ASE and its Foundation Award Three $25,000 Grants to Early Career Investigators in Cardiovascular Imaging

The grants will help fund echocardiography research projects led by early career members in the Society

The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and the ASE Foundation have awarded grant funding totaling $75,000 for three innovative cardiovascular ultrasound research projects led by early career investigators.

The Society’s EDGES (Early-Career Development Grant for Echo Scientists) research program is intended to fund projects that address a clinical gap in cardiovascular ultrasound imaging through research directed by an early career scientist or investigator.

Three recipients were each awarded a $25,000 grant.

• Dr. Xuan Ding, a cardiovascular disease fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., will use the grant to fund research in the development of cardiovascular ultrasound and echocardiographic technology and its applications to clinical cardiovascular medicine.
• Dr. Chieh-Ju Chao, an academic cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., will utilize the funding for a collaborative project between Mayo Clinic and Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence that seeks to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled echocardiography copilot reporting system.
• Dr. Son “Sonny” Duong, an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Heart Center and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, secured the funding for research focused on the utilization of large data sets and machine-learning technologies to analyze cardiac diagnostics and patient risk prediction.

ASE Past President and Chair of the Society’s Research Committee Dr. Jonathan Lindner explained why this funding is important for the field.

“ASE has always advocated that echocardiography must constantly evolve to meet clinical needs, and therefore prioritizes its support of cutting-edge research. The EDGES grants are designed to support scientists in cardiovascular imaging at one of the most critical times in their professional development,” said Dr. Lindner. “The goal of the program is to assist early career scientists who need financial support to continue their trajectory in echocardiography research, and to generate vital data that can be used for more comprehensive funding mechanisms.”

The EDGES research program was developed to create an avenue for the continued evolution of echocardiography through technical advancement and new applications to meet the needs of increasingly complex patient populations in four ways:

1. Fund early research that will produce preliminary data necessary for a larger grant application.
2. Demonstrate the recipient’s research potential to their division and institution, whose support will be critical for their development.
3. Provide critical and positive feedback for the early career imager who may be unsure if they can successfully attain funding.
4. Build a foundation for launching a research career separate from their mentors.

Learn more about these grants and the recipients at ASEFoundation.org/Research.

About American Society of Echocardiography
The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is the Society for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Professionals™. ASE is the largest global organization for cardiovascular ultrasound imaging serving physicians, sonographers, nurses, veterinarians, and scientists and as such is the leader and advocate, setting practice standards and guidelines for the field. The Society is committed to advancing cardiovascular ultrasound to improve lives. For more information, visit the ASE website ASEcho.org or social media pages on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

About American Society of Echocardiography Foundation
The ASE Foundation (ASEF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation created in 2003 as ASE’s charitable arm. The Foundation helps to assure the viability and visibility of cardiovascular ultrasound. Dependent upon donor giving not supported by membership dues, ASEF funds initiatives such as training scholarships, guidelines-based projects, research, patient engagement, and global health outreach. For more information, visit the ASEF website: ASEFoundation.org.

CLOSED: Federal and American Heart Association funding opportunities for early career scientists in cardiovascular imaging are continuing to decline. Accordingly, other societal awards can potentially play an increasing role to promote research activities for those investigators who are early in their professional careers in field of echocardiography. The EDGES Grant is designed to address this gap. It also aligns with several important initiatives set forward by the ASE which include providing support and professional development opportunities for early career members in the Society, and the desire to create avenues for the continued evolution of echocardiography through technical advancement and through new applications to meet the complex needs of increasingly complex patient populations. The grant will provide three grants of $25K maximum to fund projects that will address a clinical gap in cardiovascular ultrasound imaging through research led by an early career scientist. An early career scientist is defined as an eligible member that has completed their terminal degree of training within seven years of submitting the application.

VIEW APPLICATION

Thank you to the over 80 donors who supported the ASE Foundation’s goal of raising $5,000 in 24 hours on December 1. Because of your generosity, we more than doubled our goal, raising $10,607 in just one day! Read more here.