There is less than one month left to take advantage of early registration rates to attend ASE’s 35th Annual Scientific Sessions, June 14-16, in Portland, Oregon. Register for ASE 2024 by Wednesday, May 8, to save up to $225!

This year’s new format includes short cases with panel discussions, more audience participation, and an interactive focus with less didactic presentations. There are also lots of activities allowing you to network with your peers. Download the Schedule at a Glance offering an overview of the events taking place during the conference and start planning the sessions you want to attend.

Now is the time to also reserve your hotel room. The conference has a new hotel directly across from the convention center and hotels connected by ASE shuttles from downtown. Learn more about discounted hotel accommodations and visiting Portland. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Angie Porter
919-297-7152
APorter@ASEcho.org

DURHAM, NC, April 8, 2024)—The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is pleased to recognize 17 Industry Roundtable (IRT) Partners for 2024.

This represents a significant milestone and the largest number of IRT Partners in the program’s decades-long history. The ASE IRT program is a partnership between industry, practitioners, and scientists with the shared objectives of improving patient care through improving the quality of cardiovascular ultrasound imaging. These partnerships also help shape and impact the future of the field toward outcomes-driven innovations.

2024 ASE IRT Partners include:

• Abbott
• Bracco
• Bristol Myers Squibb
• Cytokinetics
• Edwards Lifesciences
• Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corp. (Cardiovascular Ultrasound)
• Fujifilm Healthcare Americas Corp. (Medical Informatics)
• GE HealthCare (Cardiovascular Ultrasound)
• GE HealthCare (Pharmaceutical Diagnostics)
• Intel
• JenaValve
• Lantheus
• Pfizer
• Philips Healthcare
• Siemens Healthineers
• Ultromics
• Visura Technologies

G. Burkhard Mackensen, MD, PhD, FASE, Chair of the ASE Industry Relations Committee said, “The ASE Industry Roundtable Partners create invaluable alliances which foster the development of informed cardiovascular professionals, cutting-edge technology and products, standardized procedures, and more favorable legislative environments. Our partners fuel ASE’s programmatic efforts in advancing strategic initiatives within echocardiography, encompassing areas such as quality, standardization, automation, research, outreach, and beyond.”

For more information on ASE’s IRT Program visit ASEcho.org/IRT.

The April issue of JASE includes, “Temporal Trends in Right Ventricular to Pulmonary Artery Coupling in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Mitral Valve-in-Valve Replacement for Degenerated Mitral Bioprostheses.” Author Akhil Narang, MD, FASE, remarks, “Transcatheter Mitral Valve-in-Valve Implantation (TMViV) offers a safe and minimally invasive alternative for patients at high surgical risk with degenerated mitral valve prostheses. Our research group observed significant improvements in right ventricular to pulmonary artery (RV-PA) coupling indices one month after the procedure in a large single-center cohort. These findings suggest that echocardiographic-derived RV-PA coupling parameters could serve as valuable markers for monitoring outcomes following TMViV implantation in future studies.”

This issue includes various clinical investigations on diastolic exercise echo and outcome, tricuspid valve imaging in edge-to-edge repair, quantitation of mitral regurgitation with 3D echo, TEE during cardioversion, stress Doppler coronary flow velocity reserve, and fetal Doppler echo. Readers can also look forward to an imaging strategies report on the multimodality imaging approach for planning and guiding direct transcatheter tricuspid valve annuloplasty. Two editorials and five brief research communications round out this issue.

Dr. Pellikka’s editorial acknowledges the hard work and diversity of the JASE reviewer team while Dr. Eidem’s President’s Message recognizes all ASE staff with a “fun fact” to introduce readers to those helping to fulfill the strategic mission of the Society each day.

Be sure to check out April’s Author Spotlight to learn more from lead authors Christina L. Luong, MHSc, FASE and Garvan C. Kane, MD, PhD, FASE, as they discuss their recent paper, Prognostic Significance of Elevated Left Ventricular Filling Pressures with Exercise: Insights from a Cohort of 14,338 Patients.

Please see the April ASE Education Calendar for a listing of educational opportunities far and wide.

The ASE Foundation would like to thank the donors who supported the Spring Giving fundraiser last week. $1,550 was raised towards ASEF’s travel grants and scholarships initiative. Your generosity empowers the Foundation to continue supporting the future of the profession. Thank you for helping the next generation of cardiovascular ultrasound professionals bloom and for kick-starting the Foundation’s 2024 Annual Appeal.

The American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Practice Information (PPI) Survey is nearing completion (June 30), and we urgently need all selected physicians to actively engage in this effort.

Today an email was sent to 500 practices for the first time from ppisurvey@mathematica-mpr.com to join the survey. Mathematica, a well-regarded consulting firm, is helping the AMA run this survey. Your practice may receive an email and a USPS mail packet from Mathematica that contains a link to the survey as well as supporting information. We urge you to speak with your practice management colleagues to determine if they have received these communications and ask them to complete this important survey.

