About
Cardiology, made accessible.
Dr. Hayley McDonald is a board-certified veterinary cardiologist based in San Francisco. She started The Rhythm Vet for one reason. Most cardiac cases never reach a specialist first.
They land with the vets and techs in general practice, in the ER at 3am, or under anesthesia during a routine procedure. The Rhythm Vet exists so those moments feel less like a freeze and more like a plan.
Why she teaches this way.
She knows the freeze because she has felt it. Studying for her board exams, Dr. Hayley kept hitting the same wall. The heart is a three-dimensional structure, and its electrical signal moves through it in three dimensions, yet almost every textbook draws it flat. No matter how many times she read the description, she could not connect what was happening inside the anatomy to what was printing on the ECG.
That gap, between what vets and techs are taught and what the exam room actually asks of them, is what The Rhythm Vet was built to close. Real cases, worked through clearly, the way Dr. Hayley would talk a colleague through them.
Years of clinical practice and teaching have shown her the same thing from the other side. Reading an ECG is hard, for students and busy general-practice vets alike. What she is after has not changed. Stronger understanding, more confidence in the moment, and better care for the patient in front of you.
The path here
Training and research.
Dr. Hayley’s work spans clinical practice, research, surgery, and teaching. She graduated from Massey University in New Zealand in 2009 and practiced small animal medicine in Australia, then completed a PhD in biomedical sciences at the University of Queensland, focused on advanced cardiac imaging and new therapeutics for coronary heart disease.
Specialist and surgeon.
She went on to a cardiology residency at the University of Glasgow, becoming a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in Cardiology in 2019, and stayed on as a lecturer in cardiorespiratory medicine. She then joined Dick White Referrals in Cambridgeshire as a consultant cardiologist and part of the heart surgery team, one of a small number of centers worldwide performing open-heart mitral valve repair.
California, and the coast.
In 2022 she moved to California and founded HeartHealth Veterinary Cardiology, a specialist practice serving the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. She is currently pursuing advanced training in electrophysiology alongside colleagues in human medicine.
Outside the clinic, she loves to travel internationally, kite surf the California coast, and spend time with her dog, Taibinha, and is never too far from a good piece of chocolate.
Her zeal for life is the same whether she’s in the water, in the operating room, or walking a colleague or follower through a case.
Learn cardiology with Dr. Hayley.
New cases and teaching, most days. Get the full breakdowns in your inbox, or follow along on social.
Contact
Get in touch.
Tell us what you are seeing in the room. Dr. Hayley's team reads every message, and a case you send may become one of her next breakdowns.
- Submit a case. Dr. Hayley may review it and publish it as a new breakdown.
- Tell us how the teaching changed a call you made.
- Ask a question about a case or the medicine behind it.
- Partnerships and collaborations.
Press, speaking, or the media kit? Head to the media page.
Thank you. Your message is in.
Dr. Hayley's team reads every one. If your case or story is a fit for a breakdown, we will be in touch.
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