Partho Sengupta Receives Distinguished Scientist Award at ACC.26

March 30, 2026 — Partho Sengupta, MD, DM, FACC, FASE, was honored as a 2026 Distinguished Scientist (Translational Domain) at the national American College of Cardiology (ACC) Conference in New Orleans.

Dr. Sengupta is Chief of Cardiology at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS). RWJUH is an RWJBarnabas Health facility.

The 2026 ACC Distinguished Awards honorees represent an exceptional group of individuals whose past and ongoing efforts have made meaningful contributions to advancing the ACC’s vision of “a world where science, knowledge and innovation improve cardiovascular care and patient outcomes worldwide.”

“I am honored to recognize Partho P., Sengupta, MD, FACC, with the Distinguished Scientist Award-Translational Domain,” said ACC President Christopher M. Kramer, MD, FACC. “Dr. Sengupta has demonstrated remarkable work that will bolster the ACC’s mission to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health for all.”

The Distinguished Scientist Award-Translational Domain is awarded to a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology who has made major scientific contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the field of cardiovascular disease. The award is given to three recipients; one in each the basic, clinical and translational domains.

Dr. Sengupta has authored more than 330 peer-reviewed publications (H-index: 72). His research focuses on advanced ultrasound imaging, AI-enabled diagnostics, robotics, and wearable technologies. He has directed multidisciplinary teams to pioneer mobile health and point-of-care ultrasound programs, including landmark ASE Foundation initiatives such as ASE-REWARDS, ASE-VISION-in-Tele-Echo, and ASEF-VALUES, which advanced community outreach, digital platforms, and global learning in echocardiography.

Dr. Sengupta has also made milestone contributions to imaging informatics. He reported one of the earliest applications of machine learning in echocardiography (2013) and more recently led the development of the PRIME checklist, now adopted by the ACC and JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging as the standard framework for evaluating artificial intelligence in cardiovascular imaging.

“We’re incredibly proud that Dr. Sengupta has received this prestigious honor from the American College of Cardiology,” says Alan Lee, President, RWJUH. “It is even more meaningful that he earned this award in the Translational Research Domain. Since his arrival at RWJUH, Dr. Sengupta has been dedicated to applying his vast body of research to achieve real-world solutions that will help clinicians intervene earlier to identify and address potentially serious heart diseases in at-risk individuals.”

At RWJUH, Dr. Sengupta and his team established the Center for Innovation. The Center for Innovation is a partnership between RWJUH and RWJMS that brings together clinicians, researchers and private industry to invent and develop new technologies that address both complex and common healthcare issues. The ultimate goal is to develop innovative clinical trials that yield medical breakthroughs to improve preventive care and health outcomes for patients.

Also, under Dr. Sengupta’s leadership, RWJUH and RWJMS were awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to develop new technology to better manage patients presenting with heart attacks. According to Dr. Sengupta, who is principal investigator for the four-year study, scores that can predict the risk of a future cardiac event in patients presenting with heart attack were developed nearly two decades ago and do not include current imaging technology in their calculations. Dr. Sengupta and his team believe that data gathered from this study will help clinicians and hospitals develop high-precision decision support tools for early identification and referral of high-risk patients with heart disease for individualized care at centers of excellence in heart and vascular care.

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