The American Heart Association (AHA) announced the winners of its inaugural CarePlan Challenge, recognizing three health technology innovators for digital solutions designed to expand access to guideline-based cardiovascular care. The challenge, launched by the AHA's Center for Health Technology & Innovation, aimed to drive innovation in preventive care, disease management, and patient engagement by integrating the Association's science-based CarePlans with tools such as Life's Essential 8™ and the PREVENT™ Risk Calculator.
As digital health technologies gain momentum, research indicates that patients are increasingly open to artificial intelligence (AI) supported health interventions when backed by clinical expertise and evidence-based guidelines. To harness this opportunity, the AHA invited developers, health technology innovators, and AI specialists to create digital prototypes that transform cardiovascular care. Participants received API access to the Association's CarePlans—personalized care pathways for conditions like heart failure, hypertension, and cardiac rehab—alongside Life's Essential 8 and the PREVENT Risk Calculator, which estimates a patient's risk of developing heart disease, stroke, or heart failure over 20 to 30 years.
The selected solutions include ConneQT, a mobile platform that uses CarePlans and Life's Essential 8 to link daily tasks, biometrics from the CONNEQT Pulse, and personalized goals from the PREVENT calculator to build heart-healthy habits and provide clinicians with greater visibility into patients' overall health. Porter Health is a web-based, cross-platform tool that pulls patient data to deliver one-click PREVENT and cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic health (CKM) risk assessments, along with an expert-vetted, large language model-assisted CarePlan tailored to patient demographics. OneVillage offers a women-focused virtual cardio-primary care platform that transforms CarePlans and PREVENT-guided risk into an 80-day personalized pathway, combining physician visits, cardiac rehab, and supportive services like nutrition, physical therapy, stress management, and doulas with daily education and tracking.
"These innovators are pushing the boundaries to build a brighter future of cardiovascular care," said Seth Martin, M.D., M.H.S., FAHA, FACC, FASPC, American Heart Association volunteer and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "Their prototypes aimed at using technology to turn science into action show significant promise in making evidence-based care more personal, accessible and impactful."
The CarePlan Challenge was hosted by the AHA's Center for Health Technology & Innovation. Entries were evaluated by a panel of expert judges, including leaders in digital health, clinical research, and implementation science. The judges were Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., Tatyana Kanzeveli, Seth Martin, M.D., and Erin Michos, M.D., M.H.S. The challenge champions will showcase their prototypes in the Health Innovation Pavilion at the AHA's Scientific Sessions 2025 in New Orleans on Sunday, November 8, at 3:15 p.m. CT, receiving additional feedback on their ideas.
To learn more about the CarePlan Challenge, visit ahahealthtech.org/aha-careplan-challenge-2025. The AHA's Center for Health Technology & Innovation continues to foster collaboration between science and technology to improve cardiovascular health outcomes.
