Key Points
- SIR 2024 took place March 23–28 in Salt Lake City, UT.
- Histosonics created excitement around the launch of its Edison platform for treating liver cancers.
- When Fred Lee, Jr., MD, received SIR’s prestigious Gold Medal, he invited his colleagues to share the stage.
Conference Overview
The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) 2024 Annual Meeting, “SIRpass the Summit,” took place March 23–28 in Salt Lake City, UT. The event, which is the largest professional gathering of interventional radiologists in North America, featured more than 40 scientific sessions, 130 educational sessions, and 200 poster presentations. The 2024 conference placed a significant emphasis on the integration of augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotics in interventional radiology (IR) procedures, highlighting both the opportunities and the challenges that these technologies present.
HistoSonics Creates Excitement
HistoSonics created excitement at the meeting by demonstrating its Edison histotripsy device for commercial use to small groups of interventional radiologists. The company has now sold more than 20 Edison histotripsy systems and installed at least half of them across the United States. Sales representatives also provided updates on patient treatments (i.e., 45 patients with half having liver metastases and half having hepatocellular carcinoma) and hinted at the company’s future plans to expand into the treatment of pancreas and kidney cancer, make further technical improvements, and reduce the amount of anesthesia given during procedures
Focused Ultrasound for Endovascular Denervation
Focused ultrasound was discussed in the context of providing endovascular denervation as one of the three methods explored (along with radiofrequency ablation and transarterial adventitial therapy). Endovascular denervation is being used to treat hypertension, liver dysfunction, diabetes, and other common diseases caused by overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system. The impact of this treatment is large, because even a 5-to-10 mmHg decrease in blood pressure has significant advantages for health, and many patients are noncompliant with their medications.
Awards
Fred T. Lee, Jr., MD, a professor of Radiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Urology and the Robert A. Turrell Professor of Imaging Science at the University of Wisconsin, was awarded the highest honor that SIR bestows, its Gold Medal. This honor is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the field, dedicated their talents to advancing the quality of patient care, and helped ensure the future of interventional radiology. When he accepted the award, he asked fellow faculty members, trainees, and alumni to join him on the stage. Read why in the University of Wisconsin’s Q&A with Dr. Lee.
Interventional Radiology of the Future
The significant focus on the use of AR, AI, ML, and robotics at SIR has many potential implications for the field of focused ultrasound. IRs are already using these technologies:
- With neuronavigation tools that predict the best path for needles or catheters
- To create complex holographic images that provide better visualization than do 2D or 3D images
- To create robotic solutions that democratize healthcare
“Focused ultrasound will lag behind other interventions if our devices continue to use only 2D ultrasound and 3-plane CT and MRI for image guidance,” said Dr. LeBlang. “This was a huge topic across numerous different sessions at SIR. I also believe that focused ultrasound could be delivered remotely to clinical sites that do not have practitioners with certain expertise in an application.”
During his plenary session presentation, Bruce J. Tromberg, PhD, the Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health, noted the significant rise in the use of AI and ML in US Food and Drug Administration–approved medical devices. He was quoted as saying, “Engineers are tuned into this area, and there are a lot of opportunities for enhancing and deepening physician and engineer collaborations…IR, as a clinical and technologically complex specialty, is an ideal use case for building those partnerships.” Read more in SIR Today.
In the “Toward the Future: AR, AI, and Robotics in IR” session, Judy Gichoya, MD, an assistant professor of Interventional Radiology and Informatics at Emory University, presented “Interventional Radiology and AI: The Double-Edged Scalpel.” She shared the benefits of using AI in IR while noting the biases and regulatory challenges associated with pursuing AI applications.
A hot topic session called “Artificial Intelligence in IR: What Every Interventional Radiologist Should Know” featured a presentation by Dania Daye, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. In “Applications of AI In IR: Where are we Today?” she shared how her team is using ChaptGPT, a large language model, to generate reports for patients that explain complex procedures in easy-to-understand formats.
Next Year’s Meeting
SIR 2025 will be held March 29–April 2, 2025, in Nashville. Abstract submission is open now through September 26, 2024. The meeting hashtag is #SIR25Nash.