Elucid to Showcase Next-Generation AI-Powered Coronary CT Technologies and Advance Its CCTA 3.0 Vision at SCCT 2026
Elucid, a medical technology company specializing in artificial intelligence-powered coronary CT angiography (CCTA) analysis, has announced its largest and most comprehensive participation to date at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) Annual Scientific Meeting 2026. The conference, scheduled for July 9–12, 2026, at the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center in Chula Vista, California, will serve as the stage for the company to introduce several new innovations designed to advance the use of coronary CT imaging in the diagnosis, assessment, and personalized management of coronary artery disease (CAD).
During the meeting, Elucid plans to unveil the next generation of its imaging platform, including plaque-based fractional flow reserve computed tomography (FFR-CT²), advanced stenosis quantification capabilities, and a redesigned user interface intended to provide clinicians with greater efficiency, transparency, and comprehensive clinical insights. The company will also present new scientific research and real-world clinical case studies supporting its vision of what it describes as “CCTA 3.0″—an evolution of coronary CT angiography that integrates anatomical imaging, plaque biology, and physiological assessment to enable more personalized cardiovascular care.
According to Elucid, these innovations are intended to move coronary imaging beyond traditional assessments focused primarily on the degree of arterial narrowing and toward a more comprehensive evaluation of the biological characteristics of atherosclerotic plaque and its physiological impact on blood flow.
Transforming Coronary CT Angiography
Coronary artery disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, making early diagnosis and accurate risk assessment critical components of cardiovascular care.
For many years, coronary CT angiography has primarily been used to visualize coronary artery anatomy and identify narrowing, or stenosis, caused by atherosclerotic plaque.
Although anatomical information provides valuable diagnostic insight, clinicians increasingly recognize that the severity of narrowing alone does not fully determine an individual’s risk of future cardiovascular events.
Many heart attacks originate from plaques that may not produce severe obstruction but possess biological features associated with instability and rupture.
As a result, researchers have increasingly focused on developing imaging technologies capable of characterizing plaque composition, inflammatory activity, vascular biology, and blood flow in addition to traditional anatomical measurements.
Elucid’s CCTA 3.0 strategy seeks to combine these complementary sources of information into a single integrated imaging platform.
Introducing the Next Generation Platform
At SCCT 2026, Elucid will introduce several enhancements to its artificial intelligence-powered analysis platform.
Among the most significant advancements is plaque-based FFR-CT², an investigational technology designed to estimate the physiological significance of coronary artery lesions using plaque composition data derived from coronary CT imaging.
The company will also present advanced stenosis quantification tools capable of providing more detailed and reproducible measurements of arterial narrowing.
Additionally, Elucid has developed a redesigned user interface intended to simplify physician workflow while improving visualization of imaging findings and supporting greater transparency in clinical decision-making.
According to the company, the new interface enables physicians to better understand how anatomical, biological, and physiological information contributes to patient-specific risk assessments.
The integrated platform has been designed to facilitate both routine clinical practice and future research applications.
Advancing the Vision of CCTA 3.0
Elucid describes its long-term strategy as the transition toward CCTA 3.0, representing the next stage in the evolution of coronary CT imaging.
The company characterizes the progression of CCTA as occurring in three distinct phases.
The earliest generation focused primarily on anatomical visualization of coronary arteries and detection of obstructive disease.
Subsequent advances introduced more detailed plaque characterization together with computational assessments of coronary physiology.
The envisioned CCTA 3.0 platform expands further by integrating anatomy, plaque biology, physiological function, and artificial intelligence into a unified decision-support system.
Rather than evaluating coronary artery disease solely according to population-based treatment guidelines, the approach aims to generate individualized assessments based upon each patient’s unique disease characteristics.
This personalized strategy seeks to improve diagnostic precision while supporting more targeted therapeutic interventions.
Learning from Precision Oncology
Kelly Huang, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Elucid, believes cardiovascular medicine is approaching a transformation similar to one that has already occurred within oncology.
She explained that cancer treatment has evolved over the past decade from relying primarily on tumor size and anatomical characteristics toward therapies guided by detailed molecular and biological information unique to each patient’s disease.
According to Huang, cardiovascular imaging is now approaching a similar inflection point.
She noted that Elucid’s objective is to help move cardiology beyond one-size-fits-all treatment strategies toward individualized care informed by accurate, reproducible, and transparent imaging data.
The company’s platform seeks to combine anatomical visualization with detailed characterization of plaque biology and physiological measurements, providing physicians with more comprehensive information when selecting treatment strategies.
Huang also emphasized Elucid’s ongoing investment in clinical research intended to validate these technologies and support their integration into routine cardiovascular care.
AI-Powered Plaque-Based FFR-CT
One of Elucid’s principal scientific innovations involves plaque-derived FFR-CT.
Fractional flow reserve is an established physiological measurement used to determine whether coronary artery narrowing significantly restricts blood flow to the heart muscle.
Traditionally, invasive FFR requires catheterization and pressure wire measurements performed during coronary angiography.
Non-invasive FFR-CT technologies have emerged in recent years as alternatives capable of estimating physiological blood flow using coronary CT images.
Elucid’s approach differs by incorporating detailed plaque characterization into its deep learning algorithms.
The company explains that vasodilatory function is influenced not only by the degree of arterial narrowing but also by the quantity and biological composition of atherosclerotic plaque.
Its artificial intelligence models therefore utilize histology-based plaque quantification to estimate physiological blood flow.
According to Elucid, this integrated methodology enables continuous numerical estimation of FFR throughout the coronary artery tree while maintaining direct consistency between plaque characterization and physiological assessment.
The investigational technology has been validated against invasive FFR measurements and is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Beyond Coronary Arteries
In addition to coronary applications, Elucid reports that it currently offers the only CT-derived plaque analysis validated for use in carotid arteries.
