When Surgery Meets Artificial Intelligence: A New Era in Vascular Care – Meet Daria Baldanova

At the annual session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC 2025), a study was presented showing that the use of AI systems in cardiac ultrasound allows even novice specialists to obtain diagnostic-quality images. This opens new horizons for widespread access to vascular diagnostics.  We spoke with Darya Baldanova about why precise diagnostics are so important and how artificial intelligence is changing medicine in practice.

Dr. Daria Baldanova is a next-generation physician whose career bridges clinical excellence, academic research, and technological innovation. Trained as a cardiovascular surgeon and later specializing in advanced ultrasound diagnostics, she brings a rare combination of hands-on surgical expertise and deep diagnostic insight.

Over the past eight years, Dr. Baldanova has performed and interpreted thousands of ultrasound examinations, contributed to scientific journals, authored a monograph on atherosclerosis, and consulted on complex diagnostic cases across multidisciplinary teams. Her clinical experience now serves as the backbone for her most ambitious project to date: Sono Intelligence – an AI-powered platform for cardiovascular ultrasound diagnostics.

The platform addresses critical blind spots in the U.S. healthcare system by providing physicians with AI-assisted image interpretation, offering medical residents an interactive educational library based on real clinical cases, and enabling secure, HIPAA-compliant data storage for longitudinal patient monitoring.

What sets Sono Intelligence apart is the founder herself. Dr. Baldanova isn’t just a clinician – she’s a published researcher, and innovator who deeply understands both the disease mechanisms and the diagnostic challenges. Her ability to translate medical complexity into actionable tools makes this project not only viable but essential. Backed by her multidisciplinary expertise, Sono Intelligence is poised to improve diagnostic accuracy, enhance medical education, and drive innovation in the U.S. healthcare system.

How did the idea for Sono Intelligence come about?  

The concept emerged from my daily work as both a surgeon and an ultrasound diagnostics doctor. I constantly faced challenges in accurately diagnosing cardiovascular conditions, not just common ones, but rare and complex cases that require deep anatomical understanding and clinical insight. Over time, I realized that my own experience – combining surgical observations with ultrasound findings – was a unique resource. I wanted to create a system that could share this knowledge with other doctors, helping them analyze complex cases more effectively while also serving as a learning tool for younger specialists. That’s how Sono Intelligence was born: an AI-driven platform that merges real clinical cases, education, and secure patient data into one system, making advanced diagnostics more accessible everywhere.

What sets your platform apart from other solutions already on the market?  

Sono Intelligence’s strength lies in integrating three critical elements into one ecosystem: AI diagnostics, educational modules, and a clinical data archive. Other platforms may provide one or two of these, but none combine them in a way that amplifies their impact. Another key difference is our AI training method – it learns not just from ultrasound images and electronic records, but from correlations between what is seen on ultrasound and what is actually observed during surgery. This “gold standard” approach is only possible because of my dual perspective as a surgeon and diagnostician. Finally, our focus is on rare and complex cardiovascular conditions, which are often overlooked by commercial systems due to limited data. And our educational model doesn’t just show patterns – it explains why pathologies appear as they do, bridging theory and real-life surgical observation.

The project is aimed at the U.S. market. How do you assess its chances of impacting the healthcare system, even in a small niche? 

I view the project’s prospects with optimism, although I understand the scale of the task. The U.S. is a natural choice for such a project for several reasons. First, it is a country with a developed technological infrastructure and a culture of implementing innovations in medicine. Second, the American healthcare system is open to digital solutions and ready to invest in technologies that improve diagnostic quality and optimize costs. Third, there is access to resources for startup development – from venture capital to partnerships with leading medical centers.

As for the potential to change the system – I am not talking about a revolution, but rather gradual yet significant improvements. If the platform helps reduce diagnostic errors, speeds up and facilitates specialist training, and makes expertise accessible not only in large academic centers but also in regional clinics, that is already a tangible contribution. Early diagnosis of various diseases and conditions saves not only healthcare system costs but also years of quality life for patients.

I cannot call ultrasound diagnostics a small niche. It is one of the most widely used imaging methods in medicine – accessible, safe, and applied in almost every field from cardiology to obstetrics. That is why improving the quality of ultrasound diagnostics has such broad potential impact. If we can increase the accuracy and accessibility of this method, we are affecting millions of patients every year.

How do you think ultrasound diagnostics will look in 10 years? What are we missing right now?

In 10 years, ultrasound diagnostics will look different, although the changes will happen gradually. I see several key directions for this transformation.

First, full integration with artificial intelligence will become standard rather than an exception. AI will help doctors interpret complex cases, detect subtle changes that the human eye can easily miss, and provide a ‘second opinion.’ This is not a replacement for the physician, but a tool that makes diagnostics more accurate and helps make better-informed decisions.

Second, portable devices will become ubiquitous. Already, there are ultrasound machines the size of a smartphone; in 10 years, they will be in the hands of every general practitioner, in ambulances, and possibly even for home use for basic monitoring. This will radically change the accessibility of diagnostics.

Third, 3D and 4D visualization will no longer be something special – it will become a standard tool that provides a more complete picture of pathology. Combined with personalized medicine, where we can track each individual’s health over years, this will open new possibilities for early diagnosis and prevention.

However, there are serious gaps that need to be addressed. First is the accessibility of modern equipment. The technologies exist, but they are expensive and concentrated in large centers. Second is the integration of data across systems. Currently, information is fragmented: one clinic may not know what was done in another, and patient history is lost. Third, and perhaps most importantly, is the culture of prevention. We still treat diseases rather than preventing them.

Projects like Sono Intelligence are part of this transformation. We will not change everything overnight, but every step toward integrating technology, education, and data brings us closer to a type of medicine that not only treats but also prevents.

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