon Kay is a Cardiac Scientist, an Assoc. Professor and Program Lead of the BSc/Grad Dip of Cardiac Physiology and Echocardiography at CQU.
She is also a senior lecturer in Echocardiography at University of Sydney Medical Faculty – Northern Clinical School. Sharon’s main interest and research are cardiotoxicity, athletes and structural heart, she performs this at Charles Perkins Centre and the Kolling institute.
She is the founder of Structural heart disease Australia and resides on their board, she coordinates 2 symposiums a year which are streamed nationally and internationally for this association.
Sharon’s clinical employment consists of Australia’s first dedicated CardiOncology clinic catering to the North Shore of Sydney, Royal North Shore Hospital ICU College accredited echo physicians training program (which she wrote and now implements) and various outpatient clinics. She is a national and international invited speaker and regularly designs and implements workshops at these conferences in Echocardiography from novice to advanced techniques.
She qualified in Cardiac Sciences in 1998 from University of Sydney and QUT.
