U.S. healthcare systems are currently grappling with a formidable challenge as echocardiogram volumes have surged by 20 to 25 percent over the last decade, a demand that starkly contrasts with a severe national shortage of cardiac sonographers exceeding 15 percent. This growing disparity creates significant operational strain, leading to workflow bottlenecks, extended wait times for critical cardiac assessments, and potential delays in patient care. For individuals with time-sensitive conditions where rapid diagnosis is paramount, these delays can have serious implications. In response to this pressing issue, a pioneering clinical pilot study has been launched by Jefferson Health, a major academic health system, in collaboration with UltraSight, a digital health innovator. This strategic initiative seeks to determine if artificial intelligence can effectively bridge the gap by empowering a broader range of healthcare professionals to perform high-quality cardiac imaging, potentially transforming the standard of care for cardiovascular diagnostics.
Addressing the Diagnostic Bottleneck with AI
The collaboration between Jefferson Health and UltraSight represents a targeted effort to integrate advanced technology directly into clinical workflows to alleviate workforce pressures. At the core of this pilot study is UltraSight’s AI-powered Echo Stewardship Platform, which is designed to provide real-time guidance to clinicians who are not specialized sonographers, such as advanced practice providers. The system aims to enable these users to acquire diagnostic-quality cardiac images at the point of care, effectively decentralizing a service traditionally confined to specialized departments. This initiative is supported by the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) as part of the Jefferson–Israel 2025 Health Tech Pilot Program, a framework created to help promising Israeli technology companies validate their products in real-world U.S. clinical settings. The program serves as a critical bridge, facilitating the entry of innovative solutions into the American healthcare market by providing a robust environment for clinical evaluation and refinement.
The pilot study’s clinical focus is strategically centered on patients diagnosed with pulmonary embolism (PE), a condition where timely and accurate cardiac assessment is crucial for guiding treatment. In cases of PE, the rapid evaluation of right-ventricular (RV) dysfunction is a key prognostic indicator that helps clinicians determine the severity of the condition and make informed management decisions. However, obtaining a conventional transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) in a timely manner within busy emergency departments and hospital floors is often a significant challenge. The study is designed to assess whether UltraSight’s AI-guided platform can overcome this hurdle by allowing for immediate bedside imaging. By bringing diagnostic capabilities directly to the patient, the technology aims to shorten the time from suspicion of PE to definitive RV assessment, a critical factor that can influence patient outcomes by enabling faster therapeutic interventions when necessary.
Validating a New Standard of Care
To rigorously evaluate the technology’s effectiveness, the study will directly compare the AI-guided images acquired by advanced practice providers with those obtained through a gold-standard TTE performed by expert sonographers. The primary objective is to measure the level of concordance in RV assessment between the two methods, ensuring that the AI-assisted approach meets established diagnostic quality standards. Furthermore, the pilot will analyze how the integration of AI-supported workflows may accelerate clinical decision-making and improve overall operational efficiency. Dr. Frances Mae West, the study’s Principal Investigator, has emphasized the urgent need to mitigate delays in cardiac imaging for critical conditions like PE. Complementing this view, Dr. Praveen Mehrotra, another leader at Jefferson Health, noted the widespread institutional interest in technological solutions capable of enhancing patient throughput and streamlining complex clinical pathways, reinforcing the study’s strategic importance.
This partnership successfully advanced the principle of “echo stewardship,” a concept centered on delivering the right diagnostic study at the right time with the right level of quality. The pilot built upon compelling previous evidence, including a landmark 2025 randomized controlled trial at Stanford. That study demonstrated that novice clinicians using the UltraSight platform achieved significantly improved image quality and developed proficiency much faster than those without AI guidance. The findings from the Jefferson pilot provided further validation, showing that AI-guided bedside echocardiography was not just a theoretical possibility but a scalable mechanism to expand the clinical workforce. It confirmed that the technology could reliably empower more providers to perform essential cardiac assessments, thereby enhancing patient care and establishing a new precedent for how health systems could leverage innovation to address both clinical and operational challenges.
