Cardiologists are receiving more exposure to different imaging modalities during their fellowships, but their job prospects and training vary widely. A more comprehensive and multimodality training approach could lead to better results.  

As life expectancy continues to expand for cancer patients, clinicians are increasingly dealing with oncological complications like cardiotoxicity, according to a medical team in the Netherlands—and those doctors are met with a paucity of research on the topic.

Automated 3D echocardiography (3DE) analysis using a new, commercially available algorithm has allowed University of Chicago researchers to accurately quantify left-heart size and function in two-thirds of 300 consecutive patients. They conclude the technology can be useful in clinical practice despite its known workflow-interruptive drawbacks—especially when the echocardiographer has the know-how to correct for its shortcomings.

Physicians in fields like cardiology have traditionally looked to clinical practice guidelines to help articulate the best evidence-based care for patients. The rapidly growing movement to value-based care is prompting clinicians—including echocardiographers—to carefully weigh a more focused and integrative approach to delivering consistent, quality medicine: care pathways.

Treating today’s cancer patient no longer means simply targeting the cancer. Given the known cardiotoxicities of some established chemotherapies and the possibility that newer approaches may damage the heart, oncologists, cardiologists and imaging specialists now work together to detect and minimize the risk of treatment-induced heart failure.

ASE says new data may be a “wake-up call” to recognize the value of echocardiography.  

The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and GE Healthcare have teamed to provide a cardiovascular ultrasound training event for healthcare providers caring for underserved populations in rural northwest India.

There is growing concern among cardiac sonographers about the amount of radiation exposure they experience on the job and few say their workplace has a formal policy to address radiation safety for sonographers, according to a survey conducted by the American Society of Echocardiography.