Innovative Cardiovascular Ultrasound Technologies Showcased at ASE 2019 Meeting

June 21, 2019 – From a breaking trial of 3-D interoperability to demonstrations of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, nearly 60 companies and organizations will display their latest products and services at the 2019 American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 30th Annual Scientific Sessions June 21-25, 2019, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Ore.

On June 23 and 24 from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m., the first international collaboration to streamline interoperability of 3-D/4-D data connections and integrations across vendor platforms will debut. In 2017 ASE and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) started this initiative, which provides access to 3D data through a standardized Applications Programming Interface (API). Leaders from ASE and EACVI, along with representatives from Canon, GE Healthcare, Hitachi Healthcare, Philips, and Siemens Healthineers will be demonstrating how data can be accessed in a neutral way across different vendor platforms. This major accomplishment illustrates 3-D interoperability, which can provide faster image transfer and retroactive compatibility to existing studies to increase lab productivity.

The President’s Reception, honoring Dr. Jonathan Lindner from Oregon Health and Science University, Saturday, June 22, 4:30-6:30 p.m., will kick-off the opening of the Exhibit and Poster Hall. The Hall will also be open Sunday, June 23 and Monday, June 24, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Highlights from the show floor, as reported by the vendors, will include:

• The ASE Headquarters (Booth 409) will feature several new guideline products based on two new guidelines, Performing a Comprehensive Transthoracic Echocardiographic Examination in Adults and The Evaluation of Valvular Regurgitation After Percutaneous Valve Repair or Replacement. Other new products include: the Echocardiography Formula Review Guide: Native Valves and Intracardiac Pressures, the 2nd Edition Best of ASE – Contrast Echocardiography, the 2nd Edition Best of ASE – Echocardiographic Imaging of Native and Prosthetic Valves, Assessing Left Ventricular Diastolic Function DVD and Online Course, and Basics of Bubbles: What Every Clinician Should Know Online Course. There will also be many opportunities in the ASE booth for attendees to talk with leadership on important topics like how to achieve the FASE designation and how to submit cases to ASE’s online case reports journal CASE.

• ASE Foundation (ASEF) Booth, located on Level 1 in the Pre-function C Lobby of the Convention Center, is the central hub for all the Foundation’s charitable activities and initiatives. Attendees are encouraged to join a Cardiovascular Challenge sponsored by CAE Healthcare, Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc., and Tomtec Corp. to promote walking and cardiovascular health. A new activity this year is the “Tie-A-Knot Blanket” project. Attendees can help make blankets that will be donated to the Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. There is also a special curated showcase of photographs called “Images from the Heart” which features photos taken by ASE members at medical outreach events. The Foundation has provided travel grants for this year’s Scientific Sessions to 57 early career practitioners, totaling over $50,000 in support.

• GE Healthcare Cardiovascular Ultrasound (Booth 501) is now bringing AI capabilities to the classification of images, so now you can read and review echocardiograms from a new and more consistent perspective. Our AI-based View Recognition on our Vivid E95 augments signature features like Automated Function Imaging to help guide your choice of the right images. This saves you time and improves consistency of AFI measurements, which ultimately supports exceptional quality of care for LV dysfunction and oncology patients.

• Lantheus Medical Imaging (Booth 509) offers attendees an interactive case study exhibit, displaying the impact of enhancing agents on cardiac diagnosis and patient outcomes. On Saturday, June 22 at 11:30 AM, Lantheus will host a Symposium, titled “Enhanced Echocardiography: It’s What You Don’t See That Matters,” highlighting the benefits of enhanced echocardiography. The panel will be chaired by Dr. Ben Lin, Yale New Haven Hospital; Theresa Green, Piedmont Hospital; and Dr. Sean McMahon, Hartford Hospital.

• 3D Systems Simbionix (Booth 312) Do not miss the new TEE Express portable and affordable simulator for Trans Esophageal Echocardiography (TEE) training. Also available to demo is the U/S Mentor training simulator for TTE and TEE echocardiology training in compliance with ASE guidelines. Ask about the Ultrasound VR an innovative virtual reality ultrasound training solution that provides an immersive, fun and affordable training like never before.  Request a demo at your institution at [email protected] or www.simbionix.com.

• ARDMS and APCA (Booth 513) The Registered in Musculoskeletal Sonographer (RMSKS) and Registered in Musculoskeletal (RMSK) sonography certifications have been awarded accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17024 Standard for certifying bodies. The Alliance for Physician Certification & Advancement and the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography have partnered with Credly to provide digital badges to our certificants. These badges will enable our healthcare professionals to promote their achievements to employers and colleagues on various social media platforms.

• Ascend Health Information Technology (Booth 208) will showcase their latest solution, a DICOM viewer with an entirely new take on medical image review workflow. Ascend InView offers the ability to automatically organize images for review in TTE studies by anatomical category using Ascend’s Adaptive Reporting, which is pending 510(k) clearnace and is not yet available for sale in the United States. It is an AI application that has been trained to classify images by view and modality. InView provides ease of prior study comparison in combination with AI technology to pair images between current and prior studies. The AI powered viewer in combination with its end to end integration with Ascend’s structured reporting platform provides a solution that is streamlined, smart, and highly effective for cardiology reading and reporting. 

• CAE Healthcare (Booth 418) will showcase CAE VimedixAR with its newest ultrasound learning application for Microsoft HoloLens, featuring interactive, 3-D holograms of anatomy that leap to life and display real-time, live physiology. Leaners can enlarge and rotate the heart, lungs and organs to understand how they are interrelated and also view how the ultrasound beam cuts through human anatomy. Learn more at caehealthcare.com.

