The Right Side of Change: Transforming Pediatric CHD Care

Unique Challenges in Pediatric Cardiology 

In cardiology, advanced visualization tools are evolving rapidly… in the adult space. AI tools are continuing to be built and improved for adult hearts, adult focused workflows, and adult disease patterns. Pediatric cardiology, and the management of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), is a different world entirely. 

Children with CHD often have complex, irregular anatomy, undergo multiple surgeries and interventions, and require lifelong monitoring. Imaging technology designed for adults does not meet these needs, leaving pediatric cardiologists without the specialized tools necessary to care for these vulnerable patients. 

Advanced Tools, But Not for the Youngest Hearts 

Cardiac MRI is often seen as the gold standard for heart imaging. But in pediatrics, it’s not always realistic. Many children are too young or too sick to safely undergo the anesthesia required. MRI is expensive, time-consuming, and simply not feasible for frequent monitoring. Echocardiography is far safer and more accessible, but until now, it couldn’t deliver the same robust insights. 

Adult-focused innovation has led most 3D/4D echo visualization tools and AI algorithms to be optimized for adult cardiac structures, not congenital variations. Even when best-in-class pediatric imaging tools exist, they’re often standalone systems, siloed, and disconnected from enterprise cardiology IT platforms. 

At the 2025 ASE conference in Nashville, the session ‘Artificial Intelligence in Peds Echo: Challenges and Opportunities’ highlighted a key theme: AI tools must be fully integrated into clinical workflows and imaging platforms to be effective. Standalone, siloed solutions create friction and limit adoption. 

The result? Critical metrics vital to understanding CHD progression can be hard to capture, trend, and integrate into care decisions. 

ASCEND: Reimagined Best-of-Breed Workflow for Pediatric Cardiology 

Most cardiovascular IT solutions are designed for adults and later retrofitted for children, often overlooking the unique needs of pediatric CHD. ASCEND has taken the opposite approach, focusing on designing a tailored solution designed from the ground up, with the critical needs of pediatric cardiology at the forefront. 

ASCEND brings together the following into a streamlined workflow: 

• Multi-modality structured reporting that bridges diagnostic and interventional procedures in one unified platform. 

• Modernized Mullins diagrams with robust carry-forward and annotation tools.  

• CHD-specific intelligence with over 120 built-in CHD classifications. 

• AI ready web-based image viewer with open integrations, imaging and enterprise environments. 

• Deeply detailed CHD data analytics support operations, research and outcomes. 

• Imaging Telepresence that extends CHD expertise with remote collaboration. 

Most importantly, ASCEND follows the patient across their entire journey. From fetal diagnosis to pediatric interventions and into adult congenital care, the same platform supports clinicians at every stage. This ‘one solution, one lifetime’ approach, created by pediatric cardiology experts for pediatric cardiology teams, replaces the patchwork of systems that often disrupt continuity of care. It ensures specialized, efficient, and seamless care from prenatal diagnosis through adult CHD management. 

Best-of-Breed Meets Best-of-Breed 

ASCEND partners with the world’s most advanced cardiovascular technologies to deliver seamless integration and an optimized workflow experience. One example is our integration with Ventripoint, a company that has developed breakthrough AI technology to provide detailed insights into heart structure and function for complex CHD conditions. 

Ventripoint’s patented AI solution, VMS+, transforms ultrasound scans into high-fidelity 3D heart models, delivering precise volumetric measurements and ejection fractions quickly and efficiently. When combined with ASCEND’s pediatric-first reporting workflow, Ventripoint’s AI-powered VMS+ creates a truly best-of-breed enterprise solution by: 

• Transforming standard 2D echocardiograms into robust 3D heart models and right-ventricular (RV) metrics without the need for sedation or MRI. 

• Automatically populating RV metrics and chamber data into ASCEND’s structured reports, eliminating duplicate entry and system toggling. 

• Seamlessly integrating to ensure that VMS+-powered AI insights are easy to access, actionable, and fully embedded within the reporting solution. 

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the right ventricle in CHD.” – Matt Dobson, Ventripoint 

That single statement captures the heart of the problem. For pediatric cardiologists, especially those treating Tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary hypertension and other complex defects, the right ventricle is often the center of the story. RV size, function, and volume trends guide decisions on timing interventions, planning surgeries, and predicting outcomes. 

The Enterprise Impact: Data That Drives Care 

Integrating Ventripoint data into ASCEND’s platform doesn’t just streamline workflow, it unlocks enterprise-level insight.
Imagine: 

• RV-focused dashboards that track surgical repairs and palliations over time. 

• Analytics that help identify the right intervention window for complex CHD cases. 

• Aggregated, de-identified data supporting multi-center research to advance pediatric cardiology worldwide. 

Why This Matters Now 

Children with CHD will undergo countless echocardiograms over a lifetime. Turning that mountain of data into actionable insight, particularly for the right ventricle, is the key to improving outcomes. By combining ASCEND’s enterprise pediatric workflow with Ventripoint’s precision RV modeling, pediatric cardiologists gain one connected view of the patient’s heart. In CHD, the right ventricle is critical—and now, it’s all in one place.