Professor Kiat graduated from Monash University. He did his medical internship and residency at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, and did his general, interventional and electrophysiology cardiology training at the Alfred and Austin hospitals, Melbourne, and Westmead Hospital, Sydney. He went on to do his research fellowship, and was appointed full-time staff cardiologist and Director of Cardiac Imaging Research, at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles. Over his 10 year tenure there, he acquired several million dollars of research grants and published more than 200 research publications in the field of cardiovascular medicine.

Professor Kiat is Professor of Cardiology, Macquarie University School of Advanced Medicine; Conjoint Professor of Medicine, University of New South Wales; Conjoint Professor of Medicine, University of Western Sydney; and Adjunct Professor, School of Dentistry and Health Sciences, CSU. He is a Diplomate of American Boards: Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Nuclear medicine, and Cardiovascular Disease-Subspecialty Cardiac CT. Professor Kiat has research groups at UWS, Macquarie University, UNSW and Charles Sturt University.