ASNC President-Elect Looks to 2027: Building Bridges and Advancing Research

“An advance in imaging changes practice and outcomes only when the people, the evidence, the quality, and the supply are ready for it. That is ASNC’s work – and an important goal for the year ahead.”

– Andrew J. Einstein, MD, PhD, MASNC
ASNC President-Elect

At ASNC2026 in Las Vegas, ASNC President-Elect Andrew J. Einstein, MD, PhD, MASNC, shared the priorities that will shape his leadership of the Society in 2027.

The President-Elect Address is a long-standing tradition at the ASNC Annual Scientific Session and Exhibition – an opportunity for members to get to know their incoming president and hear his vision for the year ahead.

Dr. Einstein, professor of medicine and radiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, framed his address around 3 values: mentorship, building bridges, and research for clinical care.

From Mentorship to Leadership

Reflecting on his path from New Jersey to Princeton, Mount Sinai, Rutgers, and Columbia, Dr. Einstein emphasized the mentors who shaped his career in research, imaging, and patient care as well as the ASNC leaders who helped connect him with colleagues and opportunities across the field.

Building Bridges for ASNC’s Future

Dr. Einstein identified 4 bridges he believes will be important to ASNC’s future: to the world, to other cardiac imaging societies, to other practice communities, and to ASNC’s own past.

He pointed to ASNC’s global membership and international partnerships as a foundation for continued collaboration around the world. Within cardiovascular imaging, he emphasized working across modalities with the shared goal of offering “the right test for the right patient at the right time, done the right way.”

Dr. Einstein also called for stronger connections with the many specialties that care for the same patients – including general cardiology, heart failure, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, infectious disease, oncology, and surgery. He also proposed drawing on ASNC’s institutional memory, including on the experience and perspective of the Society’s past presidents.

Research That Changes Clinical Care

Dr. Einstein pointed to the many areas of innovation in nuclear cardiology, emphasizing that research across these areas will provide “the evidence base that will drive future utilization of nuclear cardiology.”

Research formed another major pillar of Dr. Einstein’s vision. He emphasized the importance of building and sustaining the evidence base that moves nuclear cardiology forward. He highlighted several areas of scientific opportunity, including myocardial blood flow assessment, quantitative amyloid imaging, inflammation and infection imaging, new radiotracers and hardware, and advances in artificial intelligence and computational tools.

For ASNC, Dr. Einstein said, the goal is not simply to generate new science, but to help translate advances into better patient care. “An advance in imaging changes practice and outcomes only when the people, the evidence, the quality, and the supply are ready for it,” he said.

Dr. Einstein celebrated the inaugural winners of the ASNC Discover Grant and Clinical Research Awards. He announced ASNC’s plan to establish 4 new research awards in 2027. “Start thinking about your project now,” he said, “because this could be you.”

Dr. Einstein outlined 5 fronts where ASNC can help make that happen: investing in people and future investigators; expanding research awards; strengthening industry partnerships; supporting the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology; and hosting think tanks of “established experts and rising stars” to address important questions facing the field.

Dr. Einstein will begin his term as ASNC President on Jan. 1, 2027. ASNC2026 registrants may watch Dr. Einstein’s address on the Meeting App through Thursday, Oct. 1.