Joint clinical commitment will advance integration of telehealth, value of patient care

The American Heart Association and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill collaborate to enhance value of virtual care

2025-03-27

(Press-News.org) DALLAS, March 27, 2025 — Recent analysis by the National Health Institute indicates that telehealth now accounts for 23% of all health care encounters nationwide, with some clinical specialties reporting virtual visit rates now exceeding 50%.[1] To help ensure quality care in this rapidly expanding field, the American Heart Association Center for Telehealth and the National Institutes of Health-funded University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Center for Virtual Care Value and Excellence (UNC-Chapel Hill ViVE), are building and disseminating virtual care resources together through a new agreement. This agreement outlines a commitment to fostering collaborative research initiatives and developing frameworks that enhance the excellence and value of virtual care.

The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on changing the future of health for all, and UNC-Chapel Hill ViVE, share common priorities and interests in advancing telehealth programs through evidence-based research and education.

“This collaboration represents a significant step forward in advancing telehealth innovation and impact. As a team, we will generate new real-world knowledge to overcome existing barriers, develop frameworks to advance the implementation and evaluation of telehealth, and examine the integration of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to improve the quality and outcomes of care. ” said Saif Khairat, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of digital health and AI, director of Center for ViVE at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Virtual care quickly became a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since evolved into a sophisticated, integrated care delivery system. Each of our organizations has unique strengths and expertise that enables us to collectively tackle current telehealth challenges and produce new evidence and resources that will advance telehealth innovation and policy.”

The Association’s Center for Telehealth, established in 2023, leverages research, policy, professional education, professional certification and quality improvement programs to help advance the integration of telehealth into care.

“The American Heart Association Center for Telehealth is dedicated to keeping people at the center of care,” said Lee Schwamm, M.D., FAHA, volunteer member of the American Heart Association Center for Telehealth Expert Panel; senior vice president and chief digital health officer of Yale New Haven Health; and associate dean of digital strategy and transformation at Yale School of Medicine. “We are thrilled to collaborate with UNC-Chapel Hill ViVE, combining our mutual expertise to expand the reach of the American Heart Association’s research and educational content. This collaboration will allow us to enhance the telehealth education and training for the current as well as the future healthcare workforce, and translate evidence into practice for connected care through innovative educational methods.”

UNC-Chapel Hill ViVE is funded by the National Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Science (NCATS), a department of the National Institutes of Health, and is committed to building a robust coalition of national resources, fostering collaborative research initiatives, and developing implementation and evaluation frameworks that enhance the value of virtual care.

“Our ultimate goal is to advance translational research—bridging the gap between lab discoveries and real-world impact for patients and health care providers in urban and rural settings,” Khairat said.

Through this joint effort, the organizations are working together to:

Advance the integration of telehealth into patient care through evidence-based research, Create evidence-based resources and guides to support development of integrated telehealth care models, Improve professionals’ knowledge through development of educational resources, and Expand dissemination of science through networking and education. Additional Resources:

Multimedia is available is on right column of release link. New AHA Center for Telehealth will increase access to quality health care and improve delivery | American Heart Association Free webinar: ViVE and Let Thrive: Revolutionizing Virtual Care and Equity at Heart Center for ViVE uses real-world data to aid in relief support efforts for Hurricane Helene ###

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. Dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities, the organization has been a leading source of health information for more than one hundred years. Supported by more than 35 million volunteers globally, we fund groundbreaking research, advocate for the public’s health, and provide critical resources to save and improve lives affected by cardiovascular disease and stroke. By driving breakthroughs and implementing proven solutions in science, policy, and care, we work tirelessly to advance health and transform lives every day. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, X or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.   

About the National Center for Clinical and Translational Science funded Center for Virtual Care Value and Excellence

The National Center for Clinical and Translational Science (NCATS) funded the Center for Virtual Care Value and Excellence (ViVE) spearheads translational research and innovation in virtual care by optimizing value-driven care and promoting excellence. ViVE offers expert consultations to integrate real-world data, validated implementation frameworks, and evidence-based strategies to enhance healthcare efficiency, quality, and patient outcomes. ViVE fosters a growing interdisciplinary network of professionals and organizations collaborating on developing best practices to bridge challenges in accessing healthcare, streamline clinical workflows, and support data-driven decision-making. Through its commitment to rigorous research and innovation, ViVE is transforming virtual care, accelerating translational research from the lab to the world.

ViVE works collaboratively with the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute at the UNC-Chapel Hill to advance its mission and drive meaningful healthcare improvements. For more ViVE news and opportunities, visit our website, LinkedIn, or X.   

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The Protein Society announces its 2025 Award Recipients

2025-03-27

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Raluca Cadar The Protein Society Phone: (844) 377-6834 E-mail: rcadar@proteinsociety.org LOS ANGELES, CA – The Protein Society, the premier international society dedicated to supporting protein research, announces the winners of the 2025 Protein Society Awards, which will be recognized at the 39th Annual Symposium, June 26 – 29, 2025, in San Francisco, USA. Plenary talks from award recipients will take place throughout the 3.5-day event. The winners’ scientific accomplishments, described by their nominators below, demonstrate their profound impact on protein science. The Christian B. Anfinsen ...

