Prof. David Playford

Prof. David Playford is a CTCA accredited specialist with extensive experience in Cardiac CT imaging (CTCA and CAC). He is part of the Advara HeartCare CTCA team, providing streamlined cardiac care services in Western Australia.

Special clinical interests in general cardiology, cardiac risk assessment, breathlessness and pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and valvular heart disease. 

About Prof David Playford 

Professor David Playford is the Professor of Cardiology at the University of Notre Dame, where he was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence and coordinates the undergraduate cardiovascular teaching program. David is a regular invited speaker to national and international conferences, where his research has recently attracted significant international attention. Until July 2019, David was the Professor and Director of Cardiology at the Mount Hospital, Perth. 

David is a cardiac imaging specialist, having run a specialist echo laboratory, an echo core laboratory, and an advanced echo fellowship program. His clinical cardiology interests are general cardiology, cardiac risk assessment, breathlessness and pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and valvular heart disease. David is dual FRACP-trained in General Medicine and Cardiology, and is a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, the American College of Cardiology, the and the European Society of Cardiology. 

From a research perspective, his Doctor of Philosophy examined vascular function, lipid abnormalities and diabetes, and he subsequently undertook echocardiography training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston USA. David is the Principal Investigator of the National Echo Database Australia (NEDA), the largest echo database in the world with links to mortality data. He also runs an artificial intelligence program focusing on automation of interpretation of echo and ECG data. 

In addition, David provides a subspecialist service in Cardio Oncology which involves careful attention to cardiac function throughout potentially cardio-toxic chemotherapy, to enable successful delivery of treatment without interruption. His Cardio Oncology practice is located at Hollywood Private Hospital. 

Research Interests

David has an interest in diagnosing chronic breathlessness and has been pivotal in setting up the first multidisciplinary Breathlessness service in WA.

Publications 

• Playford D, Strange G, Celermajer D, Evans G, Scalia G, Simon S on behalf of the NEDA contributing sites. Diastolic Dysfunction and Mortality in 436,360 men and women: The National Echo Database Australia (NEDA). European Heart Journal: Cardiovascular Imaging 2020 in press
• Stewart S, Strange G, Playford D. The Challenge of an Expanded Therapeutic Window in Pulmonary Hypertension. Nature Reviews Cardiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41569-020-0332-92020.
• Playford D, Bordin E, Mohamad R, Stewart S, and Strange G. Enhanced Diagnosis of Severe Aortic Stenosis Using Artificial Intelligence: A Proof-of-Concept Study of 530,871 Echocardiograms. J Am Coll Cardiol: Cardiovasc Img 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2019.10.013
• Geoff Strange, Simon Stewart, David S. Celermajer, David Prior, Gregory M. Scalia, Thomas H. Marwick, Eli Gabbay, Marcus Ilton, Majo Joseph, Jim Codde, David Playford, on behalf of the NEDA Contributing Sites. Poor Long-Term Survival in Patients With Moderate Aortic Stenosis. J Am Coll Cardiol 2019;74;15:1851-63. DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2019.08.004
• Geoff Strange, Simon Stewart, David S. Celermajer, David Prior, Gregory M. Scalia, Thomas H. Marwick, Eli Gabbay, Marcus Ilton, Majo Joseph, Jim Codde, David Playford, on behalf of the NEDA Contributing Sites. Threshold of Pulmonary Hypertension Associated With Increased Mortality. J Am Coll Cardiol 2019;73:2660–72.

Professional Memberships 

• Fellow of Royal Australian College of Physicians (FRACP)
• Fellow of Cardiac Society of Australia New Zealand (FCSANZ)
• Fellow of European Society of Cardiology (FESC)
• Fellow of American College of Cardiology (FACC)