Joint BME project wins prize in American Heart Association heart failure data challenge

Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering

Melissa Caughey, Ph.D., assistant professor in the University of North Carolina / North Carolina State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and Vishal Rao, M.D., cardiovascular disease research fellow at Duke University School of Medicine won third place in the American Heart Association® heart failure data challenge.

The data challenge focused on testing the relationships between heart failure and health disparities, social determinants of health and structural determinants of health. The results were evaluated by a peer review group of nearly 30 experts in the field.

Four teams of researchers are winners.  Rao and Caughey led the project titled “In-Hospital Outcome Differences in Patients Hospitalized for Heart Failure Across Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disadvantage in the American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Registry.” The team analyzed associations between socioeconomic status disadvantage and in-hospital heart failure outcomes in patients from diverse neighborhoods.  They tested the hypothesis that the social environment, defined by neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation, would be associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients hospitalized with heart failure. 

More details can be found on the UNC Health Newsroom.

This post was originally published in The Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.