Stanford Receives Large Grant to Investigate Ways Digital Technology Can Improve Cardiovascular Health


Mintu Turakhia and team will use a $2.5 million grant from the American Heart Association to investigate ways digital technology can improve cardiovascular health and care


Jointly with three other academic medical centers, Stanford has been awarded $14 million by the American Heart Association (AHA) to form a new strategically focused research network devoted to health technologies and innovation applied to heart and brain health. The four institutions – the others are Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Michigan – will devote  $4 million to form a national health technology research collaborative and, according to the AHA, to work on at least one “highly impactful project.”

Each institution has its own project for which it receives $2.5 million; the overall goal of these projects will be to reduce health care disparities, empower people to better manage their own health and wellness, and enhance patient/provider connectivity. One fundamental goal of all the projects is to assure that the most vulnerable populations are being served.

The Stanford project is entitled Innovation to Implementation: Technology-Enabled Management of Hypertension in Underrepresented Communities and in the Gig Economy. The team is led by Mintu Turakhia, MD, MAS, associate professor of cardiovascular medicine and executive director of the Center for Digital Health, and includes Paul J. Wang, MD, professor of cardiovascular medicine, Fatima Rodriguez, MD, MPH, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine, Vivek Bhalla, MD assistant professor of nephrology, and Tara Chang, MD, MS, associate professor of nephrology.

Based on the known demographics of high blood pressure in the United States, the team will develop a digital health system, in simple terms an app, to be shared by patients and clinicians that will semi-automate management of blood pressure, including titrating patients’ medications. The app will then be tested in a randomized trial in California and New Jersey in patients who are of different races, backgrounds, and educations as well as in a group of gig economy workers, specifically ride-share drivers.

In addition to each institution’s unique project and one or more of the group’s collaborative projects, funding is available to develop technology solutions to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Up to $200,000 can be requested for these supplemental research grants as part of the AHA’s $2.5 million commitment to research efforts to better understand COVID-19 and its interactions with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems.

The AHA now has 12 strategically focused research networks. They arose from key issues identified by the Board of Directors of the AHA and include cardiometabolic health and type 2 diabetes, obesity, arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, and disparities. Others are anticipated later in 2020.