AI is as good as pathologists at diagnosing celiac disease, study finds

2025-03-27

A machine learning algorithm developed by Cambridge scientists was able to correctly identify in 97 cases out of 100 whether or not an individual had coeliac disease based on their biopsy, new research has shown. The AI tool, which has been trained on almost 3,400 scanned biopsies from four NHS hospitals, could speed up diagnosis of the condition and take pressure off stretched healthcare resources, as well as improving diagnosis in developing nations, where shortages of pathologists are severe. Digital ...

AI could help sonographers identify abnormalities in unborn babies more quickly

2025-03-27

Artificial intelligence (AI) could help sonographers identify any abnormalities at the 20-week pregnancy screening scan almost twice as quickly, without reducing the accuracy or reliability of diagnoses, a new study has shown. This will help improve patient care by allowing sonographers to focus on other aspects of the scan, such as communicating with parents or spending more time looking at any areas of concern. The trial is the first of its kind to use AI for the 20-week pregnancy scan on real patients, and is ...

First clinical trial of an AI therapy chatbot yields significant mental health benefits

2025-03-27

Dartmouth researchers conducted the first clinical trial of a therapy chatbot powered by generative AI and found that the software resulted in significant improvements in participants' symptoms, according to results published March 27 in the New England Journal of Medicine AI. People in the study also reported they could trust and communicate with the system, known as Therabot, to a degree that is comparable to working with a mental-health professional. The trial consisted of 106 people from across the United States diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or an eating disorder. ...

AI learns to ‘speak’ genetic ‘dialect’ for future SARS-CoV-2 mutation prediction

2025-03-27

It’s been five years since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. As SARS-CoV-2 shifts to endemic status, questions about its future evolution remain. New variants of the virus will likely emerge, driven by positive selection for traits such as increased transmissibility, longer infection duration and the ability to evade immune defenses. These changes could allow the virus to spread among previously immunized populations, potentially triggering new waves of infection. Predicting new mutations in viruses is crucial for advancing life science research, particularly when trying to understand how viruses evolve, ...

$50 million gift from the Weill Family Foundation establishes the Weill Cancer Hub East

2025-03-27

New York, N.Y., and Princeton, N.J. (March 27, 2025)—With a mission to understand how nutrition and metabolism impact the body’s ability to control cancer, four leading research institutions have united under the Weill Cancer Hub East, an innovative, collaborative partnership that aims to transform cancer treatment. The initiative connects world-class experts from Princeton University, The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research to enhance a ...

Physics meets art: a new twist on interference patterns

2025-03-27

Tokyo, Japan – One of the simplest and most beautiful naturally occurring patterns can be observed when light is shined through a pair of slightly misaligned periodic structures. This phenomenon, known as the moiré effect, is not only pretty to look at, but also has important consequences for the properties of materials. In an article published in ACS Nano, a team led by researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, announced the discovery of a previously unseen moiré pattern: a series of periodic one-dimensional bands in tungsten ditelluride bilayers. In nanomaterials, moiré patterns ...

Elevating global heart failure care with new certification

2025-03-27

DALLAS, March 27, 2025 — More than 56 million people globally live with heart failure (HF), which prevents the body from getting enough of the oxygen-rich blood it needs to work properly.[1] While there is no cure for HF, many people with this condition can live full, enjoyable lives and disease progression can be slowed with the right treatment. Research shows that outcomes for patients with HF improve when health care professionals and hospitals provide guideline-directed medical therapies. A new Heart Failure Center ...

The MIT Press releases 2025 Direct to Open (D2O) Impact Report

2025-03-27

The MIT Press is proud to release our 2025 Impact Report for Direct to Open (D2O), our sustainable framework for open access monographs that shifts publishing from a solely market-based purchase model where individuals and libraries buy single eBooks, to a collaborative, library-supported open access model. The continued growth in the reach of open access publishing couldn’t be more timely. In 2025, access to truth and facts are under attack, and democratizing access to trustworthy, peer-reviewed information has never been more important. In the face of so many forces working against the spread of knowledge, Direct to Open continues to be a critical tool. To date, ...

New study reveals the curative potential of genome editing approach for genetic deafness

2025-03-27

Congenital hearing loss refers to impaired auditory function that occurs due to genetic causes. GJB2 is the gene responsible for approximately half of all cases of hereditary hearing loss. Connexin 26 (CX26), which is encoded by GJB2, helps in the formation of intercellular gap junctions—channels that allow for the movement of ions and chemical messenger molecules between adjacent cells, where it regulates auditory function. GJB2 mutations often lead to fragmentation of gap junctions and gap junction plaques (GJPs) which are composed ...

Joint clinical commitment will advance integration of telehealth, value of patient care

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: