A/Prof Arthur Nasis

MBBS (Hons), MD, PhD, FRACP, FCSANZ

Expert in Clinical Cardiology & Cardiac Risk Assessment

Dr Arthur Nasis is an internationally trained clinical cardiologist, academic cardiologist and cardiac imaging specialist with expertise in all aspects of clinical cardiology, cardiac risk assessment and non-invasive cardiac imaging. He has reported over 25,000 resting and stress echocardiograms, 10,000 CT coronary angiograms and 1,500 cardiac MRI scans.

Dr Nasis was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia and received his medical degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne in 2003. He completed his internship and basic physician training at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, and in 2008, was accepted into the advanced cardiology training program in Victoria, Australia as the highest-ranked candidate nationally. His cardiology training was based at MonashHeart in Melbourne which is the largest cardiology service provider in Victoria. His training at MonashHeart encompassed two years of general cardiology advanced clinical training and one-year as a non-invasive cardiac imaging fellow. His training included experience in all aspects of echocardiography (transthoracic, transoesophageal, stress, three-dimensional) as well as all aspects of cardiac CT angiography.

During his clinical training, Dr Nasis also completed a Doctor of Medicine (MD) thesis at Monash University entitled “Advances in Cardiac Imaging with Wide-Area Multidetector Cardiac Computed Tomography”. The results of this thesis demonstrated a high diagnostic accuracy of wide-area CT angiography in detecting coronary artery disease and assessing left ventricular volumes and systolic function, as well as the role of this technology as part of a diagnostic algorithm for the work-up of patients presenting to the Emergency Department with chest pain. This body of research has helped define the diagnostic accuracy and appropriate clinical role of wide-area CT angiography in contemporary clinical practice.

Non-invasive Cardiac Assessment in High Risk Patients

Following his MD, Dr Nasis undertook a Doctor of Philosophy and completed his thesis in 2014 entitled “Clinical Application of Cardiac Computed Tomography: Implications for Chest Pain Assessment”, supervised by Professor Ian Meredith and Professor James Cameron. This broadly explored the use and role of novel imaging techniques in the assessment of patients with acute and stable chest pain syndromes to establish the place of advanced cardiac CT techniques (including cardiac CT perfusion imaging) and innovative aspects of stress echocardiography in the early diagnosis of conditions causing chest pain and heart failure. His research program was supported by the successful granting of several prestigious research scholarships including a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Postgraduate Scholarship and a National Heart Foundation (NHF) Postgraduate Scholarship.

Dr Nasis continued his higher specialist fellowship training in 2014 as a clinical cardiac MRI fellow at the Heart Hospital, London, one of the world’s premier clinical and academic cardiac MRI centres that performed over 2,500 cardiac MRI scans per year, particularly in patients with cardiomyopathy. This offered him considerable experience in the investigation and management of all cardiomyopathies, as well all aspects of cardiac MRI interpretation, including investigational techniques that have now entered clinical use such as T1 and ECV mapping that non-invasively detect diffuse myocardial fibrosis.

While in London, Dr Nasis also undertook a period of postdoctoral research at the Heart Hospital and Royal Free Hospital, University College London under the supervision of Professor James Moon. This involved a series of world-first clinical projects designed to evaluate whether diffuse myocardial fibrosis could be non-invasively detected in patients with a range of cardiomyopathies using novel cardiac CT and cardiac MRI techniques. This program was supported by the awarding of three travelling fellowships – the State Government ‘Victoria Fellowship’, the Royal Australian College of Physicians Bushell Fellowship in Medicine and the MonashHealth Senior Medical Staff Academic Scholarship.

Upon returning to Melbourne in December 2014, he was appointed as a staff consultant cardiologist at MonashHeart, MonashHealth and in 2015, he was promoted to Head, Acute Cardiac Services. He currently continues to serve in this position where he has led the implementation of multiple advances in service delivery, clinical training and benchmarking that have resulted in the more efficient and safe functioning of the Coronary Care Unit.

In 2015, Dr Nasis co-founded Victoria Heart with Dr Andris Ellims, an independent cardiology practice and cardiac imaging service where he continues to consult and perform cardiac investigations. He also cares for inpatients at the Epworth Hospital, Jessie McPherson Hospital and The Avenue Hospital.

In 2016, Dr Nasis was appointed as the Clinical Lead of the Cardiac Clinical Network at Safer Care Victoria, Department of Health and Human Services, a position he served in for five years. In this significant role, he engaged the wider cardiac clinical community to identify mechanisms to decrease unwarranted clinical practice variation, to identify and support implementation of best practice approaches for a range of cardiac conditions as well as to develop measurable state-wide safety and quality improvement goals for state-wide improvement and benchmarking. He also regularly provided advice to the Department of Health on clinical quality and safety implications of policy, planning and commissioning decisions, including the state-wide Cardiac Services Plan which was released in 2016. Additionally, he has also served on the Victorian Government’s Victorian Clinical Council, he has chaired Safer Care Victoria’s Cardiac INSIGHT (Information and Evidence) Committee and he is the current treasurer of the Hellenic Medical Society of Australia.

Arising from his passion and expertise in heart disease prevention, in 2021 Dr Nasis co-founded HeartWatch , Australia’s first dedicated cardiac screening program. This program provides an all-encompassing, highly streamlined and coordinated workup and prevention plan incorporating the latest cardiovascular risk stratification techniques to optimise participants’ heart health and minimise their risk of developing heart disease in the future.

When not at work, Arthur loves nothing more than spending family time with his wife and two young children. He is an avid reader, loves travelling and enjoys playing tennis, albeit poorly. He is an all-round sporting aficionado, and a long-suffering Carlton and Arsenal tragic.