Dr Ashlea Low

Our latest registrar on rotation from the Alfred is Ashlea Low.

Ashlea completed her Bachelor of Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne and MBBS at Deakin University.

She started her career as a junior doctor in Ballarat and Eastern Health and is currently a first year General Medicine Advanced Trainee.

She is enjoying all aspects of her work as a cardiology registrar especially echocardiography and is now undertaking a Graduate Diploma of Clinical Ultrasound.

Outside of work, Ashlea enjoys swimming and hiking and is looking forward to exploring the national parks around Mildura. 

New cardiologist puts his heart into his work

IT hasn't been an easy journey but Mildura's newest cardiologist has finally arrived.
Dr Sachin Sondhi arrived from India on December 8 bringing with him a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm.


Mildura Cardiology was beyond happy to have Dr Sondhi arrive after struggling to "attract a full-time cardiologist who was prepared to move to Mildura and make it their home".


"The main reason I chose Mildura is because of the immediate need for a cardiologist," Dr Sondhi said.
"They had Melbourne cardiologists flying in and out of Mildura every fortnight and Mildura Cardiology had been searching for a full time cardiologist for the past two and a half years."


The search for a new full time cardiologist came after Dr Alan Soward retired at the end of 2020 after 32 years of serving the community.


As the new permanent cardiologist residing in Mildura, Dr Sondhi aims to provide continuity of care for the community and support for GPs and both hospitals.


It was during his training that the 33-year-old discovered his desire to become a cardiologist.
"During my internal medicine training I came across many cardiac patients and, as we all know, cardiac diseases are the most common cause of morbidity and mortality," he said.


"A lot of young people are suffering from cardiac diseases right now and I got a chance to see these patients and I got a chance to treat them, so that is the main reason."


While working as a cardiologist, Dr Sondhi has also been required to work with many COVID positive patients over the past two years.


"For every family in India, there is not a single family that there was no COVID," he said.


"Every single family would have had one member that has had COVID, for me, it was my wife who had COVID, she was working in the COVID ICU and got infected, but she is fully vaccinated so had just a mild fever."


The private hospital that Dr Sondhi worked at in India saw all staff assist with COVID patients.
"Everyone had to give duties in the COIVD ward, even specialist doctors, including myself," he said.

"It's a very bad situation there, I worked in a private hospital and in peak times all 100 beds of the hospital had COVID patients.
"I have seen many young patients, including three patients who had complications because of COVID; one had a heart attack, one patient has fluid around the heart and another has weakening of the heart muscles.


"COVID also affects your hearts, not just the lungs."


Dr Sondhi said the best defence against COVID was to be fully vaccinated.


"Those patients that I have seen that are infected and fully vaccinated had a mild disease but those who aren't vaccinated or who are old and are diabetic or on dialysis, the mortality is more in these patients," he said.


"In young patients who are fully vaccinated, you can catch the infection but it's very mild."


Next year is expected to be a very exciting year for the young doctor who will not only be settling into Mildura, but also welcoming his first child in February with his wife, who is expected to make Mildura her home once the baby arrives.

Dr Riley Batchelor

Riley is our current registrar on secondment from The Alfred Hospital. He completed his MBBS with honours at Monash University in 2016, went on to complete Basic Physician Training at Alfred Health. Riley’s interests include all aspects of General Cardiology, with interests that extend to Stroke Neurology. He has worked previously at Mildura Base Hospital as a medical registrar and is hoping to return to Mildura as a cardiologist on completion of his specialty training.

Riley is involved in clinical education and teaches medical students on a twice-weekly basis. Outside of work, he has been enjoying the fresh air here in Mildura and runs on along the Murray. Over the weekends he has been enjoying having a hit at the driving range and the local golf courses. He is a passionate Collingwood supporter, but has been a little disheartened by their performance this year!

Dr Sylvia Ye

Sylvia completed her undergraduate training in Biomedicine at The University of Melbourne before undertaking an MBBS at Deakin University.

