American Heart Association Launches Virtual Care Program to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions

The American Heart Association has launched American Heart Association Connected Care™, Powered by Cadence, a virtual care initiative designed to provide continuous heart and cardiometabolic care to patients following hospital discharge. This program addresses a significant healthcare challenge: nearly 25% of heart failure patients return to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, and fewer than 20% receive all four guideline-directed medical therapy pillars despite evidence showing these therapies improve outcomes.

Hospitals can refer eligible patients to the Connected Care program prior to discharge, with the Association working to integrate the program into discharge workflows. The program utilizes Cadence's remote platform and 24/7 virtual provider group to extend scientific guidelines into communities. Cadence enrolls patients, teaches them how to use monitoring devices, tracks vital sign readings, and provides ongoing clinical support through their platform at https://www.cadence.care.

John Meiners, chief of mission-aligned businesses at the American Heart Association, explained that by combining advanced remote patient monitoring technology with expertise in guideline-directed care, the program extends high-quality hospital care to homes, ensuring proactive, timely support for heart failure patients. This approach represents a significant advancement in addressing the gap in post-discharge care that has long plagued the healthcare system.

Chris Altchek, chief executive officer and founder of Cadence, noted that hospitals struggle to maintain consistent, evidence-based care after discharge, but this program makes proactive, personalized heart failure support available anytime, anywhere through AI-driven monitoring and an always-on care team. The program aims to reduce 30-day readmissions by providing peace of mind and timely interventions while supporting patients from admission through recovery at home.

Research published in Circulation: Heart Failure highlights the trends in readmission rates that this program seeks to address. Dr. Marat Fudim, a heart failure cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center, emphasized that remote patient monitoring bridges the gap between hospital discharge and home recovery by enabling timely interventions and evidence-based support, ultimately avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and achieving better long-term outcomes.

The program is currently being piloted at four hospitals: Texas Health Allen in Texas, Rutherford Regional Medical Center in North Carolina, Frye Regional Medical Center in North Carolina, and Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in California. This initiative comes at a critical time as chronic disease rates are rising across the U.S., with the number of people living with chronic illness expected to double from 2020 to 2050, making remote patient care a scalable solution to support vulnerable patients regardless of geographical location.

The American Heart Association's commitment to improving cardiovascular health through innovative programs like Connected Care demonstrates how non-profit organizations can leverage technology and partnerships to address pressing healthcare challenges. By providing evidence-based remote care that helps patients adhere to treatment plans and adopt heart-healthy habits, this initiative has the potential to significantly reduce healthcare costs while improving patient outcomes and quality of life.