AHA Travel Grant for Data Bootcamp

At the American Heart Association, equity and science are at the center of everything we do. 

The American Heart Association’s (AHA) Get With The Guidelines® (GWTG) is a hospital-based quality improvement program designed to close treatment gaps. It includes modules in atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, resuscitation, and stroke. This training grant will focus on GWTG AFib, CAD, HF, and Resuscitation data. 

The AHA collects millions of patient records in our Quality Programs (>14 million), creating vast databases for advancing scientific research. The GWTG AFib, CAD, HF, and Resuscitation datasets contain approximately 125k, 500k, 2.4M, and 1.2M records respectively.  Using the data that is collected through AHA’s national GWTG programs, researchers can test hypotheses and apply for AHA research grants. 

The AHA and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington have recently linked SDOH to the GWTG CAD and HF   data.  Specifically, the data includes but is not limited to county-specific median household income, and county and race/ethnicity specific variables such as life expectancy, all-cause mortality rate, ischemic heart disease mortality rate, all cause years life lost, ischemic heart disease years life lost, income, unemployment, home ownership, poverty, environmental exposures (PM 2.5, NO2, and ozone), average annual daily traffic, percent of households with internet access, proportion of open park land, physical activity, depression among adults, all teeth lost,  current asthma prevalence, and total number of hospitals per 1000.

AHA’s Quality Programs Research has been a highly valuable source for quality outcomes-based research, with more than 800 peer-reviewed studies published using these data.

To access and analyze AHA GWTG data, the AHA offers a cloud-based research data analysis platform, the Precision Medicine Platform, with secure, private workspaces equipped with tools for data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The Precision Medicine Platform is the only research interface with access to The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines registry data.

Every applicant must be an American Heart Association professional member.

• Join or renew when preparing an application in Proposal Central, online or by phone at 1-888-242-2453 or 972-349-5803.
• Membership/Partnership processing takes 3 to 5 days; do not wait until the application deadline to renew or join.  

Projects may include collaborators from across sectors and countries; however, the project proposal must be submitted by a project lead representing an academic or non-profit organization based in the United States.  
 
Any member of the team can serve as the project lead. Projects may include co-investigators from other collaborating organizations. We strongly recommend that organizations identify only one project lead per project. 
 
Organizations that are currently funded through other American Heart Association funding mechanisms can apply. 
 
Organizations can submit multiple proposals. 

Be sure you can attend the bootcamp in person on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 from 3-8 p.m. MT, Location: Phoenix, Arizona.
Note: February 7-9 is the International Stroke Conference in Phoenix, Arizona

Commit to completing the training for the AHA Precision Medicine Platform and GWTG data prior to the bootcamp (to be held in Jan 2024).

All awardees must bring their own laptop to the bootcamp. 

Full proposals must be submitted by Friday, January 5, 2024.

CHECKLIST

A. A one-page proposal that includes (12-point font, single space, 1-inch margins on all sides): 

a. Expertise and experience of applicant(s) in clinical or epidemiological areas of AFib, CAD, HF, or Resuscitation, biostatistics and programming in R or Python.

b. Explanation of how this training opportunity will further your research.

c. Describe your commitment to the AHA’s mission and how you currently volunteer for the AHA

B. Biosketches (5 pages - Upload your NIH biosketch OMB No. 0925-0001 and 0925-0002 (Rev. 10/2021 Approved Through 01/31/2026). It is not necessary to reformat to AHA page specifications.)

C. No budget information is needed. The award is $2,500 for travel and expenses for the bootcamp. A maximum of 10% indirect costs may be claimed on the award. 

• The awardee will be responsible for overseeing the total budget for the grant. If awarded, the project lead and the institution assume an obligation to expend grant funds for the research purposes set forth in the application and in accordance with all regulations and policies governing the grant programs of the American Heart Association.
• Please note that this budget cannot be used for registration fees for the International Stroke Conference which immediately follows this bootcamp in Phoenix.

For all other required items not listed, please refer to sections displayed in your Proposal Central application. (e.g.: funding overlap, Assurances, Research Classifications, etc.)


