ISET 2018: Town Hall Focuses on How Innovation Will Transform Medicine

Symposium brings attention to factors influencing the future of health care.

By Brenda Silva

As one of the most popular sessions at the ISET symposium, the Town Hall meeting serves to update interventional radiology (IR) with a status of the industry. For 2018, the Town Hall looked ahead at factors that hold the potential to influence IR in the future. Session moderator Barry Katzen, MD, introduced Brian Keeley, CEO and President of Baptist Health, who welcomed attendees to ISET and then gave a history of the relationship between Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute (MCVI) and Baptist Health, as well as offered his forecast for the future of the industry.

Dr. Katzen acknowledged course directors and referenced previous ISET symposia, noting, “This year, it’s all about the future. We know there is a greater need for PAD therapy, and the critical limb ischemia epidemic needs further definition because there’s a greater volume of cases with a rising increase in public health implications. We’re also going to be looking at areas such as advanced therapy for structural heart disease and submassive pulmonary embolus, as well as embolotherapies for cancer.”

Beginning the session, guest speaker Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD, Director of The Medical Futurist Institute, asserted that “health care needs a trip to Mars,” and elaborated on how digital technologies can become a reality in the future of medicine.

“Science fiction is becoming real, and we’re already seeing this in many new technologies that have entered our society. I believe digital health is not a technological revolution but a cultural transformation. In the future, we need to make patients the point of care and let them use new digital technologies to be in better control of their own healthcare,” Dr. Meskó suggested.

He added, “We need to begin by being curious. Digital technology and artificial intelligence are available to augment our jobs and better treat our patients, but we have to be open to change. Patients can also take advantage of this technology and feel good about working with us as an equal partner on personalized treatment options.”

Continuing the topic, Michael Dake, MD, discussed what is going to drive change in vascular medicine in the next 10 years. “Demographics will swell and chronic degenerative disease will prevail. Personalized medicine will replace population medicine, cost containment will dominate, consumer-driven healthcare will emerge, and restoration will replace palliation.”

He continued, “There’s a trend toward implants and replacing what doesn’t work. There are expected to be five million patients with implants in the next 10 years. Trends in monitoring devices – diagnosis, monitoring, communication, therapy, connectivity options – are all things that will influence us in the near future even more.”

Summing up, Dr. Dake asserted, “The pace of change is very rapid and thinking outside the box is essential. But we also need to have fun as we prepare for all of these events that promise to transform vascular intervention in the future.”

Next to speak, Martin Leon, MD, focused on insights and innovations in structural heart and coronary artery disease.

“Coronary intervention has stabilized, and most future changes will be iterative/incremental. We are seeing much more precise diagnostics, where integrating imaging and physiology will become the norm. Imaging will dominate structural heart disease. New in-air medical holography allows for interaction such as taking measurements, and can affect how you interact with therapies,” Dr. Leon forecasted.

Looking at the practice of vascular surgery and how it’s expected to change in the future, Richard Neville, MD, reported, “Vascular surgery over the last century has embraced dramatic change, and the leadership embraced innovation and adapted to new technologies.”

Dr. Neville predicted a continued need for vascular surgeons, due in part to an anticipated increase in areas such as diabetes. Other factors that are expected to increase and influence the future of vascular surgery are robotics, GPS guidance and remote monitoring, along with nanotechnology, regenerative medicine, 3D printers, and stem cell therapy.

He added, “However, the most impactful thing is going to be personalized applications to healthcare, like genomics combined with information technology, which isn’t designed to replace physicians, but to give us the tools to better do our jobs. I think that the ISET symposium of 2028 will be one that focuses on enhanced therapy.”

The last speaker, Michael Jaff, DO, addressed the issue of whether medical therapy will replace invasive procedures. “Artificial intelligence is not going to replace us, but those who work with it will be further along than those who don’t. But, in my opinion, there’s not a chance that medical therapy will replace invasive procedures because of what we can still do for our patients in terms of personalized medicine.”

Dr. Katzen returned to the podium and opened the floor to questions for the speakers, as well as additional comments from the panelists on topics addressed that are expected to factor into the changing future landscape of health care and medical therapies.