Carotid artery disease represents another important manifestation of atherosclerosis and contributes significantly to stroke risk.
The ability to characterize plaque composition within both coronary and carotid arteries expands the potential clinical applications of the company’s imaging technology while supporting broader vascular disease assessment.
Scientific Perspective on Personalized Risk Assessment
Amir Ahmadi, MD, FACC, FSCCT, Clinical Associate Professor of Cardiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Elucid’s Lead Scientific Advisor, highlighted the importance of moving beyond simple disease detection.
According to Dr. Ahmadi, the next frontier in coronary CT imaging involves measuring biological and physiological characteristics that determine how coronary artery disease behaves over time.
He explained that new scientific data being presented during SCCT demonstrate strong performance in accurate, reproducible, and transparent quantification of plaque composition, coronary stenosis, and plaque-derived FFR-CT.
This integrated information enables clinicians to evaluate cardiovascular risk at the level where future events often originate—the individual coronary lesion.
At the same time, vessel-level plaque burden can be incorporated to generate patient-level risk assessments that support more individualized treatment planning.
Dr. Ahmadi noted that the ultimate objective is translating reliable imaging information into more precise therapies while simultaneously improving physician workflow efficiency.
Extensive Scientific Program at SCCT 2026
Throughout the annual scientific meeting, Elucid will participate in multiple educational sessions, technology demonstrations, scientific presentations, and hands-on workshops.
The company’s program begins on Thursday, July 9, with participation in the AI & Innovation Symposium.
During this session, Ruby Gill, PhD, will discuss how artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are accelerating the translation of comprehensive plaque information into personalized clinical guidance.
Later that evening, Elucid will host a hands-on educational workshop focused on integrating plaque biology with plaque-derived FFR-CT for lesion-level cardiovascular risk assessment.
Led by Dr. Amir Ahmadi together with Dr. Jairo Aldana-Bitar, Dr. Farhan Katchi, and Dr. Adam Jacobi, the workshop will allow attendees to directly interact with Elucid’s platform while exploring practical applications of advanced coronary imaging.
Product Demonstrations and Scientific Discussions
On Friday, July 10, Elucid will participate in SCCT’s inaugural Product Showcase within the conference exhibit hall.
During the presentation, Dr. Jairo Aldana-Bitar will demonstrate how the company’s integrated imaging platform combines detailed lesion analysis with comprehensive patient-level cardiovascular risk assessment.
Later the same day, Dr. Amir Ahmadi will participate in the “AI-Plaque Wars” scientific discussion.
The session will explore competing approaches to artificial intelligence-driven plaque analysis while highlighting Elucid’s perspective on the evolution from earlier generations of coronary CT imaging toward the CCTA 3.0 framework.
Dr. Ahmadi will discuss the scientific rationale for deriving both plaque characterization and physiological FFR measurements from a common histology-based imaging dataset.
According to the company, this integrated approach allows physiological assessments to remain directly linked with plaque biology rather than existing as separate analytical outputs.
Corporate Vision Presentation
Friday’s program will also include a featured presentation by Elucid Chief Executive Officer Kelly Huang during the Novel Technology Session.
In the presentation, Huang will outline the company’s broader CCTA 3.0 platform strategy, including virtual CT histology, plaque-derived FFR-CT, ongoing prospective clinical trials, and future physician workflow innovations.
The session is expected to summarize Elucid’s long-term roadmap for integrating artificial intelligence into cardiovascular imaging while emphasizing the importance of transparency and reproducibility in clinical decision support.
Clinical Applications and Real-World Evidence
On Saturday, July 11, Elucid will host a lunchtime symposium featuring Dr. Amir Ahmadi, Dr. Michael Hadley, and Dr. Anton Camaj.
The session will examine how combining plaque biology with plaque-derived physiological measurements may improve clinical decision-making.
Presentations will include emerging scientific evidence together with real-world clinical cases illustrating how integrated imaging may enhance cardiovascular risk assessment, guide therapeutic choices, and improve patient management.
The symposium will emphasize individualized treatment strategies based on lesion-specific biology rather than relying exclusively on anatomical stenosis measurements.
Elucid’s expanded participation at SCCT 2026 reflects the growing role of artificial intelligence and advanced image analysis in cardiovascular medicine. By introducing new technologies such as plaque-based FFR-CT², enhanced stenosis quantification, and an integrated physician interface, the company aims to demonstrate how coronary CT angiography can evolve beyond conventional anatomical imaging toward a more comprehensive assessment of coronary artery disease.
The company’s CCTA 3.0 vision combines anatomy, plaque biology, physiological function, and AI-driven analytics to support more personalized cardiovascular care. As clinical evidence continues to accumulate and regulatory review progresses, these innovations may contribute to a new generation of precision imaging tools designed to improve diagnosis, refine risk stratification, guide individualized therapy, and ultimately enhance outcomes for patients living with coronary artery disease.
About Elucid
Elucid is a Boston-based AI medical technology company that develops AI to see invisible features of risk. The company is dedicated to developing a clinical platform to help physicians deliver CCTA-guided personalized care by providing a more precise view of atherosclerosis, the root cause of cardiovascular disease. The company’s FDA-cleared Plaque-IQ™ image analysis software is designed to help physicians prioritize and personalize treatment based on actual disease, rather than population-based risk of disease.
Plaque-IQ equips physicians with critical information regarding the type and amount of plaque in arteries that can lead to heart attack and stroke. Elucid is also pursuing an indication for FFR-CT, derived from its plaque algorithm, resulting in concordance between plaque and FFR-CT. FFR-CT helps physicians identify coronary blockages and the extent of a patient’s ischemia non-invasively.