Heart health is important for all individuals, particularly veterans. Cardiovascular diseases, such as heart failure, heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral artery disease are the leading cause of hospitalization in the Veterans Affairs health care system and a major cause of disability impairing the lives of veterans across the United States. The Veterans Cardiac Health and AI Model Predictions (V-CHAMPs) Challenge, which will launch on May 22, 2023, is intended to encourage the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict heart failure related outcomes -- including hospitalization, readmission, and mortality -- by using synthetic (artificially generated) veteran health records, to better understand the cardiovascular risks and specific health outcomes in veterans.

This challenge is launched in collaboration with the following agencies, the:

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Digital Health Center of Excellence,
• PrecisionFDA,
• Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Innovation Ecosystem, and
• UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (UK MHRA).

Visit the V-CHAMPs Challenge page to pre-register and learn more about the challenge and how the FDA, VHA Innovation Ecosystem, and the UK MHRA are collaborating to improve heart health outcomes for veterans.