The American Heart Association has announced $3.4 million in grants for two teams of scientists to lead a new research initiative focused on cardiac arrest. The initiative establishes 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 goal is to better understand how to predict and detect cardiac arrests, improve treatment and survival rates, and enhance recovery and quality of life for survivors and their families.
More than 600,000 cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. each year, with low survival rates both in and out of hospital settings, according to the American Heart Association. The grants aim to address this issue through scientific advances.
One team, led by Joshua Lupton, M.D., M.P.H., M.Phil., an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, and a cardiac arrest survivor himself, will focus on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The team includes Mohamud Daya, M.D., M.S., and Matthew Neth, M.D., of OHSU, and Ankur A. Doshi, M.D., FAHA, of the University of Pittsburgh. Their research will examine how emergency responders administer defibrillation, including testing the effectiveness of different pad placements. The study will also use artificial intelligence to analyze whether varying the time between shocks can improve survival. Additionally, the team will work with survivors and families to identify best practices for support and resources, such as peer-support programs.
The second team, led by Ari Moskowitz, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System in New York, will focus on post-cardiac arrest care. The VICTORY-CART team includes researchers from Columbia University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the University of Washington. They will compare two commonly used blood pressure medicines to determine which improves survival and brain function. The study aims to identify ways to ensure more effective and consistent treatment across hospitals.
Both teams will collaborate with people who have lived experience with cardiac arrest, including survivors and family members. Stacey E. Rosen, M.D., FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association, said, “Cardiac arrest is a profound and tragic occurrence and we know seconds matter in making sure people get the right life-saving treatment at the right time.” The initiative supports the Association’s Emergency Cardiovascular Care 2030 Impact Goals to double survival rates within five years.
The four-year research grants begin July 1, 2026. The American Heart Association has funded more than $6.1 billion in cardiovascular research since 1949. According to an Annenberg Policy Center poll, 82% of U.S. adults trust the Association for health information.
