AI Software Aims to Unlock Hospital Ultrasounds for Cardiac Training

BORDEAUX, France – May 29, 2026 – By Stephen Miller

A new software solution launched by French medtech company DESKi aims to solve a multi-million dollar paradox plaguing hospitals worldwide: fleets of expensive, cart-based ultrasound systems that are critically underutilized for cardiac imaging. The company’s new platform, HeartFocus Link, is designed to transform these existing machines into AI-powered training devices, tackling a persistent skills gap that has limited the use of cardiac ultrasound to a small pool of specialists.

HeartFocus Link, an expansion of the FDA-cleared HeartFocus platform, connects to any cart-based ultrasound system via a simple HDMI plug-and-play setup. It provides real-time, AI-driven guidance to healthcare professionals, aiming to build their confidence and competency in acquiring heart ultrasound images. The launch directly confronts the reality that for many institutions, the barrier to widespread cardiac assessment isn't a lack of equipment, but a lack of scalable, effective training for frontline providers.

The Pervasive Training Gap

Healthcare institutions have invested heavily in ultrasound infrastructure, yet studies consistently reveal a significant gap between the availability of technology and the ability of staff to use it effectively for complex applications like cardiac imaging. Industry reports show that while the number of ultrasound procedures has surged, the growth of trained sonographers has not kept pace. This leaves many frontline providers in emergency, acute, and primary care settings without the skills needed to perform point-of-care cardiac ultrasounds (POCUS).

Surveys across multiple countries consistently identify “lack of training” as the single greatest barrier to POCUS adoption, with some studies showing nearly 80% of clinicians citing it as their primary obstacle. Cardiac ultrasound is particularly challenging, requiring nuanced motor skills to position the probe and cognitive skill to interpret the resulting images. Traditional training methods, often reliant on short workshops or informal mentorship, have proven difficult to scale and result in highly variable competency levels.

Professional medical societies have long acknowledged this challenge. While organizations like the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) have championed the integration of POCUS into clinical practice, they also highlight the need for standardized curricula and robust quality assurance—elements often missing in today’s training landscape. Achieving basic proficiency in focused cardiac ultrasound can require a practitioner to perform between 20 and 50 supervised scans, a significant time commitment that is difficult to accommodate in busy clinical environments.

How HeartFocus Link Bridges the Divide

HeartFocus Link addresses the training bottleneck by meeting providers where they are: with the equipment they already have. The system uses a tablet running the HeartFocus application, which connects to an existing ultrasound machine. This setup creates a dual-screen experience where the user sees the live ultrasound feed from their machine alongside real-time AI guidance from the HeartFocus app.

The platform’s patented 3D guidance system superimposes probe positioning instructions directly onto the live image, visually guiding the user’s hand to capture 10 standard transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) views. An automated quality scoring system provides objective, instantaneous feedback on the images being acquired. When predefined quality thresholds are met, the system’s Auto Record feature automatically captures the image clip, reinforcing good technique and helping to build muscle memory.

“Cart-based systems make up the majority of clinical ultrasound infrastructure, yet utilization is often limited to a small pool of specialists and other professionals,” said Bertrand Moal, PhD, MD, CEO of DESKi, in the company's announcement. “The equipment is already there. What’s been missing is a scalable way to help more healthcare professionals build familiarity, competency, and confidence in cardiac ultrasound acquisition.”

Crucially, HeartFocus Link is intended specifically for education, training, and image acquisition practice. The company stresses it is not for diagnostic use or clinical decision-making, a distinction that positions it firmly as an educational tool designed to build foundational skills in a safe, simulated environment.

Unlocking Economic and Operational Value

Beyond its educational impact, the platform presents a compelling economic value proposition for healthcare administrators. By retrofitting existing machines, HeartFocus Link allows hospitals to maximize the return on significant capital investments that may be currently underperforming. Rather than purchasing new, specialized training equipment, institutions can leverage the hardware already deployed across their facilities.

This approach promises to make training more efficient and cost-effective. By automating real-time feedback, the AI can reduce the supervisory burden on expert sonographers and cardiologists, whose time is both expensive and limited. A more efficient training pathway could shorten the time it takes for a provider to become proficient, allowing them to contribute to clinical workflows sooner.

In the long term, broadening the base of providers skilled in cardiac POCUS could have a profound impact on hospital operations. Empowering emergency physicians, hospitalists, and even specially trained nurses to perform initial cardiac assessments can help triage patients more effectively, alleviate backlogs in specialized echocardiography labs, and support earlier clinical decision-making. This increased efficiency is particularly valuable as healthcare systems continue to grapple with staff shortages and pressure to improve patient throughput.

The Future of AI in Medical Education

HeartFocus Link’s launch is indicative of a broader shift in medical education, where artificial intelligence is moving from a theoretical concept to a practical tool for hands-on skill development. While some competitors have integrated AI directly into new handheld ultrasound devices, HeartFocus’s strategy of creating a device-agnostic solution for the vast installed base of cart systems represents a different approach to market adoption.

This technology offers a solution to the inherent limitations of traditional training. AI-driven feedback is objective, consistent, and available on demand, contrasting with human-led instruction that can be subjective and constrained by instructor availability. For complex psychomotor skills like ultrasound probe manipulation, the ability to practice with real-time, corrective guidance is a powerful learning accelerator.

As professional bodies continue to advocate for the formal integration of POCUS skills into medical school and residency curricula, technologies that can deliver standardized, measurable, and scalable training will become increasingly vital. By providing a structured pathway to competency on the very machines clinicians will use in practice, AI-guided platforms are poised to play a critical role in developing the next generation of healthcare providers and ensuring that no patient has to wait for a critical cardiac assessment.