Artificial Intelligence in Cardiology: The ACC’s Implementation Pipeline, With Christopher Kramer, MD, FACC

Artificial intelligence (AI) has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years; due to its rapid advances, the technology is beginning to be incorporated into both the clinical and managerial sides of the healthcare industry at large, and of cardiology more than many specialties.1

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has, over the last few years, committed to adapting AI models to cardiology care, on both a clinical and practical level. Current president Christopher Kramer, MD, FACC, has taken this movement to new heights with the integration of an AI implementation task force, consisting of several subcommittees within the College.

“During my year as president, we have begun to create an ACC AI implementation task force, which began last Fall. The task force is overseeing all of the integration of AI into the workings of the ACC,” Kramer told HCPLive in an exclusive interview. “There are so many ways that AI interfaces with the College that we thought an implementation task force was needed as an umbrella group to oversee implementation.”

Kramer also broke down several of the AI programs currently in use at the ACC, including scribing programs and cardiovascular imaging. These programs have streamlined the intake and diagnostic processes, allowing clinicians to quickly collect patient information and perform basic scans.

“AI is used every day, for example, in cardiac MR and cardiac CT,” Kramer said. “It’s integrated into MR in every aspect, from speeding up image acquisition to automatic analysis of images. Cardiac CT AI is used every day in post processing software to do plaque analysis, to quantify ejection fraction with high accuracy, and so on. It has not necessarily been integrated at most institutions yet, but it’s coming.”

Ultimately, this push for further AI implementation mirrors the common belief that similar technology is positioned to revolutionize the field. Even beyond the clinical setting, devices such as ChatGPT are actively reshaping the way information is collected and disseminated among clinicians and patients. Recent publications from the Journal of the ACC have highlighted the potential for AI adaptation into living clinical guidelines, effectively minimizing the lag time between the discovery of new information and its implementation.2

Kramer also discussed upcoming presentations at the ACC 2026 Scientific Sessions, taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana, from March 28-30. Along with hands-on training for the prompting of generative AI like ChatGPT, the program includes 2 keynote lectures regarding the real-world implementation of AI. The first, the 57th Annual Louis K. Bishop keynote, will address scaling AI and cardiology, while the second, the Douglas Sipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award, focuses on bottlenecks in translating AI research into clinical care.

“The ACC 26 intensive will address the practical implementation of AI in daily practice, daily patient care,” Kramer said. “We will also address financing and governance, as those are ongoing questions that our health systems at hospitals and clinicians have. There will be efforts on-site to answer these questions.”

Editors’ Note: Kramer reports disclosures with Cytokinetics, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb, and the American College of Cardiology.

References

1. Krumholz H. Guiding the AI Revolution in Cardiovascular Medicine. JACC. 2025 Sep, 86 (12) 843–845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2025.08.021

2. Reddy, R, Danford, D, Schuster, A. et al. Closing the Guideline Gap: AI and the Rise of Living Cardiovascular Recommendations. JACC Adv. 2026 Apr, 5 (4) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacadv.2026.102639