Cardio Diagnostics Holdings, Inc. announced the nationwide rollout and a significant expansion of its groundbreaking HeartRisk? platform. HeartRisk combines insights from HIPAA-compliant anonymized and aggregated clinical cardiovascular data obtained through Cardio Diagnostics?

Epi+Gen CHD and PrecisionCHD clinical tests, with industry and geographic data to enable real-time population-level cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk insights. This expansion extends the reach of its proprietary data intelligence platform to correctional facilities, risk-bearing providers engaged in value-based contracts, and broker and benefits consultants. The move marks a strategic leap in addressing the financial and security challenges, such as those associated with transporting inmates in correctional facilities, of scaling access to cardiovascular testing across diverse sectors.

Risk-Bearing Providers and Value-Based Care: Risk-bearing providers, such as Family Medicine Specialists that receive monthly HeartRisk population data, can better manage their shared-risk and value-based contracts by identifying and stratifying at-risk populations, and understanding the drivers of heart disease, ensuring quality measures and ratings are met. This leads to benefiting from shared risk contracts while better-managing patient health. Family Medicine Specialists' implementation of Cardio Diagnostics' tests in their patient population with CHD risk factors demonstrates the first time a risk-bearing provider is leveraging precision epigenetics-based heart disease technologies with a population health intelligence tool to optimize risk-sharing contracts.

HeartRisk's ability to aggregate population-level heart attack risk, the presence of heart disease detection, and intervention monitoring and management aligns with the financial incentives of shared-risk contracts. Empowering Workplace Wellness & Financial Health: The expanded offering equips employers with unparalleled insights into workforce health trends related not just to cardiovascular risks but also encapsulating broader wellness indicators crucial for business resilience and productivity. By integrating predictive analytics around CVD within comprehensive workplace wellness initiatives, employers can reduce healthcare costs significantly while fostering an invigorated workplace culture centered on health mindfulness.

Enabling Precision-Driven Decision-Making for Employer Clients: Brokerage and benefits entities play a pivotal role in aligning coverage plans that articulate both value and efficacy against chronic conditions like CVD, which are substantial cost centers for their clientele. The enhanced functionalities within the HeartRisk? platform allow these entities to offer meticulous plan designs optimized by granular cumulative data insights, thus ensuring impactful investments in healthcare portfolios.

This includes being able to guide employer clients on stop-loss insurance decisions, benefits allocations, and premium and escrow limits using more real-time aggregated employer CVD risk intelligence data based on clinical tests for a prospective analysis rather than a retrospective analysis. Tackling Healthcare Challenges Behind Bars: A Constitutional Requirement: Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death among incarcerated individuals. The incarcerated population exhibits higher rates of cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking and hypertension, compared to the general population.

Correctional facilities have a constitutional obligation to care for the health of incarcerated individuals. This includes the provision of medical and mental health care, which is complicated by the high prevalence of chronic diseases, mental health issues, and substance use disorders among the incarcerated population. The complexity of providing care in correctional facilities is exacerbated by resource constraints and the difficulty of providing specialized care for heart disease without transportation.

The costs and security risks associated with transporting inmates into healthcare settings and facilities are staggering. Annually, more than $90 million [6] is spent on transporting inmates to U.S Hospitals annually. HeartRisk, driven by the adoption of Epi+Gen CHD and PrecisionCHD via telehealth, is a highly scalable approach for correctional facilities to obtain heart attack and heart disease insights.

Impact on Healthcare Costs and Chronic Disease Management: The expansion of the HeartRisk? platform is aligned with the broader trend in healthcare towards prevention and value-based care. Preventive measures are not only lifesaving but also economically beneficial, with an estimated return of $6.30 in savings for every $1 invested.

ctive strategies for risk factor reduction, prevention, and treatment of CVD, powered by precision population analytics, are key to addressing these growing cardiovascular cost challenges.