New JNC CardioConnect Podcast Highlights Changing Landscape of Cardiac Imaging

Physicians from Houston Methodist Hospital are sending out calls for local champions to tackle the “cardiac PET deserts” that their analysis of Medicare data revealed and for researchers to undertake comparative- and cost-effectiveness investigations confirming the patient populations for whom cardiac PET should be a “must” rather than an option.

Mouaz H. Al-Mallah, MD, MSc, MASNC, Mahmoud Al Rifai, MD, MPH, FASNC, and Ahmed Sayed, MBBS, studied Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services datasets for 2018 through 2022 with the goal of obtaining objective data on modality utilization for assessment of heart disease. Their findings are detailed in an original research paper published in the new issue of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology; considered in an editorial by Venkatesh L. Murthy, MD, PhD, FASNC; and featured in the new JNC CardioConnect podcast hosted by Editor-in-Chief Marcelo F. Di Carli, MD, MASNC.

“This podcast breaks down the latest Medicare data, highlighting usage trends in cardiac imaging, underutilized opportunities with PET/CT and myocardial blood flow, and what it all means for the future of cardiac imaging,” Dr. Di Carli says. “These data make an objective and compelling case for priorities that should be taken in the field.”

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