The American Heart Association has awarded a new scientific research grant to a team from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to develop an early warning system for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the organization announced via NEWMEDIAWIRE. The project, titled "A Personalized and Scalable Early Warning System for Prediction of Imminent Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest," is the newest grant awarded through the Cardiac Arrest Research Team (CART) Network, a collaboration between the American Heart Association and Heart & Stroke™, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
The research will be led by principal investigator Sumeet Chugh, M.D., vice-dean and chief AI health research officer at Cedars-Sinai, and co-principal investigator Kyndaron Reinier, M.P.H., Ph.D., a research associate professor. The team will develop a system that combines multiple types of health data—including symptoms such as chest pain or trouble breathing, Fitbit activity tracker data, medical history, blood tests and electrocardiogram data—and uses artificial intelligence to update a person’s risk level in real time. The goal is to identify signs that may emerge in the hours or days before cardiac arrest occurs.
The CART Network was Originally launched in June 2026 to advance the prediction, detection, treatment of and recovery from cardiac arrest. It brings together teams from both countries to share expertise, resources and approaches to accelerate scientific discoveries and translate findings into practice to improve survival and outcomes. More than 600,000 cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. each year, and survival rates remain low both in and out of the hospital, according to the American Heart Association. This makes the development of a scalable early warning system a potentially significant step toward reducing fatalities.
The new research team will be known as The K. Scott Gordon Memorial Research Team for Cardiac Arrest Prediction and Prevention, made possible through a generous gift from a donor to the Association. “This new project is intended to support a more personalized and scalable approach to identifying people whose risk of cardiac arrest may be increasing,” said Manesh R. Patel, M.D., FAHA, the American Heart Association's 2026-2027 volunteer president and chief of the division of cardiology at Duke University. “Cardiac arrest is a profound and tragic occurrence, and we know seconds matter in making sure people get the right lifesaving treatment at the right time. Our collaboration with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is an important step in our global work for a world of longer, healthier lives.”
Funding scientific research through initiatives like this is a cornerstone of the American Heart Association’s mission. The Association has now funded more than $6.3 billion in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health research since 1949, making it the single largest non-profit, non-government supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S. For more information about cardiac arrest, visit heart.org.
