We welcome Claire Heffernan, a Professional Teaching Fellow from the Department of Anatomy and Medical Imaging who has joined the Faculty and the Cardiac Ultrasound team. She is eager to share her knowledge while continuing to learn from others, hoping to make meaningful contributions to healthcare and education. Claire is currently undertaking the Postgraduate Diploma in Health Science in Digital Health through the University with a plan to continue to a research masters post completion.
Her career spans cardiac/intensive care nursing, cardiac ultrasound, and clinical informatics. She has been a cardiac sonographer for fourteen years, completing her Postgraduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound in 2013. During this time, she has been involved in providing training and mentorship to both sonographers and advanced cardiology trainees.
In the informatics space, she worked as a clinical informatics specialist and was part of a national clinical informatics team where she had the opportunity to leverage her clinical experience and build on a systems thinking and evidence-based approach to digital healthcare.
She hopes to bring her clinical subject matter expertise to this role but also her digital and informatics knowledge to course design, development, and learning. Moreover, with advancing technology in the ultrasound and digital space and the complexity of healthcare, she hopes to inspire future critical thinking among cardiac ultrasound students as they embark on their careers.