Professional Associations

This page includes news coverage of medical associations and medical societies. Use these links to find focused news coverage from specific organizations: Cardiology Associations, Healthcare Associations, Radiology Associations.

ChatGPT fails board certification exam

Cardiology board fail rates are increasing—can educators reverse that trend?

While 96% of first-time test takers passed the ABIM's subspecialty exam in cardiovascular disease in 2018, that number dropped to 86% in 2021 and 2022.

Tootsie Roll paravalvular leak transcatheter heart valves

New ‘Tootsie Roll’ technique could help cardiologists treat PVL in transcatheter heart valves

Paravalvular leak remains a significant problem after TAVR, SAVR and even TMVR. Could a new-look interventional technique help heart teams overcome this issue and improve patient outcomes? 

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An updated look at combining LAAO with ablation, TAVR or other interventional heart procedures

Performing two procedures at once does not appear to make a significant impact on patient safety, though it may lead to a few new risks sure to interest heart teams. 

Samin Sharma, MD, director of interventional cardiology and director of clinical cardiology, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, discusses the first-in-human use of the Magenta Elevate percutaneous left ventricular assist device (pLVAD) with a small 10 French size and 5.5 liters per minute of hemodynamic support.

Initial results promising for world's smallest percutaneous heart pump

A new 10 French percutaneous heart pump could help greatly reduce vascular complications and improve cardiogenic shock outcomes.

Jamie Bourque, MD, medical director of the nuclear cardiology and stress laboratory, and medical director of the echocardiography lab, at the University of Virginia, discusses a new multimodality consensus statement for imaging cardiac amyloidosis. This area has rapidly expanded over the past couple years now that there are drugs to treat the condition.

New ASNC quality metrics will support standardization of imaging for cardiac amyloidosis

Interest in cardiac amyloidosis has been on the rise in recent years. Jamie Bourque, MD, talked to Cardiovascular Business about an upcoming consensus statement focused on using cardiac imaging to evaluate patients for signs of this serious condition. 

Rob deKemp, PhD, FASNC, University of Ottawa, Canada, explains new nuclear cardiac imaging dose lowering techniques for PET and SPECT.

How to achieve much lower radiation doses in cardiac nuclear imaging

The radiation doses associated with CT have decreased significantly, leaving nuclear cardiology as the modality with the highest doses in all of cardiac imaging. Rob deKemp, PhD, talked to us about some of the many ways imagers can work to address this issue.

Professor Keith Channon, MD, MB ChB, FRCP, interventional cardiologist and the British Heart Foundation Professor Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford, and a co-founder of Caristo, explained an AHA 2023 study where AI identified coronary inflammation as a major silent risk factor and a strong predictor of heart attack risk.

AI model targets inflammation, helping cardiologists find 'invisible' heart patients

By focusing more on inflammation, cardiologists can ensure they are identifying patients who need help before it's too late.

Anne Kroman, DO, PhD, Medical University of South Carolina, discusses trends in EP device lead management.

Why long-term EP lead management is as important as ever

Anne Kroman, DO, PhD, noted that early, aggressive treatment is critical when EP leads need to be removed. 

Around the web

Several key trends were evident at the Radiological Society of North America 2024 meeting, including new CT and MR technology and evolving adoption of artificial intelligence.

Ron Blankstein, MD, professor of radiology, Harvard Medical School, explains the use of artificial intelligence to detect heart disease in non-cardiac CT exams.