PEER REVIEW CRITERIA

a.  Expertise and experience of applicant(s) in clinical or epidemiological areas of AFib, CAD, HF, or Resuscitation, biostatistics and programming in R or Python. 
b.  Explanation of how this training opportunity will further your research. 
c.  Description of commitment to the AHA’s mission and volunteer status.0

AWARD AMOUNT AND NUMBER OF AWARDS TO BE FUNDED

• Each travel award will cover the costs of virtual pre-training (2 sessions in Jan, 90 min each) and attendance at the AHA GWTG Data and Precision Medicine Platform Bootcamp to be held February 6th in Phoenix AZ, 3-8 pm MT.
• Total funding is $2,500 to be used for travel costs only for up to two (2) individuals (including 10% indirect costs).  
• Up to 50 awards may be funded. The American Heart Association reserves the right to determine the final number of awardees.
• You will be given access to a workspace on the Precision Medicine Platform if granted this award.  An additional Amazon Web Services (AWS) service credit (up to $2,000 USD) for use of the
• American Heart Association Precision Medicine Platform may be provided for computational time, use of AWS tools and infrastructure, and storage. Credit amount will be determined based on estimated need over duration of the grant.

It is required that any data analysis for your project be conducted via the American Heart Association’s Precision Medicine Platform, powered by Amazon Web Services.  Our intent is to help applicants gain confidence leveraging cloud computing for applications and projects.  

The Precision Medicine Platform provides you with a secure cloud computing workspace for you to use for the application and during the term of the award that allows researchers to code in various languages, including R and Python, and to use statistical software including but not limited to SAS and R studio. The most up-to-date machine learning and artificial intelligence software available from Amazon Web Services is also included. Researchers are also able to install their own tools.

The American Heart Association asks that the grantees also accelerate collaboration through the sharing of data and code as well as the coordination for interoperability of data to facilitate findability and sustainability. The American Heart Association fully supports the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) guiding principles of data stewardship.  The Precision Medicine Platform helps to support this principle by also serving as a data marketplace and enables you to share your data and make it available to other researchers.  If you were to make your data available on the Precision Medicine Platform by request at the conclusion of your award, you will be set up in our system to receive electronic notifications of these requests that you will review and approve.

The Platform is HIPAA and FedRAMP compliant. Learn more about the Platform’s Security Information.

To learn more about the Precision Medicine Platform:

• Overview
• Full list of available analytical tools 

• Any inventions, intellectual property, and patents resulting from this funding are governed by the AHA’s Patent, Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Policy.
• The applicant/awardee and institution are responsible for compliance with all AHA research award policies and guidelines for the duration of any awards they may receive.
• Visit the Research Programs Awards Policies page for more information on this topic: American Heart Association Policies Governing All Research Awards.

GWTG Research Data AwardQ: The RFP says experience in R or Python is needed. t I have used SAS to work with the Registry data before. I have experience with R but would prefer to use my primary coding language (SAS) again. Would that be possible? 
A: You are welcome to apply for the RFP. Please note that training at the bootcamp on the Precision Medicine Platform (PMP) will focus on R and Python and not SAS.

Q: If I am applying for a team of two people to attend the bootcamp. Is okay that we are at two different institutions?
A: Yes.

Q: In the past, academic researchers could use the GWTG data but were not given AHA research grants. How is this different?
A: Academic researchers are still able to use the GWTG data without a research grant by completing the manuscript proposal form, which must be approved by the committee for access and to analyze the data in the PMP.  

Q: Why is AHA offering these grant opportunities?
A: The goal of these new AHA research grants and GWTG data bootcamp travel grants is to introduce a new set of qualified and dedicated researchers to the GWTG data. For example, many researchers who apply for AHA research grants do not know about the GWTG data. Similarly, many researchers who use the GWTG data do not know about AHA research grant opportunities. These new AHA research grants can include past GWTG users as mentors.

Q: Must I have to use the PMP?
A: Yes. The AHA does not allow GWTG data outside of our virtual enclave – the PMP – for security reasons. 

Q: The RFP states that I must be an AHA Professional Member. Can cardiology fellows and postdocs sign up as AHA Professional members?
A: Yes. AHA Professional Membership includes many categories – one at a reduced cost for trainees. 

Q: I have published using GWTG data previously but have not analyzed the data myself (the AHA’s analytic center conducted the analysis). Am I eligible to apply for the travel grant?
A: Yes. If you have not analyzed the data yourself on the Precision Medicine Platform, you can apply.

Q: For the secondary invited proposal, how may the $100k award budget be used?
A: The award is intended for salary support of the research team to conduct the project within the award period. It is not intended to be used to purchase computer equipment, software, etc. 

Q: If I am awarded the $100k research grant, may I conduct any analysis I want with the PMP dataset?
A: No. Your use of the dataset is limited to the approved research proposal submitted in your application.