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More than $14 million in research grants awarded for health technology solutions focused on heart and brain health

More than $14 million in research grants awarded for health technology solutions focused on heart and brain health

The American Heart Association — the world’s leading voluntary organization dedicated to a world of longer, healthier lives — announced today more than $14 million in scientific research grants are being awarded to four multidisciplinary teams to create the Association’s new Strategically Focused Research Network on Health Technologies and Innovation. These teams will work on developing breakthrough technology solutions to improve health outcomes related to heart and brain health, including special projects that will focus on addressing issues related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“The widespread consumer adoption of healthcare technology, fueled by increasingly sophisticated technology on digital mediums including tablets, smartphones and wearable devices, offers a unique outlet to find new solutions to improve health outcomes,” said American Heart Association president Robert A. Harrington, M.D., FAHA, Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor of Medicine and chair of the department of medicine at Stanford University. “As the peer review team moved forward with their selection of the centers for our latest Strategically Focused Research Network right at the break of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., the Association felt this was an incredible opportunity for us to provide additional support in harnessing new innovations to tackle the challenges that are crippling the nation, and frankly the globe.”

Research teams at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Michigan will receive $2.5 million each for their individual projects aimed at reducing health care disparities, empowering people to better manage their health and wellness, and enhancing patient/provider connectivity. Together, they’ll also receive $4 million to work collectively on at least one highly impactful project and form a national Health Technology Research Collaborative. The Collaborative may ultimately serve as an American Heart Association research ‘think tank’ to assist with identifying, creating, testing and bringing to scale future innovative health technologies.

In addition to the original awards, each team can also apply for supplemental research grants of up to $200,000 for rapid action projects to develop technology solutions to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The projects could possibly provide aid for health care systems, doctors or care providers, first responders, patients or consumers. The supplemental grants are part of the American Heart Association’s $2.5 million commitment to research efforts to better understand this unique coronavirus and its interaction with the body’s cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems.

“The peer review committee has assembled an exceptional network to move this work forward and I want to recognize the dedication and commitment of that panel of many renowned experts,” Harrington said. “The Association uses an intense, multi-stage review process in selecting the centers for our focused research networks and we’re very appreciative of the committee members who lend their time and expertise to this critical process.”

“It’s very exciting to see basic, clinical and population researchers coming together with engineers, IT developers, policy leaders, health care clinicians and even patients to find ways to improve upon existing technology and identify new and innovative ways to put technology to work in addressing heart and brain health,” said American Heart Association volunteer James A. Weyhenmeyer, Ph.D., vice president for research and economic development at Auburn University and chair of the Association’s peer review team for the selection of the new grant recipients. “And, it’s especially important that all of these projects be focused with an equity-first lens to ensure our most vulnerable populations are being served.”

The projects, which commence on April 1, include:

Active Detection and Decentralized Dynamic Registry to Improve Uptake of Rheumatic Heart Disease Secondary Prevention (ADD-RHD) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital – Led by Andrea Beaton, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, this team will address the global health issue of rheumatic heart disease which affects more than 40 million people, most living in poor countries or poor areas in wealthier countries. The team will concentrate on getting more people living with rheumatic heart disease into guideline-based care — using technology to find more people with rheumatic heart disease, keep them in care and generate the investment case to scale up national rheumatic heart disease action plans in low-income countries. Additionally, they’ll be looking for early career doctors and scientists who want to help people get better care using technology and educate this next generation in solutions developed to improve global health in the future. The team consists of a collaborative with the Rheumatic Heart Disease Research Collaborative in Uganda (RRCU) including the Uganda Heart Institute, Children’s National Medical Center and the University of Washington in Seattle; the Cincinnati Children’s Digital Experience and Bioinformatics Centers; Northern Kentucky University’s Biostatistics Department, Health Innovation Center and Health Sciences Institute; REACH (a global technical organization in rheumatic heart disease) and an industry partnership with Caption Health. While the project and solutions will be made for people living in developing countries, the team hopes to learn a lot about how to help people have better health in the United States.

