Dilawri Cardiovascular Institute, 2775 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC (2026)

06/05/2026

One year ago today, we opened our doors with a bold promise: to change what's possible in heart health, while ensuring access to exceptional care for all patients. Our globally recognised and sought-after clinicians and researchers have access to the best technology and infrastructure to challenge established dogma in medicine and save lives. Shaping leadership in cardiovascular innovation, research, and clinical care, is proud to look back at everything we've built.

🫀 We brought together 16 specialized centres under the DCI umbrella, spanning AI & imaging, women's heart health, structural heart disease, sports cardiology, Indigenous cardiovascular health, and more. Each centre is designed to close gaps in care and push science forward.

💡 We spearheaded the DCI Innovation Fund, which provides competitive financial support to DCI Members for initiatives that improve access to exceptional cardiac care.

🏥 We delivered cutting-edge procedures to hundreds of patients across British Columbia, putting us at the forefront of cardiovascular innovation.

🤝 We've established partnerships with seven MedTech leaders and startups, emphasizing our commitment to academic-industry partnership. These partnerships have led to the creation of a new lab space at VGH, including a team of staff to operate the facilities, and the launch of an onsite experience program for MedTech engineers to work at DCI and gain clinical experience, bridging industry with translational science.

🌍 We participated in over 100 conferences, speaking engagements, and educational opportunities, presenting our medical advances locally at the 2026 CSE Echo Weekend, Vancouver Valve, Heritable Aortic Disorders Symposium, the Leslie Diamond Women’s Heart Health Clinic, the VanSCAD conference; and internationally at the 2025 and 2026 EuroPCR, New York Valves Structural Heart Summit, and London Valves

We are grateful to the Dilawri Foundation for helping us achieve these milestones, and are eager to keep bridging research to all areas of cardiac practice.

Dilawri VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation Vancouver Coastal Health

05/12/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Jason Andrade, Director of the DCI Centre for Heart Rhythm, for his latest publication in the New England Journal of Medicine: "Pulsed Field Ablation as Initial Therapy for Persistent Atrial Fibrillation".

A major advancement in atrial fibrillation (AFib) treatment is changing how clinicians may approach persistent AFib care. The study led by Dr. Jason Andrade found that pulsed field ablation (PFA) was significantly more effective than antiarrhythmic medications as a first-line treatment for patients with persistent AFib. In the study, patients treated with PFA were more than twice as likely to be free of arrhythmia after one year, compared to those receiving medication therapy.

This work highlights the growing potential of minimally invasive, tissue-targeted therapies to improve patient outcomes while reducing complications associated with traditional thermal ablation techniques. As AFib continues to affect hundreds of thousands of Canadians, these findings represent an important step toward more personalized and effective cardiac care.

“Our study demonstrated that catheter ablation using the novel pulse field energy was significantly more effective than using antiarrhythmic drugs as the first-line therapy.” - Dr. Jason Andrade

Vancouver Coastal Health VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation

05/08/2026

Dr. Joel Price, DCI Director of the Centre for Thoracic Aortic Disease, will be discussing the surgical treatment of the entire spectrum of aortic pathology that affect aortopathy patients. This will include open, hybrid and endovascular therapy and all segments of the aorta from the aortic root to the thoracoabdominal aorta.

Dr. Joel Price is the Director of the Centre for Thoracic Aortic Disease at the Dilawri Cardiovascular Institute as well as the attending cardiac surgeon and a clinical associate professor of surgery in the Division of Cardiology at the University of British Columbia. He also serves as the Medical Lead for the Aortic and Structural Cardiac population group at Cardiac Services of British Columbia. His clinical and research interests include aortic and mitral valve repair (specifically, leaflet reconstruction and valve-sparing root reconstruction and bicuspid repair), open and endovascular aortic surgery, transcatheter aortic valve implantation, epidemiology, and advances in surgical education.

After obtaining his undergraduate degree in medicine from the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Price completed a residency in cardiac surgery at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. During this time, he also obtained a Master of Public Health from Harvard University. Following his residency, he went on to pursue advanced fellowships in complex valve reconstruction in Brussels, and aortic and endovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Price originally served as Attending Cardiac Surgeon and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital prior to returning to Canada in 2016 and joining the faculty at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Price has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications and is the recipient of numerous research and teaching awards.

Join Dr. Price for his discussion "Holistic Aortic Care for the Heritable Aortopathy patient" at the 2026 Symposium in Vancouver, BC, May 22-23, 2026.

📍Registration closes May 8, 2026. Register now: https://heritableaorticdisorders.com

05/07/2026

World-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Duke Cameron will take us through all the growth and advancements in heritable aortopathy he has witnessed during his career in his keynote at the 2026 Symposium in Vancouver, BC, May 22-23, 2026.

