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Artificial intelligence (AI) helped health professionals with no ultrasound experience capture quality heart scans in rural communities for review by off-site experts, according to new, independent preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2026. The meeting takes place Nov. 6–9 in Chicago.

Echocardiography, or ultrasound imaging of the heart, performed with AI assistance and reviewed by experts in other locations may be one way to bring heart imaging to people living in rural communities. Echocardiography uses ultrasound to provide live, moving images of the heart's structure and function.

According to the American Heart Association, your health care professional may order this test if you have a heart murmur, damaged heart valves, unexplained chest pain, a congenital heart defect, a history of heart attack or stroke, or rheumatic fever.

"Echocardiography is one of the most useful tools we have in cardiovascular research; however, it has historically been very hard to deliver in rural communities," said study author Dr. Sanjana Ravi, an internal medicine and pediatrics resident at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

"The conventional model depends on an expert sonographer working in a hospital setting or imaging center, which can be limited in rural areas.

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