The American Heart Association has awarded a new research grant to a team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to develop an artificial intelligence-driven early warning system for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, a condition that strikes more than 600,000 Americans each year and still carries low survival rates. The project, titled A Personalized and Scalable Early Warning System for Prediction of Imminent Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, is the newest scientific research 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 significance of the announcement lies in its timing and approach. Cardiac arrest often occurs without warning, and survival depends on immediate intervention. By aiming to detect subtle signals in the hours or days before an event, the Cedars-Sinai project could shift the paradigm from reactive treatment to proactive prevention. The system will integrate multiple types of health information, including symptoms such as chest pain or trouble breathing, Fitbit activity tracker data, medical history, blood tests and electrocardiogram data. Artificial intelligence will be used to bring those clues together and update a person’s risk level in real time, according to the American Heart Association.
The research team, led by principal investigator Sumeet Chugh, M.D., vice-dean and chief AI health research officer, and co-principal investigator Kyndaron Reinier, M.P.H., Ph.D., a research associate professor, 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. The CART Network was Originally launched in June 2026 to advance the prediction, detection, treatment of and recovery from cardiac arrest, bringing together teams from both countries to share expertise and accelerate scientific discoveries into practice.
Manesh R. Patel, M.D., FAHA, the American Heart Association's 2026-2027 volunteer president, said the project is intended to support a more personalized and scalable approach to identifying people whose risk of cardiac arrest may be increasing. “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,” Patel said. “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 and discovery 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. The new grant underscores a growing emphasis on leveraging AI and real-world data to address sudden cardiac death, a leading cause of mortality worldwide.
For more information about cardiac arrest, visit heart.org and stroke.org.
