The Heart Bus

If you live in the bush it's hard to get the same level of medical care as you can in the city, but now a doctor has come up with an ambitious idea to change all that. Rolf Gomes started his working life as an electrical engineer before turning to medicine. The first time he saw a beating heart, with its 'valves and plumbing and electrics', he was 'hooked'. Then, as a young registrar in country hospitals, he experienced first-hand the challenges of trying to diagnose and treat patients without the specialist and diagnostic services that people in the city take for granted. As a cardiologist Dr Gomes had identified the problem, but as an engineer he sought to solve it. He came up with the idea of a mobile clinic - 'the heart bus' - while running his own cardiology practice in Brisbane. 'The heart bus' travels from town to town, treating patients and giving them a much better chance of surviving heart disease. Now, Dr Gomes has bigger plans to expand his service and include more medical specialties.