UEG student spotlight: James Anstey | an intensivist, pianist and guitarist

Meet James, an intensivist who's passionate about every sound frequency, from ultrasound to piano and guitar

Job Title: ICU Consultant

Describe yourself: I’m an Intensivist and Physician, who also loves music, travel and the outdoors.

Where do you work and what is your current position? Royal Melbourne Hospital Intensive Care Unit

How long have you been there? As a consultant since 2015

What University of Melbourne ultrasound courses have you completed? I have done the advanced TOE course recently- the simulator is the best way of starting to visualise structures and to get the sequence down pat. Really great! Gave me a great head start before learning with the cardiac anaesthetists.

Does the ultrasound learning made a difference to your clinical practice? Yes, I couldn’t imagine practising ICU without ultrasound. It’s indispensable.

Describe your typical day: In ICU, when on clinically, we do an early ward round, then meet with other units, talk to families, look after anything patients need to have done, have departmental teaching/research activities, and then do another afternoon round. Days go pretty quickly.

What is something about yourself that most of your colleagues wouldn’t know? I play a lot of music- piano and guitar.

Your winning formula so far? Persistence.

What is the best advice you could give? To learn something new, doing a little bit every day is far better than doing a lot only sporadically