After working a year in Shepparton, she completed her Basic Physician Training at Eastern Health. She is now an Advanced Trainee in General and Acute Care Medicine and is hoping to combine this in the future with Cardiology training to provide holistic cardiovascular care.

Outside of work, Sylvia enjoys reading, hiking and looking after her 30+ indoor plants. She is a miserable cook so is looking forward to sampling all of the restaurants she has been recommended in Mildura.

Dr Adrian Chee

Our newest registrar on rotation from Alfred Health is Dr Adrian Chee. The Advanced Physician training position is a six month rotation based at Mildura Cardiology in conjunction with the Mildura Base Hospital.

Adrian completed his Basic Physician Training at Monash and Alfred Health, and is currently an Advanced Trainee in General and Acute Care Medicine, which he hopes to combine with Haematology training. Adrian has previously worked in Mildura several times as a medical registrar, and hopes to return to practice here once he has completed his specialty training. He is also interested in clinical education, and is involved in teaching at both a medical student and junior doctor level.

Outside of work, Adrian has been working on upskilling his culinary skills, as well as having taken up pilates during the COVID lockdown. He highly enjoys the food scene in Mildura and hopes that he can visit Trentham again before he has to leave!"

Cardiac and Specialist Centre

As Mildura continues to grow, so does Mildura Cardiology. The need for further expansion has made it necessary for Mildura Cardiology to relocate its Cardiac & Specialist Centre to 238 13th street Mildura, previously located in the Mildura Health Private Hospital building. The new centre is located four doors down from the main clinic at 230 13th street. This centre provides an outpatient echocardiography service for both adult and paediatric patients. This includes both urgent and non urgent outpatient appointments and a daily inpatient hospital service covering both Mildura Base Hospital and Mildura Health Private Hospital. This busy centre employs five echocardiographers and two reception staff. Visiting specialists include a Paediatric Cardiologist, a Respiratory & Sleep Physician and a Haematologist.    

Dr Dana Forcey

Our newest registrar on rotation from Alfred Health is Dr Dana Forcey. Dana completed both her undergraduate training in Immunology and Pathology, and her MD at The University of Melbourne. Her Basic Physician Training was completed at Alfred Health and the Central Australian Health Service - Alice Springs. She is currently an Advanced Trainee in General and Acute Care Medicine, which she hopes to combine with Nephrology training and she is particularly interested in Indigenous Renal Health. Dana is enjoying all aspects of General Cardiology at Mildura Cardiology, especially ECG reporting and transthoracic echocardiography. She hopes these skills will be useful to her practice in the remote and rural settings in which she hopes to work in future. She enjoys working with the team at Mildura Cardiology and Mildura Base Hospital. Outside of work, Dana enjoys hiking and landscape photography. During the coronarvirus lockdown she has inherited a sourdough starter from Carly (assistant practice manager), and is enjoying competing with Carly and Dr Soward in the pursuit of baking the perfect sourdough bread!

