Pei-Ni Jone, MD, FASE, director, echocardiography laboratory, Lurie Children’s Hospital Heart Center, member of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Board, explains how 3D echo is being used to better plan, guide and follow up in congenital cardiac surgery.

Jaime Warren, EdD, FACC, vice president of care transformation at MedAxiom, an ACC company, explains what is needed to address staffing shortages created by a 94% increase in cardiac CT volumes over the past 5 years. 

Anders Gilberg, senior vice president of government affairs at the Medical Group Management Association, explains why Congress needs to renew the Medicare geographic pay adjustments in rural areas—to make payments competitive with urban areas and help retain physicians in those communities.

Prem Soman, MD, PhD, explained how early detection and new therapies have been game-changers for the treatment and diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis.

"We're constantly trying to keep our fingers on the pulse of what's happening in the real world," explained Joan Michaels, RN, director of the STS/ACC TVT Registry.  "This is not a trial; this is real-world experience."

Many make federal reimbursement plans into an issue about high-paid specialists complaining about pay cuts, but these fees also compensate nurses, technicians, support staff and administrators. Payment keeps the doors of brick-and-mortar medical practices open, MGMA warns.

Cardiology faces one of its most challenging decades ahead, with mounting pressures from workforce shortages, an aging population and declining reimbursements. To remain sustainable, practices are forced to rethink how care is delivered from the ground up.

Greg Piefer, PhD, chief executive and founder of Shine, a Wisconsin-based radiopharmaceutical company that is building the world’s largest medical isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin, explains progress on the company's fusion reactor that will become the first sustained U.S. commercial supplier of molybdenum-99 in decades.