Architecture

Heart & Stroke AI Sidekick

Life after a heart attack or stroke can be overwhelming for patients and caregivers. They often face anxiety, isolation, and uncertainty about where to find trusted answers and guidance—sometimes turning to unscientific or harmful online sources. Patients need a central resource that offers CarePlans and Life’s Essential 8 guidance to support their recovery and self-management during their post-rehabilitation journey.

Barriers such as cost, time, education, availability, and location make accessing quality support more challenging. Patients and caregivers lack a shared way to manage new routines, uncover helpful insights, or find community support, which hinders their ability to act on a collective plan. Without prevention strategies, entire households remain at higher risk of future events. We have a solution that addresses this issue, improves outcomes, and enhances the patient and caregiver experience by being engaging, intuitive, and supporting self-management of their recovery journey.

The AHA CarePlans (heart failure, blood pressure, and cardiac rehab) and Life Essential 8, plus the PREVENT Risk Calculator

The Heart & Stroke Sidekick App™ is a personal, always-available companion for Heart and Stroke patients, bringing the AHA and ASA’s trusted science directly to users' pockets. It features an avatar supported by real humans and a secure, scientifically backed knowledge base. Users can access it via voice or text any time, day or night, whenever and as often as needed. It is non-judgmental, always current, and offers survivors a clear roadmap to move forward, utilizing AHA data and insights from experienced scientists and medical professionals. Now, patients and caregivers know where to turn; they have a personal Sidekick accompanying them on their journey to live their best life.

• Personalized Recovery Guidance – Tailored plans for rehab, medication, diet, and physical activity based on AHA/ASA evidence.
• Rehabilitation & Lifestyle Support – Step-by-step guidance, progress tracking, and coaching using Life’s Essential 8.
• Mental Health & Community – Coping strategies for anxiety, stress, and depression, plus access to survivor stories and support groups.
• Medication Adherence – Smart reminders, side-effect education, and safety checks.
• Trusted, Real-Time Insights – Always up to date with AHA’s latest science and clinical guidance.
• 24/7 Accessible & Human-Backed – Instant answers, with the option to connect to real AHA support when needed.

Why it matters: Survivors no longer have to navigate recovery alone or rely on unreliable sources. With Sidekick, they gain a clear, trusted path forward—backed by science, supported by community, and personalized to their journey

Here is an overview of the eight core features that are available now

1. Personalized Recovery Guidance: We use AHA and ASA data on post-heart attack and stroke recovery protocols to provide tailored advice and guidance. It will include step-by-step recovery plans, medication schedules, physical activity recommendations, and dietary guidelines based on AHA’s nutrition standards (e.g., low-sodium, heart-healthy diets).
2. Rehabilitation Support: Guide survivors and caregivers through AHA and ASA-recommended rehabilitation exercises, such as cardiac rehab programs or stroke recovery physical therapy. It offers video tutorials, tracks progress, and adjusts routines based on AHA’s exercise guidelines for various recovery phases, ensuring safe and effective rehabilitation.
3. Broad Service Reach: Our solution enables patients, survivors, and caregivers everywhere to access trusted, personalized Champion the Challenges support through their own Sidekick, fulfilling our vision of a world where everyone can confidently make informed decisions and receive the support they need on their journey to better health or recovery from a medical incident.
4. Education and Lifestyle Coaching: Using AHA’s educational resources, the Champion the Heart and Stroke Sidekick provides bite-sized, easy-to-understand information on managing risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, or smoking. It offers daily tips, such as AHA’s “Life’s Essential 8” for cardiovascular health, and answers questions like “How do I reduce my cholesterol?” with evidence-based responses. Sharing stories of other survivors offers that heartfelt understanding that you are not alone.
5. Mental Health and Social Support: Sidekick uses AHA’s insights on how heart and stroke events affect emotions to offer coping strategies for anxiety, depression, or stress. It connects users with AHA-supported support groups or resources, building community and easing isolation.
6. Medication Adherence: Sidekick uses AHA’s data on common medications (e.g., statins, anticoagulants) to remind users to take prescriptions, explain side effects, and clarify drug interactions, which can improve adherence and reduce complications.
7. Real-Time Data Integration: If enabled to search real-time data (per your instructions), Sidekick will connect AHA’s databases with the latest research or clinical updates from AHA-approved sources, ensuring survivors receive state-of-the-art advice. For example, it will retrieve recent AHA journal articles on new stroke treatments. The Heart and Stroke Sidekick combines AHA information, a Smart User Profile, and personalized prioritization into a tailored guidance system that uses a weighted, continuously updating algorithm to direct individuals to the resources they need and want to achieve the best possible outcomes.
8. Accessibility and 24/7 Availability: We offer instant support at any time, answering questions and providing help and guidance whenever users and caregivers need advice from a trusted source in the moment. If enabled, it will seamlessly connect users to a real AHA care support operator, giving survivors and families a solution that wasn't available before.

