The increasing sophistication of the device space for the treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE) aligned with advances in the deployment of pulmonary embolism response teams (PERTs) are among factors leading to notable improvements in care, according to leading vascular surgeon Patrick Muck, MD.
The chief of vascular surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, has led a number of recent papers exploring the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) to the PERT at his institution and subsequent gains derived from the move.
The most recent data presented at the 2025 Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) annual meeting in Cincinnati (Sept. 18–20) showed that the use of AI technology to diagnose a patient with a PE can lead to earlier anticoagulation and intervention in the appropriate patient, and that, with improved time to treatment of PE using AI, there may also be a decrease in mortality. “There are probably 20-plus devices either already available or going to be available soon,” observes Muck during an interview at the recent 2025 VEITHsymposium in New York City (Nov. 18–22), where he moderated a pair of sessions covering thrombectomy devices across both the arterial and venous systems. “The reason there are so many devices is that PE is such an unmet need and it is the number one cause of preventable death for in-hospital patients. That, coupled with the fact these devices are decreasing the need for adjunctive thrombolysis, is exciting.”
Muck says his team have presented at the likes of MVSS, the PERT Consortium and, again next year at the 2026 American Venous Forum (AVF) in Denver, Colorado (Feb. 28–March 4), data showing that, with PERTs, “it is not so much door-to-thrombectomy time” where AI proves its worth. “What makes it so important is that it allows for rapid diagnosis, which leads to rapid communication amongst the PERT team members, which leads to more rapid initiation of anticoagulation,” he explains. “That’s the real benefit of AI. It’s not like door-to-balloon in MI [myocardial infarction], or some aspects of the stroke service, but door-to-diagnosis and thereby door-to-triage time.”
The addition of AI shows up in patient outcomes, Muck continues. “We know that every hour that a patient is not anticoagulated with a pulmonary embolism, mortality goes up. The patient can go through the CT [computed tomography] scan and, within six minutes, typically you can get a diagnosis or an AI alert of a positive PE, which then sets off a communication amongst the team members, which leads to quicker triage and thereby anticoagulation. As for PERT, plenty of publications show that centers that have a PERT have a higher usage of advanced thrombectomy devices, shorter hospital length of stay, as well as lower mortality.”
Muck and colleagues launched their own PERT at Good Samaritan in January 2013 and added AI to the system in 2022, deploying the Viz.ai detection software. “It takes a village of people coming together to offer the best-in-class therapy for patients who suffer from pulmonary embolism,” he says. In the old days, Muck muses, he might have been at one of his kids’ lacrosse or soccer games, armed with his computer in the event he would receive an alert for a patient with a PE. With time of the essence, he’d then have to navigate logging on, firewalls then a CT scan before being able to provide an opinion on the best therapy for the patient at hand. Now, with the AI-driven notification sent to his phone, the turnaround is revolutionized.
“In two minutes, I’ve logged in to the app, I can see a high-resolution CTA [CT angiography], the AI program gives you the RV-LV [right ventricle-left ventricle] ratio, the patient demographics and vital signs, and it’s like being right there next to the patient. It’s amazing,” he adds.
The Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) has previously showcased how AI can shave considerable time off the process of determining management for individual patients. “You can make a diagnosis, put a plan together, discuss with members of the PERT team in real time, expedite consensus decision-making and treatment logistics far more efficiently,” Dennis Gable, MD, commented during VAM 2023.
