About 45% of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) membership is made up of sonographers, so the society's annual meeting is co-chaired and organized by a physician and a sonographer. Cardiovascular Business spoke with Maddie Jankowski, BS, ACS, RDCS, with Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who is this year's sonographer co-chair of the 2023 ASE Scientific Sessions. She explained the trends and key themes in cardiac ultrasound from the sonographer side of the meeting.
"This is an excellent meeting for a sonographer. First, it's because you get a wide range of basic and advanced sessions. But then some of the really hot topics this year are how are we integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into our scanning protocol, and what advanced tools like strain and 3D can we be using in our clinical practice," Jankowski explained.
Another big highlight from the show was a do-it-yourself (DYI) room for training sonographers to perform tests such as strain and congenital heart echo. The room consisted of stations set up by various vendors with live patients to scan. Attendees were able to rotate between the stations to learn how the imaging can be done on the different systems. She said this enabled sonographers to get real, hands-on practice with real patients and coaching by experienced faculty.
How AI may help sonographers do their job better
AI was mentioned in a large number of sessions at ASE, including several on the sonographer side and how the technology can improve front-line workflow. Vendors on the expo floor also showed numerous AI products that can enhance and speed workflows.
"I think at first there was some hesitation and a little bit of wondering if a robot is going to take my job. But I think people are seeing it already being used in our everyday practice," Jankowski explained. "Some vendors here are showing AI built into the ultrasound machines that will do measurements for you, so it is taking a few minutes off of our workloads so we can use those minutes to put back into the care of our patients."
At Northwestern, she has been involved with AI implementations for both clinical use and research and has seen first-hand how it can improve workflows across the department.
"Not only are we seeing it on the cart while we are doing an echo, but also in the reporting systems we are using, doing auto measurements and having these AI algorithms being able to interpret images," Jankowski said.
The most welcome aspect of AI has been automation of time-consuming tasks such as contouring the ventricles, positioning calipers to take measurements and calculating ejection fractions. This a big help in speeding up care and making measurements more consistent between sonographers. Jankowski said AI is also being used to help guide novice ultrasound users to perform diagnostic quality cardiac exams.
"The hope is that will help take away some of those late-night call ins, the types of things that we are worked overtime for. Also, if you have a very normal patient and they are worried about something, a non-ultrasound user can use an AI-guided system to do that normal echo. This allows us to have more time to focus on the more difficult patients that the sonographers are trained to do the echoes on," she said.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: dfornell@innovatehealthcare.com