The intent of the survey, which has been endorsed by over 170 medical societies and other healthcare associations, is to collect updated and accurate data on practice costs which are key element of physician payment. These data have not been updated since last collected over 15 years ago. It is critically important to update these data to ensure accurate payment.

In the coming weeks or months, you may be asked to complete this two-minute survey. Help us help YOU to update Medicare physician payment.

Register now for ASE’s virtual 2024 ASCeXAM Review Course, which is specifically designed to help you gain the knowledge you need to pass the ASCeXAM exam administered by the National Board of Echocardiography, Inc. (NBE). ASE offers three registration options: 

1. Physician Registration
2. Fellow/Allied Health Registration
3. International Registration

Starting Monday, May 6, registrants will receive online access to all course content including, pre-recorded presentations, PDF slides, and voice recordings. This course is updated each year and contains new presentations.

Registration also includes a live component on Saturday, June 22, where course faculty will host two, two-hour question and answer sessions. The 2024 Review Course offers comprehensive echocardiography education that includes 28.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. As a benefit of your ASE membership, you receive reduced registration rates. Log in to your Member Portal before registering in the ASE Learning Hub. 

The PCHD Microlessons is ASE’s newest online course on pediatric and congenital heart disease. The complete educational course will consist of a collection of Modules—each containing lectures, animated videos, questions, and case discussions on 10 original PCHD topics. Modules will be released quarterly throughout the year, and Module 1, which includes the topics below, is available now in the ASE Learning Hub:

• Fundamentals of Pediatric Echocardiography
• Imaging of D-Transportation of the Great Arteries (D-TGA)

The PCHD Microlessons are short web-based, micro-learning activities offering a quick and easy way to access targeted learning sessions. This module series was the brain child of the late Dr. Greg Tatum, a spectacular pediatric educator.

Course content is intended for all levels of learners but is primarily designed for sonography students, fellows-in-training, and early-career sonographers. Additionally, more advanced material is also available for early- and mid-career physicians and sonographers. Earn 3.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for completing Module 1. Remember to log in to the ASE Member Portal before purchasing to receive your member discount!

The latest issue of CASE is now available with intriguing reports, including “Mitral Regurgitation due to Entrapment of Cut Mitral Chordal Apparatus in a Bileaflet Disk Prosthesis” by Bansal & Rabkin. Editor-In-Chief Vincent L. Sorrell, MD, FASE, remarked, “The authors take the readers on a clinical tour of a 38-year-old man with endocarditis that will have many aspects similar to patients we see weekly in our hospitals. Transferred from another hospital to receive a higher level of care, the patient developed severe MR and heart failure requiring urgent valve surgery. Repair was not feasible, and the patient received a typical bileaflet mechanical mitral valve replacement (MVR). However, after coming off bypass circulation, the intraoperative TEE demonstrated severe MR of the brand-new MVR. The authors do a spectacular job of walking the readers through their discovery of this patient’s pathology – entrapment of some components of the subvalvular apparatus between the MVR housing and disk. Then, they further educate readers by providing a schematic representation of how to assess for valvular and paravalvular regurgitation after MVR. Their report includes 2D and 3D TEE examples as well as drawings and photographs to drive their messaging. I’m sure you will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed helping prepare this for CASE.”

This issue presents two additional cases in the Valvular Heart Disease category, including a rare instance of a mitral valve-in-valve-in-valve procedure, and a report with a series of characteristic images of a disease that uniquely impacts the pulmonic and tricuspid valves. Authors in a Multimodality Imaging case submit a varied imaging approach to diagnose biventricular endomyocardial fibrosis complicated by coexisting chronic myeloid leukemia. Finally, a report for Veterinary Clinical Cardiovascular Medicine uses TTE, radiology, gross and histo-pathology to reveal the correlation between diagnostic imaging and pathology in a dog living with severe pulmonary hypertension. Dr. Sorrell’s editorial encourages readers to share their own echo insights through their social media platforms, as these platforms can serve as a valuable educational tool to teachers and learners alike.

Looking for a journal to submit your case report to? We want to hear from you! Email us with questions or submit your report today.

Submission Deadline: April 15

ASE member trainees are invited to apply for an ASEF 2024 Council Travel Grant to support their attendance at the ASE 2024 Scientific Sessions in Portland, Oregon.

These $1,000 USD grants are part of an ongoing effort by the Foundation and the Council Steering Committees to encourage trainees in cardiovascular specialties to focus on the respective echocardiography subspeciality and to recruit enthusiastic new members to ASE Councils. Additionally, grant recipients benefit from a deeper understanding of the imaging field and have the opportunity to develop meaningful mentoring relationships with established imaging faculty. Full application details are available here. The application closes April 15, 2024.