The Time is Now to Unite and Expand Education of Intravascular Ultrasound

Kush Desai , MD, FSIR

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has had a positive impact on the peripheral vascular intervention landscape, allowing for optimized evaluation of blood vessels. In a recent article co-published in the Journal of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions, experts from interventional cardiology, interventional radiology, and vascular surgery, collaborated to generate a document highlighting the areas in which IVUS has clear clinical value, and key areas where improvement was needed including better demonstration of how IVUS can assist in peripheral interventions.

Educational initiatives will be key in driving adoption of IVUS to improve procedural and clinical outcomes. For example, for physicians who are entering practice or are currently in training, academic centers should be responsible for incorporating IVUS education into didactic and hands-on experiences. For those who have been practicing for years, it will likely be a mixture of industry-sponsored educational courses on the application of IVUS in arterial and venous disease, in addition to symposia and workshops at national meetings.

There may be some barriers to these initiatives, however, creativity and support from industry and society leaders can help overcome those barriers. Similar to how this effort required close collaboration amongst practitioners from different specialties and backgrounds, educational initiatives will require comparable collaboration.

Through greater utilization of IVUS, it will be possible to run robust clinical trials to evaluate its impact on peripheral intervention. This, in turn, can have downstream positive effects, such as inclusion in consensus documents and clinical practice guidelines, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of patient care.

Society for Vascular Medicine Society for Vascular Surgery American Venous Forum | AVF American Vein & Lymphatic Society Society of Interventional Radiology