More than 600,000 cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. each year, and survival rates are low both in and out of the hospital setting, according to the American Heart Association, a global force changing the future of health for all. To address this issue, the Association is providing $3.4 million in grants for two teams of scientists to lead a new research initiative focused on scientific advances related to cardiac arrest. These multidisciplinary teams will undertake research studies to better understand how to predict and detect cardiac arrests, with a goal of ultimately improving treatment and survival rates and enhancing the recovery and quality of life for survivors and their families.
This new initiative establishes the Cardiac Arrest Research Team (CART) Network, a unique collaboration between the American Heart Association and ™, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. The CART Network will bring together teams from both countries to share their expertise, resources and approaches to coordinate the acceleration of scientific discoveries and translate those findings into practice to improve survival and outcomes.
The grants and teams supported by the American Heart Association are:
- Accelerating Successful Defibrillation and Survivor Recovery for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest – This team will be led by Joshua Lupton, M.D., M.P.H., M.Phil., an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Medicine in Portland, and who is a cardiac arrest survivor himself. Additional support will be provided by Mohamud Daya, M.D., M.S., a professor of emergency medicine, and Matthew Neth, M.D., an associate professor of emergency medicine, both also of OHSU and Ankur A. Doshi, M.D., FAHA, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. The team will focus on improving care from the moment of emergency treatment through life after leaving the hospital. The researchers will initially look at how emergency responders administer electric shocks with defibrillators to restart a heart after cardiac arrest, including testing the effectiveness of different placements of the defibrillator pads. This study will test whether one pad position helps the heart restart faster. This change costs nothing, needs little training and could be used by emergency teams everywhere. They will also use AI to study whether waiting shorter or longer periods between shocks is more likely to improve survival. Using information already recorded by emergency heart monitors they’ll look at whether artificial intelligence can help improve these timing decisions. Additionally, the team will work with survivors and their families to identify best practices for support and resources following a cardiac arrest, including connections to peer-support programs with other survivors. Finally, this project will help build a shared research network, bringing together hospitals, emergency responders, scientists and survivors to improve future cardiac arrest care.
- Vasopressor Strategy in Cardiac Arrest to Optimize Recovery-Cardiac Arrest Research Team (VICTORY-CART) – This team will be led by Ari Moskowitz, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, an associate professor of critical care medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System in the Bronx, New York. Additional support will be provided by Sachin Agarwal, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, an associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, in New York City, Katherine Berg, M.D., an associate professor of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Stephanie DeMasi, M.D., an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and Nicholas Johnson, M.D., FAHA, an associate professor of emergency medicine and critical care at the University of Washington in Seattle. The team will look at ways to improve brain and other organ functions which can be impacted due to very low blood pressure often experienced during a cardiac arrest. Researchers will compare two blood pressure medicines that are commonly used after cardiac arrest to find out which one helps more people survive and better recover. This research will look at how these medicines are currently being used in different hospital settings and among various clinicians even in the same hospitals. The goal is to identify ways to ensure more effective and consistent treatment across all facilities. The study will also establish a learning health system framework for efficiently comparing routinely used therapies, generating real-world evidence that can rapidly inform and improve post–cardiac arrest care.
In addition to the collaboration with scientists from the Canadian teams, these two groups will work closely with people who have lived experience with cardiac arrest, including survivors, family members and people who lost loved ones. Those voices will bring powerful, real-world insights to advance lifesaving strategies and improve recovery outcomes.
“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. This initiative is unique and exciting in many ways, from the multinational collaborative to the incorporation of experiences and understandings from people who have been directly impacted,” said Stacey E. Rosen, M.D., FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association and executive director of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health and senior vice president of women’s health at Northwell Health in New York City. “Funding research to better understand cardiac arrest is a key component of the American Heart Association’s Emergency Cardiovascular Care 2030 Impact Goals as we strive to double the survival rate from cardiac arrest within the next five years.”
The four-year research grants will begin on July 1, 2026.
Funding scientific research and discovery through initiatives like this is a cornerstone of the century-old American Heart Association’s lifesaving mission. The Association has now funded more than $6.1 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. New knowledge resulting from this American Heart Association funding continues to save lives and directly impact millions of people in every corner of the U.S. and around the world.
More than 8 in 10 (82%) U.S. adults say they are confident in the American Heart Association to provide trustworthy information related to public health, according to a recent . The Association ranked second only to an individual’s personal health care provider.
