Dr William Chan
Dr William Chan is a consultant and interventional cardiologist at The Alfred.
Dr Chan is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Adjunct Lecturer at Monash University. He is a consultant and interventional cardiologist as well as a clinician-investigator. His public appointments are based at The Alfred, Western and Sunshine Hospitals, where he works as a consultant cardiologist with close affiliation to the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. He has held the prestigious NHMRC Early Career Fellowship enabling him to conduct clinical research in cardiology. He is actively involved in clinical research and supervises research and PhD fellows.
Dr Chan completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne and advanced cardiology training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He undertook a PhD postgraduate degree at The Alfred and Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (Monash University) focusing on patients with acute myocardial infarction (acute 'heart attacks'), peripheral arterial disease and novel uses of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in myocardial infarction. He was the winner of the 2011 Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) Clinical Ralph Reader Prize (Young Investigator Award). He completed 3 further years of postdoctoral clinical training and research at the Mount Sinai and Toronto General Hospitals in Toronto, Canada.
Dr Chan has interests in assessing and performing complex, high-risk, coronary artery revascularisation procedures in patients who have heart failure or who cannot otherwise undergo coronary artery bypass graft surgery because of high-risk co-morbidities (e.g. advanced age, severe heart failure or heart muscle weakness, inoperable targets, previous strokes or kidney failure). These procedures include:
- Unprotected left main stenting
- Rotational atherectomy to highly calcified vessels
- Complex bifurcation lesions
- Patients requiring mechanical assist devices during their procedures because of severe heart failure
- Chronic total occlusions
Dr Chan is also interested in diagnosing and treating patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (unexplained thickening of heart muscle) who are troubled by symptoms of shortness of breath or chest discomfort. He performs catheter ablation to reduce some of the thickening of the heart muscle to improve symptoms in those who might be suitable or who cannot undergo cardiac surgery.