Charting the future of cardiology with Philips Interventional Symposium

Industry’s best gathered to uncover the potential of the latest innovation in heart care through collaboration.

According to Philips’ latest Future Health Index (FHI) 2024 report, 71% of healthcare leaders in APAC surveyed say delays in care are an issue – whether it is because of increased waiting lists for appointments, longer waiting times for treatments or procedures, or delayed or limited access to screening, diagnosis, and preventive care. They are turning to automation, data-driven insights and AI-enabled innovation to alleviate the burden.

The Philips Interventional Symposium in Thailand spotlighted an optimistic future with better solutions targeted at addressing challenges highlighted by the latest 2024 FHI survey indicating concerns around delay in care in Asia Pacific (APAC). End-to-end cardiology solutions from 3D cardiac imaging to minimally invasive cardiac surgery, are focused on addressing these trends and on providing efficient and timely care for more.

The symposium is an annual gathering of some of the most established cardiologists across the world including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in APAC. This year’s symposium gathered the cardiology community in Bangkok, Thailand, driving important conversations and exchange of best practice to advance cardiac care.

“According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally. This is also a rapidly growing burden in Asia, which means that the demands on cardiology departments have never been greater. Through close collaboration with the cardiology community, we are committed in building an optimistic future of end-to-end cardiac care that can address the needs of healthcare professionals and patients from diagnosis to treatment, and therapy monitoring," said Concon Molina, MD, Head of Image Guided Therapy Systems, APAC.

The next dimension in echocardiography enabling diagnosis of more patients

A focus at the symposium was cardiovascular ultrasound or echocardiography that plays a key role in diagnosing heart diseases earlier. The next-generation cardiovascular ultrasound systems combining industry-leading 3D image quality and AI solutions enable more efficient and reproducible imaging and analysis – scan to scan, user to user. Automation driven by artificial intelligence (AI) drives faster cardiac ultrasound analysis supporting clinicians' decision-making, allowing them to detect, diagnose, and monitor various cardiac conditions with greater confidence and efficiency. This speeds up workflows to increase productivity.

Additionally, photorealistic 3D rendering enables cardiologists to interpret what they are seeing with greater ease and reach a better overall understanding of the patient’s heart. 3D imaging uses color, light, sand, and shade to visualize flow trajectory where they can even direct light where required to further improve visibility and understanding – these advanced technologies save time and improve diagnostic accuracy, and effectiveness of treatment.

 
These features give cardiac teams even greater confidence in interventional structural heart procedures with better visibility of heart abnormalities and impacted blood flows. Advanced solutions combining these ultrasound capabilities and real time X-ray further provide fast, intuitive guidance during complex procedures with greater safety.

"When it comes to cardiac care, every second counts. As APAC faces a growing demand for cardiovascular care, cardiac imaging is the cornerstone of accurate diagnostic and clinical decision making.  Automation can help reduce the cognitive and workflow burden facing cardiac care teams, which improves clinical confidence and patient outcomes,” shared Dr Chris Anthony, Structural and Advanced Multimodality Imaging Cardiologist, The Alfred and Epworth Hospitals Melbourne, Australia. “With this innovation, we are able to augment the ability of users who perform ultrasound exams, achieving far greater accuracy, efficiency and reproducibility, that translates to better patient care.”

Dr Anthony is also excited about the innovation that Phillips is leading in the Structural Cardiac Imaging Space. “Phillips based technologies such as 3D Multi-Planar Reconstruction and fusion imaging, truly move the Structural Cardiac Intervention field forward allowing us to deliver an integrated standard of care that was not previously attainable for our patients”.

Delivering better minimally invasive surgery to more CAD patients

For surgical treatments of narrow heart arteries in patients with coronary artery diseases (CAD), ultra-low contrast percutaneous coronary intervention (ULC-PCI) solutions is now more accessible to those with co-existing chronic kidney diseases, especially common among elderly patients. Seamlessly integrated into Philips’ image guided therapy system, Philips’ unique ULC-PCI solutions help reduce the use of contrast media throughout PCI procedures that puts these patients at risk of acute kidney injury. This enables surgeons to perform the procedure with greater confidence and clarity and at the same time limit the use of iodinated contrast media, creating more access to PCI safely for more patient groups.

To assess if patients are suitable to undergo PCI, clinicians carry out additional tests including the measurement of pressure drop. Just 10 years ago, this measurement required a pharmacological agent to be injected but today, the introduction of instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) provides a proven alternative for using that agent. The process is now faster and cheaper and reduces patients’ discomfort by more than 95%. [1]

Following the establishment of iFR, Philips has been part of advancing the field of coronary physiology and innovating the procedure, introducing complementary technologies including iFR Co-registration as showcased at the symposium. By mapping iFR measurements directly onto the angiogram which presents scans of blood flow through the heart, clinicians can gather information more quickly and intuitively. 

Dr Javier Escaned, Head Interventional Cardiology Section, Hospital Clinico San Carlos IDISSC in Madrid, Spain, commented earlier about the extraordinary development of iFR, “The arrival of iFR changed the landscape of clinical coronary physiology. Developments like longitudinal vessel analysis (iFR Scout) and co-registration with angiography contributed to an entirely new way of planning and guiding PCI, increasing the safety and efficacy of coronary revascularization.”