Duke Cameron, M.D. is a professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Cameron is world-renowned for his expertise in the surgical repair of the aorta. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to cardiac surgery, particularly aortic surgery for Marfan syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome and other connective tissue disorders. He also specializes in mitral valve repair and adult congenital heart disease. His multiple academic contributions span the breadth of pediatric and adult cardiac surgery.

Dr. Cameron is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Medical School. He completed his general surgery training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and his cardiothoracic fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. After his training, he remained on the faculty at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Cameron most recently served on staff at Massachusetts General Hospital before returning to Johns Hopkins.

📍Registration closes May 8, 2026. Register now: https://www.heritableaorticdisorders.com/

05/04/2026

The 2026 HAD Symposium is being held at UBC Robson Square 800 Robson Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and will bring experts together from across Canada and internationally to discuss new developments in the fields of genetics, diagnosis, and management of hereditary thoracic aortic disorders. The symposium is broken down into 2 eventful days:

Day 1 is dedicated to updating physicians, specialists, researchers, medical staff, students, nurses, and allied health professionals with respect to the latest research, diagnostic protocols, and the health management of individuals diagnosed with genetic aortic disorders.

CME Accreditation: This event is an accredited Group Learning Activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada and approved by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. You may claim a maximum of 6.5 hours.

Day 2 is dedicated to patients and their families, with informative presentations and small group workshops conducted by local and international experts.

📍 Register here: https://www.heritableaorticdisorders.com/

Le symposium HAD 2026, qui se tiendra à UBC Robson Square, Rue 800 Robson, Vancouver, Colombie-Britannique, Canada, réunira des experts canadiens et internationaux afin de discuter des dernières avancées en matière de génétique, de diagnostic et de gestion des maladies héréditaires de l'aorte thoracique.
Le symposium se déroulera sur deux journées riches en événement :

Le jour 1 est dédié à l’éducation et à la mise à jour des médecins, des chercheur(e)s, des infirmier(ères), des étudiant(e)s et autres professionnels de la santé sur les derniers développements dans le dépistage, les diagnostiques et la prise en charge des aortopathies héréditaires.

Accréditation CME : Cette activité est une activité d’apprentissage collectif agréée (section 1) au sens du Programme de maintien de la certification du Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada et approuvée par la Société canadienne de cardiologie. Vous pouvez réclamer un maximum de 6,5 heures.

Le jour 2 est dédié aux patients et à leur famille. Des présentations et ateliers en petits groupes seront donnés par nos experts en aortopathies héréditaires.

📍 Inscrivez-vous ici https://www.heritableaorticdisorders.com/

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05/01/2026

Run, don't walk! 2026 Weekend is happening now!

Friday and Saturday will focus on case-based, multimodality, and multidisciplinary learning and cover a breadth of echocardiographic topics including diastolic function, AI, new guidelines for right heart assessment and pulmonary hypertension, tricuspid trans-catheter repair, valvular disease, cutting-edge technology, cardiomyopathy, pericardial disease, and more.

Don't miss CSE Weekend's iconic interactive educational and entertaining sessions: on Friday, The CSE Game Show (rebranded as “Echo Case Challenge Cup” ), and on Saturday, the national review of “Classic Cases Across Canada” where our colleagues across the country share challenging, intriguing, and controversial cases.

📍CSE Weekend: https://dci.ca/cse-weekend/

04/29/2026

What is the role of AI in daily life at the echo lab? Join Dr. Federico Asch at 2026 Weekend in his exciting ASE keynote lecture to discover the rapidly changing role of AI in echocardiography!

Dr. Asch is the Director of the Echocardiography Core Lab at MedStar Health Research Institute and Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University. Dr. Asch is a Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography and the American College of Cardiology. He is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Heart Association, and the Argentinean Society of Cardiology. He has served in multiple leadership roles for the American Society of Echocardiography (including Chair of Guidelines and Standards Committee, Chair Scientific Sessions and Chair, World Summit of Echocardiography, Chair International Affairs) and is a member of the Executive leadership leading to Presidency in 2027. He is past-president of the AHA Board for the Greater Washington region and a member of and the institutional review board of MedStar Health Research Institute.

Dr. Asch is a frequent invited speaker at national meetings and is board certified in cardiology. His areas of interest are implementation of imaging standards in the development of Clinical Trials, novel ultrasound technologies such as AI, Cardiomyopathies, valvular heart disease. Dr. Asch has published several articles in the New England Journal of Medicine and other peer-reviewed journals, including JAQCC, Circulation, Nature, Lancet and the American Heart Journal. He received his MD from the Universidad de Buenos Aires Medical School and completed a Cardiology Fellowship at Instituto Cardiovascular de Buenos Aires in Argentina. He then completed an Echocardiography fellowship, followed by a residency and fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at the Georgetown University/MedStar Washington Hospital Center/DC VA Medical Center program.