Center for Mobile Technologies to Achieve Equity in Cardiovascular Health at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore – Led by cardiologist Seth Martin, M.D., M.H.S., and neurologist David Newman-Toker, M.D., Ph.D., this team’s mission is to leverage mobile and wearable technologies to empower patients and clinicians, enhance quality of care, increase value and improve the diagnosis and management of heart diseases and stroke. Early and accurate diagnoses are essential to ensure the appropriate delivery of guideline recommended management to engage patients and their caregivers to achieve the best patient outcomes possible. The collaborative project will span the patient experience from diagnosis to management to improve patient care throughout the patient journey. Specifically, the team will develop and test a smartphone application for stroke diagnosis, following their experience with a goggle-based eye tracking technology in the Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence. On the management side, the team will work on a virtual cardiovascular rehab that builds on their Corrie Health platform to empower patients in guideline-based prevention. Patients and their families from demographically diverse backgrounds will join as partners in the technology advancement process.

Center for Heart Health Technology (H2T): Innovation to Implementation at Stanford University – Led by Mintu Turakhia, M.D. M.A.S., Executive Director of Stanford’s Center for Digital Health, associate professor of medicine and a cardiac electrophysiologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, the H2T Center’s mission is to rapidly develop technologies that address unmet needs for heart health, evaluate them quickly and then implement these solutions at scale. The team will address the issue of high blood pressure, which affects more than 115 million Americans and costs the U.S. health care system more than $22 billion each year. The team will develop a clinician- and patient-facing digital health system for semi-automated management and evidence-based titration of blood pressure medications. The app will be tested in a randomized trial conducted in Northern California and New Jersey in people of different races, educations and backgrounds and in a population of gig economy workers (rideshare drivers), who can be at increased risk of heart disease.

Wearables In Reducing Risk and Enhancing Daily Life-style (WIRED-L) at the University of Michigan – Led by Brahmajee Nallamothu, M.D., M.P.H., a professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at the University of Michigan, this team plans to establish the Wearables In Reducing risk and Enhancing Daily Life-style (WIRED-L) Center dedicated to building and testing mobile health (mHealth) apps that leverage wearables like smartwatches to improve physical activity and nutrition in hypertensive patients. The apps will use “just-in-time-adaptive” digital interventions to deliver notifications to participants when they are most likely to be responsive using contextual information obtained from their devices. WIRED-L will enroll diverse communities that include African Americans and older adults rarely included in mHealth studies, to better close the digital divide between rich and poor. Additionally, WIRED-L will train a diverse and inclusive set of future leaders in mHealth through a highly integrated program that focuses on the key and complementary areas of clinical trials, data science and health equity research.

“We’re excited that the American Heart Association can support projects that are breaking new ground in the health technology field, developing tools that can ultimately make it easier for patients and their providers to work together in achieving longer, healthier lives for all,” said Weyhenmeyer.

With the launch of this new Network, the American Heart Association has now invested more than $190 million to establish 12 Strategically Focused Research Networks, providing an opportunity to address key strategic issues that were identified by the Association’s Board of Directors, including: prevention; hypertension; disparities; women’s health; heart failure; obesity; children; vascular disease; atrial fibrillation; arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death; and cardiometabolic health and type 2 diabetes. Each network centers around the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the key research topic. Four to six research centers make up each network, bringing together investigators with expertise in basic, clinical and population/behavioral health science to find new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent heart disease and stroke. More Strategically Focused Research Networks will be forthcoming later in 2020 and beyond.

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The American Heart Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations and health insurance providers are available at https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/aha-financial-information.

About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is a leading force for a world of longer, healthier lives. With nearly a century of lifesaving work, the Dallas-based association is dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all. We are a trustworthy source empowering people to improve their heart health, brain health and well-being. We collaborate with numerous organizations and millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, advocate for stronger public health policies, and share lifesaving resources and information. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

For Media Inquiries and AHA/ASA Expert Perspective: 214-706-1173

Cathy Lewis: 214-706-1324; [email protected]
For Public Inquiries: 1-800-AHA-USA1 (242-8721)
heart.org and strokeassociation.org

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