Financial literacy is no longer optional for physicians. “If you're not financially viable, you can't function,” explained Nirat Beohar, MD. “The business education is probably just as important as learning a new procedure.”

A variety of CPT code changes take effect in 2026, and many of them will make a direct impact on interventional cardiology. Arnold Seto, MD, spoke to Cardiovascular Business about these updates for a new video interview.

Mirvat Alasnag, MD, spoke to Cardiovascular Business about CCTA's growing influence in cardiology. 

Mount Sinai Hospital in New York is now using AI-powered virtual agents to call some patients before cath lab procedures. The move was designed to help nurses focus more on patient care and reduce their risk of burnout.

Current payment policies have health systems and physicians all over the country looking to learn more about these two business models. 

Nick West, MD, Shockwave Medical's chief medical officer, detailed how the company is continuing to push IVL technologies forward. "We are leading the space ... we have no intention of giving up that position," he said.

Sunil Rao, MD, told Cardiovascular Business that same-day discharge is still relatively rare for these patients, but it appears to be growing more common over time. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have played a key role in the development of this trend.

Cardiology has largely shifted to hospital-employed models, driven by reimbursement compression and evolving physician priorities. This has created challenges as well as opportunities.

“We're so focused on quickly taking care of the patient ... we may be forgetting about radiation safety,” one researcher explained. 

"If you're not using an intravascular imaging modality, the PCI is not optimal," explained Haroon Faraz, MD, from Hackensack University Medical Center. Faraz is hopeful new and improved technologies will help these modalities become more popular among interventional cardiologists.