Joan Michaels, RN, director of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Transcatheter Valve Therapies (TVT) and IMPACT congenital heart registries, said the addition of the ambulatory surgical center (ASC) registry comes at a time when hospitals are expanding structural heart programs and ASC's will likely play a growing role to help free up more hospital cath labs for the more complex cases.

New registry helps hospitals expand outpatient services for heart patients

The initiation of the ACC Ambulatory Surgical Center Registry comes at a time when hospitals are expanding their structural heart programs. The registry is providing valuable details about which patients should stay at the hospital and which can be treated in an outpatient setting.

All medical device products in Europe need to obtain the Conformité Européenne mark (European Conformity, or CE mark) regulatory approval. This is based on minimal safety requirements and is needed to be sold in the EU.

Cardiologists lead charge for medical device approvals in Europe to be more rigorous

There is a belief among some clinicians that it is too easy for companies to gain CE mark approval for their medical devices. However, a new proposal from the European Society of Cardiology and other groups could help change that. 

Wael Jaber, MD, chair of the 2025 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) annual meeting, director of nuclear cardiology and a professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic, spoke at a session on the role of cardiac imagers on the heart team. #ASNC

Multimodality imagers play a critical role in modern heart teams

Heart teams continue to play a major role at hospitals and health systems all over the world. Cardiac imagers who have trained in multiple modalities can provide those teams with a significant amount of value.

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Why all heart patients should be vaccinated against the flu, COVID-19, RSV

The American College of Cardiology has shared new recommendations highlighting the protective benefits of a variety of vaccines. The new guidance also examines how to speak with patients who are hesitant to be vaccinated. 

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Heart surgeons see more potential in AI than colleagues from other fields

Cardiac surgeons see significant value in AI's ability to assist clinicians with administrative tasks and patient selection. When it comes to making clinical decisions, however, there is still a certain amount of skepticism. 

The new Apple Watch Ultra 3 offers a groundbreaking hypertension notifications alert users if signs of hypertension are detected using data from its optical heart sensor to analyze how a user’s blood vessels respond to heart beats. The algorithm works passively in the background, reviewing data over 30-day periods, and will notify users if it detects consistent signs of hypertension.

New Apple Watch Ultra 3 makes early hypertension detection a priority

"This tool empowers patients and clinicians to work together, putting prevention at the center of care," said Ami B. Bhatt, MD, ACC chief innovation officer. "What we really want to do is create patient agency and reach as many people as we can for earlier detection of high blood pressure."

Video interview with Wael Jaber, MD, chair of the 2025 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) annual meeting, director of nuclear cardiology and a professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic, shares some of the key highlights from the conference.

Key trends in nuclear cardiology take center stage at ASNC 2025

Wael Jaber, MD, chair of the 2025 American Society of Nuclear Cardiology annual meeting, shared some key takeaways from the conference. “This is no longer just about imaging for coronary disease," he explained. "Nuclear cardiology now helps guide therapy across a wide range of conditions."

Cardiologists have developed an open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of accurately evaluating a long list of measurements on echocardiography results. The group detailed the development and validation of that model in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Open-source AI model delivers accurate echocardiography assessments

The algorithm, trained on more than 150,000 TTE studies, can calculate 18 different measurements regularly used in echocardiography