Graduate Diplomas in Cardiac Ultrasound

HOME is where the heart is for two local nurses-turned-echocardiographers. After completing their Bachelor of Nursing degrees two years ago, Kirsten Newman and Jessica Goodman decided to take their medical education one step further and complete a Graduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound, a two-year course run through the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The girls received their qualifications recently, essentially "doubling the staff levels" at their workplace, Mildura Cardiology. Chief echocardiographer Lisa Zweck said the course undertaken by Ms Newman and Ms Goodman is "notorious for having students drop out or fail due to the high level of skills involved". "Not only is it very academically difficult requiring physics, anatomy, physiology, and mathematical equations, but the physical skills required to perform the procedure is extremely difficult," Ms Zweck said. "This has been an outstanding achievement for the girls and now has basically doubled our staff levels, "They are local girls and it is wonderful that they have retrained in such a specialised area to help service our rural community." Ms Goodman and Ms Newman said while their training was "intense," they were now looking forward to embarking on their new career. "I always knew I wanted to work in healthcare, starting with working as a personal carer, then nursing and leading in to echocardiography seemed like a very natural progression for me," Ms Goodman said. "I really think you can have a rewarding and successful career right here in Mildura, our workplace has been so supportive." The road to echocardiology looked very different for Ms Newman, who decided to take a turn to the medical profession after hairdressing for seven years. "I was a qualified hairdresser when I started studying nursing ... I never thought I'd do a post grad, let alone a degree," she said. "I did it because I just thought it was amazing, I had almost finished my nursing degree and thought I'd give it a go -- and I'm so glad I did." Both girls agree that having access to "hands on learning" through their workplace was key to their success. "You're actually not allowed to do the course with out the hands on training, so we were really lucky to have Mildura Cardiology take us on and support us though that," Ms Goodman said. "The wonderful thing about echocardiology is that it's continually changing and improving – you're learning new things all the time... it's constantly evolving, and that's a very exciting thing to be a part of."

Dr Juan Mundisugih

'Dr Juan Mundisugih is our latest Cardiology Registrar from the Alfred Hospital.

He will be working at Mildura Cardiology and Mildura Base Hospital for the next six months.

Cardiology has been his passion since medical school.

He has done numerous cardiology rotations both in Australia and overseas, including rotation in Mayo Clinic, USA.

He is also actively involved in research and has a significant research background with multiple scientific presentations, abstracts, and publications. His long term goal is to practice as a Cardiologist in a variety of settings both urban and rural.'

National Honour for doc

Dr Raymond Cowling was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday honours.   FOR more than 30 years, Dr Raymond Cowling has been travelling back and forward from Melbourne to Mildura to offer his services to a regional community he has grown to love. And this week, the 72-year-old senior pacemaker physiologist was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia as part of the Queen’s Birthday honours. “I was really pleased, my sister burst into tears when I told her and my partner gave me a huge hug,” he said. Dr Cowling, the visiting affiliate at Mildura Cardiology, was awarded for his service to community health. While he has worked for many years as a senior pacemaker physiologist and formerly as a senior pacemaker technologist, he has also spent more than 30 years working with people in the recovery phase after an attempt at suicide. “I thought I would like to help people and I have been able to provide support for those people,” he said. “I help out as often as they need and it’s good for them.” The travelling doc has had an extraordinary life. He first set out to have a career in electronics but it was near the end of his degree that he discovered his passion for medicine. “To qualify I had to do a year in the industry, so I did it at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, that was my window into medicine,” he said. “I was fascinated by research and aspects of the heart. “I married electronics and medical knowledge together and obtained by first job at Medtronic in Minneapolis in the late 1960s, early 1970s.” It was there that Dr Cowling witnessed the “evolutionary” change from a pacemaker being an external device to something that was placed inside a patient. “I just happened to be the right person, at the right place and at the right time,” he said. Dr Cowling returned to Australia in 1978 and was employed at Telectronics and St Vincent’s Hospital. Almost a decade later, Dr Cowling began visiting Mildura. “It was 32 years ago that I joined Dr Alan Soward and Dr Kevin Chambers to start offering pacemaker implantations in Mildura,” Dr Cowling said. “Eight years ago I retired from all of the Melbourne hospitals but still visit Mildura, averaging 102 visits a year. “I just love the people and the environment and serving a community in need.” With frequent flights to Mildura each week, Dr Cowling said the great relationship he had formed with Qantas airline had been an important aspect in being able to do his job. “I remember when I was on the way to the airport and there was a crash on the freeway but at the time there was an emergency in Mildura, I called the airline and they held the plane for me,” he said. “During my 32 years coming here, there has been four times that they have waited for me and have saved the lives of people needing help. “It’s that family, community atmosphere that I like and what has kept me coming back.” Dr Cowling said while he would like to retire in the near future, his patients don’t need to panic yet as he still has a few years up his sleeve. Story and photo courtesy of Sunraysia Daily