Glenn Ison

Senior Medical Radiation Practitioner and Senior Medical Scientist

St George Hospital

“I’m part of a great cardiac team that opens blocked or narrow arteries, we replace damaged heart valves, we close structural defects within the heart, we also do ablations on people with electrical problems.

Thirty years ago, all of that would have been surgical, but more and more we are going through intravascular pathways, through the arteries to get into the heart and fix problems and not open patients up as much. It can be a day procedure, or overnight for the really difficult ones, but easier heart operations. It’s a different world.

One thing working in the acute cardiac space is that it can be very instantaneous. One minute someone’s in cardiogenic shock with a major heart attack and we can work with the team to open the arteries up, then the patient can be talking to you. That is one of the rare things in the hospital where you can see things straight away.

We had a mechanic as a patient once and he said that the lab where we fix the heart arteries is the fuel injection side of the engine and the lab he had an ablation for Atrial Fibrillation is like the electrical side of the engine. Which is a good analogy of how the heart works.

St George is a great place, inclusive, focused on world class care and good people doing great things for all. Heart work is very rewarding, but I’m biased."