The American College of Cardiology's (ACC's) Imaging Section Leadership Council sponsored a discussion of the future of cardiovascular imaging among thought leaders in the field during a two-day think tank held at Heart House on April 28 and 29, 2015. The development of the event began several years ago during on-going Imaging Council discussions on the topics of the multi-modality imager and the changing landscape of health care.

Manuel Cerqueira, MD, FACC and Pamela Douglas, MD, MACC co-chaired the think tank and guided the steering committee in building the framework for the meeting. The steering committee included representatives from the Imaging Council and five cardiovascular imaging subspecialty societies; the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, the American Society of Echocardiography, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. Representatives from these societies, the American Heart Association, the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging were invited to join the dialogue by attending the two-day conference.

The goal of the meeting was to think broadly about the future of imaging and develop a roadmap to address the critical challenges facing cardiovascular imagers. To achieve this goal, the meeting focused on four key areas of importance for cardiovascular imagers:

• How can cardiovascular imaging services thrive in our future world of value-based health care?
• Who is the cardiovascular imager of the future and what is the role of the multi-modality imager?
• How can we nurture innovation and research in imaging?
• How can we maximize imaging information and outcomes?

The meeting began with brief panel presentations followed by simultaneous breakout sessions to investigate each of these critical topics. Discussions focused on creating a vision for the future based on the current state of the field and the development of specific actionable recommendations to ensure a vibrant presence for cardiovascular imaging in contemporary health care. A summary of the conclusions and recommendations will be published in a white paper.

Keywords: Accreditation, American Heart Association, Angiography, Cardiology, Echocardiography, Leadership, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Molecular Imaging, Nuclear Medicine, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, Diagnostic Imaging

< Back to Listings