We have many. Here are the five that are currently being explored

1. Accessibility and 24/7 Availability: If enabled, it connects users seamlessly to a real AHA care support operator, providing survivors and their families with a solution that was previously unavailable.
2. External entity integration - Connect with third parties (pharmacies, doctors, MyChart/Medical Records systems) - Send reminders to fill prescriptions. Notify users when prescriptions are ready for pickup. Send doctor appointment notifications and test result updates.
3. Device and application integration - Connect with devices and apps (wearables, Oura ring, Strava, Fitbit). Provides daily summaries of sleep, fitness, and heart rate. Visualize data and receive alerts from medical devices (pacemakers, monitors, etc.).
4. Connect with local healthcare professionals - Find nearby medical, mental health, and specialty doctors.
5. Healthcare Records and Lab Results Storage - Upload medical records, medications, test results, and procedures.

Initially, we will focus on patients and caregivers. We are confident that our Heart & Stroke AI Sidekick™ will be very appealing to clinicians and professionals in the future.

All the following will be included in our initial release

Cardiovascular Disease (general)
Hypertension
Heart failure
Atrial Fibrillation
Coronary Artery Disease
Stroke
Cholesterol management
Diabetes
Prevention/wellness
Post-cardiac event recovery
Multiple conditions/comorbidities

Our Heart & Stroke AI Sidekick™ is built by survivors, for survivors. As technology entrepreneurs who have personally navigated heart and stroke recovery, we know the challenges firsthand. Champion the Challenges was founded to simplify complex recovery, prevent secondary events, and provide every survivor and caregiver with immediate, trusted support.

The Sidekick transforms this vision into reality by delivering personalized guidance in six key areas:

1. Simplifying Recovery – Breaks down AHA/ASA science into clear, actionable steps, making adherence easy and reducing confusion.
2. Health Equity–Ensuring all patients have fair and just opportunities to be as healthy as possible, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status or geography
3. Self-Advocacy– Helping survivors build sustainable habits using Life’s Essential 8, tracking progress, and reinforcing positive change.
4. Preventing Secondary Events – Monitors symptoms, educates on warning signs, and guides users toward prevention strategies.
5. Emotional & Social Support – Offers coping tools, survivor stories, and connections to support groups to reduce isolation and build resilience.
6. Connecting with Professionals – Helps survivors and caregivers discover local healthcare providers for ongoing care.

In short: Survivors leave the hospital with more than just instructions—they leave with a trusted Sidekick to guide their recovery, prevent setbacks, and support their entire household.

The Sidekick platform and application services keep sensitive PHI/PII data in a secure, flexible, and central repository. This system runs in distinct Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (FedRAMP, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, SOC 1, 2, 3 certified), utilizes AWS Cognito (FedRAMP, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, SOC 1, 2, 3 certified) for user authentication, and link-level encryption using TLS for the encryption of data at rest and data in transit. All data is encrypted at rest by AWS database encryption, optional per-user app-level data encryption on top of DB encryption using AWS Secrets Manager (FedRAMP, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, SOC 1,2,3 certified) and AWS Key Management Service (FedRAMP, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, SOC 1,2,3 certified). Additionally, AWS Elastic Container Registry: AWS Docker Image Scanners (SOC 1,2,3), AWS Web Application Firewall (FedRAMP, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, SOC 1,2,3 certified), AWS API Gateway (FedRAMP, HIPAA, HITRUST CSF, SOC 1,2,3 certified), protecting public APIs are utilized.

Sidekick’s approach to security is multi-layered and comprehensive, encompassing physical, technical, and administrative controls. We employ industry-leading encryption technologies, robust role-based access controls, and rigorous monitoring systems to detect and mitigate potential threats. Additionally, we conduct regular security audits, penetration testing, and vulnerability assessments to identify and address any weaknesses in our defenses.

Our solution provides both voice and text support, making it accessible for users with varying comfort levels with technology. Each patient creates a personal profile that tailors guidance based on their digital literacy, preferred language, recovery stage, and engagement style—delivering a truly personalized experience.

Designed to eliminate barriers of location, cost, and equity, Sidekick ensures that every patient—urban or rural, wealthy or underserved—has access to trusted, science-backed recovery support.

By embedding the Heart & Stroke Sidekick directly into the hospital and rehabilitation discharge process, we provide survivors with more than just instructions; we give them a roadmap. From day one, patients leave with a trusted companion in their pocket—guiding recovery, supporting caregivers, and helping households lower their risk.

This is a transformative shift in how post-event recovery is supported, ensuring consistent, scalable, and equitable access to the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s best science.

Yes, and here are the platforms we currently support.

Desktop/web
Mobile (iOS)
Mobile (Android)
Tablet
Low-bandwidth environments

Yes, Champion the Challenges and its founders (2016-2021), along with a private Virtual Reality (VR) technology engineering startup (Sixense), were selected to participate in a joint venture (JV) with a public company to develop an immersive healthcare VR solution for the stroke community. We were chosen to be part of the JV to research, engineer, build, prototype, beta test, and launch the world’s first immersive healthcare VR solution for stroke rehabilitation. The journey and process were incredible, impactful, and successful. The technology not only received approval, but the innovation was so well-received that the company was acquired by a public healthcare firm (PEN) in 2021 and integrated into their internal R&D.