AI help for reading heart ultrasound scans in people with heart valve disease
Tests whether live AI analysis helps cardiologists read heart valve ultrasound scans.
Key facts
- Who runs it
- Columbia University
- Where
- New York, United StatesSee the site
- Trial code
- Registry title
- DELINEATE-Prospective
- Status
- Recruiting
- People taking part
- 50 people, planned
- Started
- 15 Apr 2026
- Expected to end
- 1 Oct 2028
- Type of study
- Observational, 2 groups
- Record updated
- 16 April 2026
Who can take part
AI summary
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for senior heart doctors (attending cardiologists) at Columbia who read heart ultrasound scans. It tests whether AI help during reading makes the work faster and more consistent.
- Age
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
Main reasons for not taking part
- Doctors still in training (cardiology fellows or advanced imaging fellows) cannot join
- Doctors not employed by Columbia University, ColumbiaDoctors, or NewYork Presbyterian Hospital cannot join
- Doctors who do not read transthoracic echocardiograms (heart ultrasound through the chest) in the Columbia echocardiography laboratory cannot join
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 3 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Attending cardiologist employed by Columbia University, ColumbiaDoctors, or NewYork Presbyterian Hospital who reads transthoracic echocardiograms in the Columbia echocardiography laboratory
- Provided informed consent to take part in the questionnaires or pivotal study
Who cannot take part
- Physician in training (cardiology fellow or advanced imaging fellow)
Where in United States
- Columbia University Irving Medical CenterNew York, United StatesContact: Jeffrey Ruhl, MSTaking people
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and echocardiography (or "echo") is the most common way doctors look at the heart. Echo is safe, painless, and can detect major heart problems, including weak heart pumping and valve disease.
Read full original descriptionShow less
Valve disease, especially aortic stenosis (narrowing) and mitral regurgitation (leakage), is common in older adults but often goes undiagnosed. While echo is the main tool for finding valve problems, it takes time, requires expert training, and results can vary between readers.
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), especially deep learning (DL), have shown promise in automatically analyzing heart images. However, past research hasn't fully tackled key echo techniques-like color Doppler and spectral Doppler-that are crucial for measuring how blood moves through heart valves. AI tools also face challenges in being used in everyday medical practice because of workflow issues, lack of real-world testing, and concerns about how the algorithms make decisions.
At Columbia University Irving Medical Center, researchers have built a large database of heart tests over the last six years and developed AI programs to analyze echocardiograms. The current study will test whether providing AI analysis to cardiologists in real time during echo reading can make the process faster and more consistent.
The 2 groups in the trial
- Intervention Group
Studies meeting the following criteria will undergo adjudication by an expert panel: Moderate, moderate-severe, or severe mitral, aortic, or tricuspid regurgitation by physician or AI model assessment. Discrepancy between physician and AI interpretations, where AI-assessed severity is greater than the physician-assessed severity (i.e. indicates that more valvular regurgitation is present)
- Control Group
A stratified random sample of cases will be selected to match the distribution of AI-flagged cases by physician-assessed valvular regurgitation severity and will undergo the same expert panel adjudication.
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- Deep Learning for Echo Analysis, Tracking, and Evaluation Prospective Evaluation (DELINEATE-Prospective)
- Plain-language title
- AI help for reading heart ultrasound scans in people with heart valve diseaseGenerated from the registry record. The registry title is the official one.
- AI summary
- From the trial's eligibility criteria. Read by machine on 14 November 2026.
- Record updated
- 16 April 2026