Beat-to-Beat: AI-Powered, Locally Relevant Engagement to Promote Rural Cardiovascular Health

About This Grant

Interactive, evidence-based conversations can improve cardiovascular health, especially for people with low health literacy, rural residence, and limited access to care. Coronary heart disease (CHD), including angina and myocardial infarction, accounts for 40% of cardiovascular deaths. The “Beat-to-Beat” project addresses these challenges by developing an innovative, AI- powered, community-informed digital health intervention that delivers accurate, locally relevant guidance through trusted, conversational video chatbots. The broad, long-term objective of Beat- to-Beat is to improve CVD health by empowering individuals—especially those in rural communities with limited access to healthcare—with accessible, trustworthy, and engaging health information. The specific aims are: 1) Develop and test the Cardiovascular Information Engine (CIE), an AI tool trained on validated scientific literature, distorted information, and local resource data. The CIE is designed to correct distorted information and provide evidence-based responses to CHD-related questions; 2) Develop and test locally relevant Trusted Health Companions (TrHCs), three AI-driven video personas (a doctor, nurse, and friend) representing different conversational styles and vocabulary. These characters will be evaluated for relatability, engagement, and trustworthiness by community advisory panels; 3) Integrate CIE and TrHCs to create “Beat-to-Beat”, a fully functional prototype that will be tested against traditional AI- generated recorded health videos for accuracy, trust, and user engagement. Research will be conducted on Hawai‘i Island, which has a high burden of CHD and significant rural health access challenges. A mixed-methods approach will be used, including true/false knowledge assessments, focus groups, and validated surveys. The project is guided by the Personalized Patient Activation and Empowerment (P-PAE) framework and includes real-time updates and community feedback throughout development. This Phase I study will establish feasibility, usability, and foundational data for a future Phase II trial evaluating health outcomes and cost- effectiveness.