Making a Difference - Gifted & Giving

Dr Heath Adams 

BMedSci, MBBS (Hons), DipUKMP, FRACP, FCSAN

The local media has been acknowledging the work of Royal Hobart Cardiology Unit, particularly with the unit reaching its 300 ground breaking procedures to save lives around Tasmania. The procedure referred to is the Aortic Valve Implementation (TAVI).

To quote Genevieve Holding’s Mercury article (17.10.2023):

The TAVI procedure replaces faulty or poorly functioning aortic valves that don’t open fully to improve the heart’s blood flow.

In a 45 minute keyhole procedure, a valve implant is placed in the heart through the groin under local anaesthetic. The majority of patients are able to be discharged the next day.

The DAVI procedure was introduced to Tasmania by former student Heath Adams (SVC 1998-2001), Heath was head prefect in his final year at the College and was captain of the victorious athletics team in that year.

On leaving school, Heath commenced his studies in Medicine at UTAS. He graduated with First Class Honours in the MBBS in 2009, and became a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 2016 after training at St Vincent’s Melbourne and the Royal Hobart Hospital.

He was the recipient of the Dr M G Ciezar Scholarship from UTAS which enable him to travel to the UK to work and study at St Thomas Hospital, London. Whilst there he learned the DAVI procedure and during 2019, he was awarded the best clinical case presentation at the Euro PCR International Valve Conference.

He returned to Tasmania in 2020 just before the COVID lockdowns. The timing proved a blessing as Tasmanians requiring the DAVI procedure would have normally travelled to the mainland and at great inconvenience and additional expense.