The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography had its 20th annual meeting in the gorgeous city of Montreal and though it’s still intimate, the conference punches well above its weight class when it comes to innovation. Here are some of the big takeaways from SCCT 2025.
It’s About A Lot More Than Just Scanners – While all the CT industry giants were there in some capacity or another, SCCT25 proved yet again this year that its mission goes beyond the tech on the floor. From research symposiums to training courses, SCCT continues to pursue an educational path forward, with the hopes of making cardiac CT more mainstream and better understood.
The Scanner Space is Getting Crowded – Even though SCCT is more than scanner demos and models, it’s clear that this year’s CMS reimbursements have amped up the marketing efforts across a range of CT players like Arineta, United Imaging, Fujifilm, Philips, Siemens Healthineers, and GE HealthCare. Each company now has to clearly define what makes them unique to cardiac imagers.
CT Innovations Vary By Approach – In that same vein, the major CT makers are taking different approaches to distinguishing themselves, with examples like…
- Siemens’ human-forward touches like “in-room” set up and mood lighting.
- United Imaging’s exceptional 3rd-party software integration.
- GE HealthCare’s unique ECG-less CT option.
- Arineta’s cost/space-effective cardiac CT approach.
- And Philips’ CT Spectral Viewer that enables seamless switching between scan results.
Those CT Scanners Don’t Work Alone – Despite the presence of the imaging greats, software companies like Cleerly, Heartflow, Circle CVI, Elucid, Caristo, and Canon Medical HIT stole the show with exciting research results and new AI analysis products.
Plaque is the New Player – Several companies including Circle CVI, Elucid, and Heartflow put a heavy emphasis on their new plaque analysis offerings at this year’s conference, from quantification to characterization, the innovations mark a new venue for improved detection, prediction, and reimbursement.
The Takeaway
It’s never been a better time for cardiac CT, and this year’s SCCT showed that the applications and acceptance of the modality are rising rapidly, with education on its benefits leading the way.
