The American Heart Association announced $3.4 million in grants to two teams of scientists to lead a new research initiative focused on advancing scientific understanding of cardiac arrest. The grants establish 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 network aims to bring together teams from both countries to share expertise and accelerate scientific discoveries to improve survival and outcomes.
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) School of Medicine, will focus on improving care from emergency treatment through post-hospital recovery. Lupton, a cardiac arrest survivor himself, will study the effectiveness of different placements of defibrillator pads during resuscitation and use artificial intelligence to optimize the timing of shocks. The team will also work with survivors and families to identify best practices for support and resources, including peer-support programs.
The second team, 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 New York, will investigate blood pressure medicines used after cardiac arrest to determine which improves survival and brain function. The Vasopressor Strategy in Cardiac Arrest to Optimize Recovery (VICTORY-CART) team will compare two commonly used medications and examine how they are used across different hospital settings to ensure more consistent and effective treatment.
Both teams will collaborate with scientists from Canadian teams and incorporate perspectives from cardiac arrest survivors, family members, and those who have lost loved ones. Stacey E. Rosen, M.D., FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association, emphasized the importance of the initiative, stating that funding research to better understand cardiac arrest is key to the Association's Emergency Cardiovascular Care 2030 Impact Goals, which aim to double the survival rate from cardiac arrest within five years.
More than 600,000 cardiac arrests occur in the U.S. each year, with low survival rates both in and out of hospital settings. The four-year research grants begin July 1, 2026. The American Heart Association has funded over $6.1 billion in cardiovascular and brain health research since 1949, making it the largest non-profit non-government supporter of such research in the U.S.