• Esaote (Booth 401) Founded in 1978 in the Italian city of Genoa, Esaote has been developing diagnostic ultrasound systems for more than 35 years. With the first introduction of a compact echocardiography system in 1980, Esaote began its journey into the promising world of cardiac ultrasound with a clear mission, develop an innovative portable device delivering high-quality echo images at affordable prices. Today, Esaote North America is proud to introduce two new ultrasound systems to its cardiovascular portfolio, the MyLab Omega portable ultrasound and the MyLab X7 cart-based ultrasound system both dedicated to delivering high-quality echo images, easy workflow and value.

• Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) (Booth 616) was created to help facilities employ and document continuous process improvement, the IAC Quality Improvement (QI) Self-Assessment Tool provides a mechanism for facilities to meet the quality measures required by the IAC Standards. Use of the IAC QI toola llows facilities to self-assess their own imaging studies and reports. It provides a data-driven, objective measure of QI progress for use in complying with the IAC Standards and Guidelines for Accreditation and fulfilling a variety of facility quality initiatives. It also helps facilities visually benchmark their findings and track their QI progress and creates a quantitative report that targets opportunities for improvements, leading to enhanced patient care.

• ImageGuide Registry (Booth 415) The ImageGuide Registry provides the framework to support a community of cardiology labs committed to patient-centered imaging, patient safety, improving outcomes, practice transformation, and innovation through ongoing data collection and quality improvement. The Registry is composed of two modules: the American Society of Echocardiography’s ImageGuideEcho and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology’s ImageGuideNuclear. Four information sessions related to the Registry will take place in the booth: ImageGuide Registry Overview and Q&A; ImageGuideEcho & Data Collection: How the Registry Captures and Uses Data for Quality Improvement; Value of the ImageGuide Registry: How Enrolling Will Positively Impact Your Institution; and ImageGuide Registry Overview and Q&A – Encore.

• My Custom Tailor (Booth 914) will be presenting/debuting custom made scrubs and lab coats as well as custom made suits for medical practitioners. Suits will have the kinds of pockets relevant to the equipment that the medical practitioner routinely carries with them.

• The National Board of Echocardiography Inc. (NBE) (Booth 317) is pleased to announce the requirements for certification in Critical Care Echocardiography.

• ScImage (Booth 813) ScImage’s PICOM365 Image Exchange toolset provides seamless connectivity and anytime, anywhere access to images critical to patient care. Cardiology practices and physicians can reduce costs and optimize productivity with easy Study upload and access (from inside or outside the enterprise) for referrals, remote reads and timeshare locations.  Modality-, department-, and even PACS-agnostic, ScImage’s expanded investment in image sharing affords cardiologists the opportunity to deliver quality care anywhere.

• Sheehan Medical (Booth 207) The challenge in medical simulation is maximizing realism while minimizing cost. Sheehan Medical met this challenge by displaying real patient images instead of paying for synthetic graphics. We announce our latest innovation: display of Real Color Doppler. As in our line of Real Ultrasound echo and TEE simulators, it is patients’ own color images that we show on the screen as you “scan” our mannequin. The benefit to training programs goes beyond cost savings: trainees absorb the natural appearance of echo images and learn to distinguish structure from artifact starting from the first case, in greyscale and now color.

• Sound Ergonomics (Booth 204) is introducing a new program designed for employers to reinforce their commitment to worker wellness and a safe, productive work environment.  Sound Work Environments addresses a number of components of the ultrasound and computer work environments by outlining features of the workspace equipment and processes that focus on ways in which the sonographers can work in more neutral postures.  The checklist for this program includes the ultrasound system features, exam table & chair features, room size and set-up, patient and worker scheduling, exam protocols and worker education. Please contact us at [email protected].

• Texas Children's Heart Center (Booth 408) In an effort to help children with heart problems better understand their diagnosis and potential treatment options, Texas Children’s Heart Center has developed a series of animated videos geared towards a young viewer. The one-of-a-kind animations cover a wide range of conditions and procedures related to childhood heart disease and are a resource for families to learn about complicated heart conditions. Featuring Ruby, a friendly armadillo, Beau, a kind bison, and their friends, the Blings, the videos take the viewer through the diagnosis and treatment plan for a variety of complex heart conditions. To view the videos, visit texaschildrens.org/rubyandbeau. 

• Ventripoint (Booth 214) Ventripoint’s VMS+ 3.0 system is designed to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for volumetric measurements and ejection fractions for all four chambers of the heart, which are key indicators in cardiac diseases. It is a cost-effective diagnostic tool for measuring whole heart function in pediatric and adult patients utilizing standard 2-D ultrasound. The new compact and portable system can be set up within minutes providing a streamlined approach within the clinical echo environment where patient case load is continually increasing. Until regulatory approvals have been received, the VMS+ 3.0 system is not commercially available but is available for investigational use.

• Wolters Kluwer (Booth 405) Review the latest echocardiography seminal references to keep you up to date! Many titles to choose from but featuring the following new print titles that include an eBook that is inclusive of echo video loops:  Sorrell: Questions, Tips and Tricks to Pass the Echo Boards, 2e; Oh: The Echo Manual, 4e, and Armstrong: Feigenbaum’s Echocardiography 8e.

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ASE is the Society for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Professionals. Over 17,000 physicians, sonographers, nurses, and scientists are members of ASE making it the largest global organization for cardiovascular ultrasound imaging and as such the leader and advocate, setting practice standards and guidelines for the field. The Society is committed to improving the practice of ultrasound and imaging of the heart and cardiovascular system for better patient outcomes. For more information about ASE, visit ASEcho.org; or for more information about the ASE Scientific Sessions visit ASEScientificSessions.org or follow us on Twitter @ASE360 #ASE2019.