James Min explains future of cardiac care using plaque analysis V2

James Min, MD, founder and CEO of Cleerly and a former president of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT), surprised many in cardiology when he left his successful academic career to create Cleerly. The goal, he says, was to address what he saw as a major unmet need in healthcare. 

Min was a leading figure in academic cardiology, serving as a professor of radiology and medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and as the director of the Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Imaging at NewYork-Presbyterian. He was also a principal investigator in several pivotal cardiac CT trials that helped establish coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) as a key diagnostic tool for chest pain evaluation.

The research he did at Weill Cornell using CCTA to screen patients using soft coronary plaque analysis suggested it was an improvement over the current standard of care, but it was labor intensive and would likely not have seen much adoption outside of academic centers unless the process could be automated. That prompted Min to make the leap and found Cleerly, a company aimed at transforming preventive cardiology through CCTA combined with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven soft plaque analysis. He realized this impactful technology was simply not reaching enough patients.

Min shared his story with Cardiovascular Business during the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2024 meeting.