{"id":138760,"date":"2025-04-01T10:34:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T14:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/?p=138760"},"modified":"2026-01-28T20:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:09:18","slug":"artificial-intelligence-enables-novices-to-perform-diagnostic-quality-echocardiography-heartfocus-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/?p=138760","title":{"rendered":"Artificial Intelligence Enables Novices to Perform Diagnostic-Quality Echocardiography: HeartFocus Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key Takeaways:<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. AI-guided echocardiography enables novice users to obtain diagnostic-quality cardiac images comparable to expert sonographers, achieving perfect diagnostic-quality rates (100%) for primary cardiac parameters.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. AI-assisted echocardiography shows rapid adoption by novice users, potentially broadening access to critical diagnostic imaging, especially in underserved or resource-constrained healthcare environments.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/p>\n

    A new clinical trial demonstrates that artificial intelligence (AI)-guided echocardiography allows novice users, such as nurses without prior ultrasound experience, to reliably acquire diagnostic-quality cardiac ultrasound images. The HeartFocus study, a prospective international trial (NCT05836259), evaluated AI-based software designed to guide novice users in two large teaching hospitals in the US and France in acquiring echocardiographic views essential for assessing cardiac function.<\/span><\/p>\n

    In the study, 240 adult patients (mean age 62.6 \u00b1 15.1 years, 49% women) underwent two echocardiograms: one performed by a novice using AI guidance, and another performed by an expert without AI assistance. The AI software provided real-time visual guidance to novices, automatically recording diagnostic-quality images or enabling manual selection of the best-quality images captured. Remarkably, all novice-acquired echocardiograms (100%) achieved diagnostic quality for the primary echocardiographic parameters\u2014left ventricular size and function, right ventricular size, and the presence of significant pericardial effusion\u2014with equivalent quality compared to expert-acquired images. Furthermore, agreement among expert cardiologists evaluating these parameters exceeded 85% (range 87.1% \u2013 99.6%), underscoring the reliability and consistency of AI-assisted exams.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The study also noted rapid proficiency, with novice users averaging only 23.6 minutes per exam and producing diagnostic-quality clips even from their earliest examinations. The AI system showed strong performance across various patient subgroups, including obese individuals and those with known cardiac disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The authors emphasized the potential clinical impact: \u201cAI-based echocardiography guidance software is safe and reliable for clinical practice, significantly shortening the learning curve and expanding access to essential diagnostic imaging, particularly in resource-limited settings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Key Takeaways: AI-guided echocardiography enables novice users to obtain diagnostic-quality cardiac images comparable to expert sonographers, achieving perfect diagnostic-quality rates (100%) for primary cardiac parameters. AI-assisted echocardiography shows rapid adoption by novice users, potentially broadening access to critical diagnostic imaging, especially in underserved or resource-constrained healthcare environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40616,"featured_media":138761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[898,8],"tags":[899,45,47,185],"ppma_author":[1070],"class_list":{"0":"post-138760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-acc-2025","8":"category-news","9":"tag-acc-2025","10":"tag-conference","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-news","13":"author-joseph-kim-md"},"authors":[{"term_id":1070,"user_id":40616,"is_guest":0,"slug":"joseph-kim-md","display_name":"Joseph Kim MD","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bf0879bf0ca450025acf71d7345cf24be4748f67f7b0c6423d186a5765c5cda9?s=96&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138762,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138760\/revisions\/138762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/138761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138760"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=138760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}