His research interests are myocardial viability in ischemic cardiomyopathy structural heart, interventional echocardiography and devices in cardiovascular diseases, role of cardiac imaging in clinical trials, and novel technologies in echocardiography, including AI.

📍CSE Weekend: https://dci.ca/cse-weekend/

04/24/2026

🇦🇮 💬 How does AI identify valve disease? Join the discussion with Dr. Partho P. Sengupta at 2026 Echo Weekend.

Dr. Partho P. Sengupta, MD, MBBS, FACC, is a tenured Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Cardiology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Chief of the Cardiovascular Service Line at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. He completed his residency and cardiology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester and Arizona) in 2007 and 2010.

An internationally recognized leader in cardiac imaging, digital health, and artificial intelligence, Dr. Sengupta has authored more than 330 peer-reviewed publications (H-index: 72). His research focuses on advanced ultrasound imaging, AI-enabled diagnostics, robotics, and wearable technologies. He has directed multidisciplinary teams to pioneer mobile health and point-of-care ultrasound programs, including landmark ASE Foundation initiatives such as ASE-REWARDS, ASE-VISION-in-Tele-Echo, and ASEF-VALUES, which advanced community outreach, digital platforms, and global learning in echocardiography.

Dr. Sengupta has also made milestone contributions to imaging informatics. He reported one of the earliest applications of machine learning in echocardiography (2013) and more recently led the development of the PRIME checklist, now adopted by the ACC and JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging as the standard framework for evaluating artificial intelligence in cardiovascular imaging.

His achievements have been widely recognized. He received the 2026 Distinguished Scientist Award (Translational Domain), was named among the Top 1% Healthcare Research All-Stars for 2025 by Avant-Garde Health, and received the 2024 AACIO Award for Outstanding Achievements in Cardiology, the 2023 NJBiz Healthcare Hero Award, and the 2023 ACC Gifted Educator Award. In 2025, he was appointed Co-Chair of the NIH Study Section for K Awards, reflecting his national leadership in physician-scientist training.

📍 CSE Weekend: https://dci.ca/cse-weekend/

04/24/2026

We're so excited to welcome Dr. Patricia Pellikka to 2026 Echo Weekend.

Learn more at Dr. Pellikka's Stress Echo in Ischemia: Skills for Interpreting Wall Motion presentation.

Patricia A. Pellikka, MD, FACC, FAHA, FASE, FESC is the Betty Knight Scripps Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases Clinical Research at Mayo Clinic and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography. In 2025, she served as the elected president of the Mayo Clinic Officers and Councilors, representing her colleagues with the institution’s leadership. She is the immediate past Chair for the Division of Cardiovascular Ultrasound (Echocardiography Laboratory) at Mayo Clinic. She has served as Vice Chair for Academic Affairs for the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and Director of Mayo Clinic’s Ultrasound Research Center. She is the recipient of the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine’s Outstanding Mentorship Award and has mentored >100 fellows, residents, students, and junior faculty.

She has more than 800 publications with an H index of 93. Her research utilizing echocardiography aims to improve survival and quality of life for patients with valvular heart disease, ischemic heart disease, and heart failure. Outside of Mayo Clinic, she has served as president of the American Society of Echocardiography, member of the External Advisory Council to the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and on the editorial boards of the major cardiology journals.

Thirty-five years ago, Dr. Pellikka established stress echocardiography at Mayo Clinic. She has chaired ASE’s guidelines writing group on stress echocardiography in 2007 and 2020. Her current research interests include the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to assessment of echocardiographic images. In partnership with Ultromics, an AI echo company in Oxford, she developed AI models to detect HFpEF and amyloid cardiomyopathy from single echo videoclips; these models were approved by the FDA in November 2022 and November 2024 via the breakthrough pathway.

CSE Weekend: https://dci.ca/cse-weekend/

04/24/2026

What happens when echocardiography meets artificial intelligence at scale?

AI-Augmented Echocardiography is ushering in a new era of cardiology, evolving from simple discrete tasks to sophisticated "agentic-AI" that can plan, reason, and act to achieve complex clinical goals, such as real-time image guidance and automated quantification. As the field experiences an explosion of technology, clinicians must now address whether they can enhance their practice without losing their hard-earned expertise. This presentation will explore the hidden dangers of the "AI chasm" and the risks of automation bias and "deskilling". Attendees will gain a roadmap for the future, including insights into educational strategies and ways to preserve clinical judgment.

Dr. Christina Luong will be presenting exciting developments in AI and echocardiography at 2026 Echo Weekend, Vancouver, BC, April 30 - May 2, 2026.

CSE Weekend: https://dci.ca/cse-weekend/

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