Four leading physicians in intracardiac echocardiography talk about the milestones achieved with ACUSON AcuNav 2D and 4D intracardiac echo catheters over the last 24 years.

When the time came to select new angiography equipment at Benefis Health System in Montana, Michael Eisenhauer, MD, named three attributes the new suite would have to deliver without compromise. Number 1 was image quality. Number 2 was image quality. Number 3? Say it one more time.

When North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley set out to build a new hybrid OR equipped with robotic angiography, they had no idea the project would set a new bar for project planning and execution across the health system, bring “exponential improvements” in image quality and “exponential reductions” in radiation dose and contrast media, or that they’d finish the project almost a month early without a single change order and $600,000 under budget. Teamwork, meticulous planning and virtual reality-guidance played an essential role in refining and perfecting this image-guided surgery suite even before a pen was put to paper.

The vision was clear. The experienced heart and vascular team at the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute in Chicago needed a cardiovascular information system (CVIS) to stretch across its seven hospitals and 100 ambulatory care centers, physician offices and clinics. 

Mountain States Health Alliance headquartered in Johnson City, Tenn., is one health system leading the charge and reaping the benefits of a more intelligent, decision support-enabled CVIS with a built-in quality control engine that ensures data entered into the report are consistent.

Listen to Dr. Mani Vannan of Piedmont Heart Institute in Atlanta for a discussion on 3D transesophageal echocardiography. It's quick, just 12 minutes, and sure to make you want to take a closer look at 3D TEE.

Dr. Michael Pfeiffer, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at Penn State Hershey Heart and Vascular Institute in Hershey, Pa. discusses the advantages of 3D volume echocardiography in the right heart.

Join Dr. Dinesh Thavendiranathan of the University of Toronto for a discussion on 3D volume echocardiography in the left heart.