Associate Professor Nitesh Nerlekar
A/Prof Nitesh Nerlekar is an academic cardiologist and cardiac imaging specialist. He is the cardiac imaging director at Australian Cardiovascular Specialists, and is Deputy Clinical Director, as well as Director of Education at the Victorian Heart Hospital. He has a particular interest in prevention of cardiovascular disease in men and women.
Nitesh graduated from Monash University in 2007 and completed his advanced training in cardiology at Monash Heart and the Alfred Hospital. He subsequently completed fellowships in advanced echocardiography, cardiac CT and cardiac MRI. He holds formal accreditation in all of these subspecialties.
Nitesh is a consultant cardiologist at the Victorian Heart Hospital and Australian Cardiovascular Specialists (consulting at Hawthorn and Dandenong locations). He has a strong interest in cardiovascular research holding academic positions at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Victorian Heart Institute and Monash University. He has published >120 peer-reviewed journal articles, completed a Masters of Public Health, as well as statistical and research diplomas through Harvard University.
His PhD evaluated the unique association with cardiac fat, inflammation and coronary artery disease risk using cardiac CT. His research has been awarded >$6,000,000 in research funding and he is a current National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader Fellow, and supervises 5 PhD students, 2 honours students and 8 young scientists. He has published his work extensively in high impact cardiology journals, and is regularly invited to speak at local and international conferences.
He is interested in all aspects of cardiology particularly coronary heart disease, cardiovascular risk prediction and prevention. His main area of scientific interest is in the use of novel cardiac CT markers for risk assessment. He also has an interest is in women’s heart health research and has recently received national funding to investigate the role of breast arterial calcification on screening mammography to predict cardiovascular risk.
Outside work, Nitesh loves spending time with his wife and young children. He is a passionate sports fan with a special love for cricket and tennis.
