Revolutionizing Digital Cardiac Recovery with Agentic AI
“Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
Take my hand, and let’s go on a journey together. A cardiac recovery safari….
You are three months into recovering from a LAD heart attack (aka widow maker heart attack) with two stents in your chest. You have started your center based cardiac recovery program; you go to a cardiac rehab center to walk on a treadmill, climb stairs, stretch, and ride a stationary bike. Your cardiologist has you on the standard medicine regimen according to the Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy (GDMT) for heart failure. I’ll bet you didn’t know this is crucial to your recovery, and you have a GDMT plan that is provided by your cardiologist. In lay person terms — these are the pills you are taking. Like me, I am sure you have an abundance of questions regarding the meds you are on: 1) How long will I have to stay on these pills? 2) Can I stop taking some of my pills now, or in the future? 3) How will cardiac rehab affect my medications? 4) I read on social media that statins (aka Lipitor) have a litany of side effects, and are harmful to you? 5) I read that beta-blockers (aka Metoprol) are unnecessary for my recovery. Is this true? 6) The medication seems to be affecting my libido. Is this common ? How long will this last ? 7) I am on “blood thinners” (Actually, the correct term is antiplatelets, blood thinners are another category of medicine to reduce blood clots…you just learned something new. Common antiplatelets prescribed to heart patients are Aspirin, Clopidogrel/Plavix, and Effient). How long do I need to take this medicine? What medicines are best to reduce clotting ?
How can I prevent another incident? You are visiting the doctor’s office more often than ever, and subject to a myriad of tests and procedures. All my doctors do an EKG every time I go to the doctors office. I probed, prodded, and administrated CT scan, echo cardiogram on a regular basis. 1) Are there wearable devices that can measure my EKG? 2) Will watches that monitor my sleep and heart rate be something I need ? 3) How can I tell if I may be susceptible to another heart incident? 4) How often do I need an echo cardio gram? 5) Should I get regular CT scans of my heart and Aorta ? 6) How often should I take my blood pressure ? 7) I have some arrhythmic heart beats, do I need a pace maker ? 8) My doctor indicated that I have an arrhythmic heartbeat and need cardiac ablation. Is this necessary?
You are eating better and exercising more, but want to know more: 1) What foods should I avoid ? 2) Can I drink a couple of beers every night ? 3) How about eating out ? I like my local Mexican restaurant. What is the best dish to order ? 4) What’s up with a Mediterranean diet ? 5) How high should I elevate my heart rate during exercise ? 6) What is the right amount of exercise and intensity ?
Then there is the all so important “state of mind”: 1) I have no motivation, what can be done to help me ? 2) Every night at 6 PM my heart rate and blood pressure increase, what is going on ? 3) I am constantly in fear I am going to have another heart attack. What can be done to alleviate this concern ? 4) My mindset has been altered since the incident. Tell me more about what is happening to me? 5) I have severe mood swings, and find that I erupt and get angry at the slightest provocation. Is there someone, something that can help ?
It is not surprising that center-based CR programs, and traditional methods of cardiac recovery, remain somberly low, with success rates ranging from 20% to 50% in many regions globally. Sustained behavior change is hard, especially if benefits are not evident. Alcoholics anonymous has a success rate that is estimated by independent analysts at between 8% and 12%. Jenny Craig success rate is pegged at 30%, which is significantly higher than the latest weight-loss research which indicates 95% of dieters end up regaining the weight they lost within two years — hence roller coaster dieting. Cardiac recovery methods need to be introduced to enhance engagement and retention, and the benefits of a program that prevent recurrence need to be clear and convincing. The program and process needs to fun, stimulating, entertaining, gratifying, and dynamic. We live in a world dominated by social media were gratification is instantaneous, fleeting, and community orientated. People want to feel part of something. Peloton and Strava are successful because of “peer pressure”, and gamification of exercise. The best way I find to commit myself to a goal is to tell as many friends as possible — they will ask you about it the next time you talk to them. Perhaps a bit of shaming and guilt going on, but it works.
What works for cardiac recovery ? Something that is non-bias and confidential, perhaps? Something that is always on ? Available when you can’t sleep at night as you think you are suffering heart attack symptoms. Something that has information that is backed by a science-based organization that publishes peer-reviewed journals, hosts scientific meetings, and is governed by volunteer led scientific councils, and has an Office of Science that reviews all content ? Something that will not judge you ? Something that is personalized to your body, mind, motivations, attitudes, readiness, genetic make-up and spirit? A solution that is constantly learning and evolving by listening to people like you ? Something that will connect you anonymously to your peers — a virtual support group, a safe space for sharing experiences, reducing isolation, and building emotional support networks? A stress management aid that empowers you to handle future stressors more constructively? A solution that gamifies your success (rewards, credits, and peer participation and comparison) ? Did I miss something ? I am sure I did.
The current health care process is fraught with impersonal interactions that demoralize you, and don’t operate on in your best interest — it is literally a pain in your ass, and makes your heart fragile. A better way is to proactively identify if you are at risk of disengagement and deliver tailored interventions to enhance your social connections. A solution that encourages self-ownership of your desire to improve, and facilitates you to be an owner of your recovery.
This is where a digital personal health care agent and cardio recovery advocate AI-drive platform steps in. Think of it as a chatbot on steroids, caffeine, and a healthy dose of energy drinks. It is an avatar (a digital twin of you), backed by a real human, and a secure, scientifically formulated knowledge base. A solution to provide factual answers to questions, deliver a roadmap for success, provide nonjudgmental feedback regarding your progress, reinforcing positive behaviors, and encouraging further efforts. It connects you with peer support groups. These support groups share experiences and encouragement, and reduce feelings of isolation. This fosters emotional well-being during recovery. It is a story teller that is backed by stories of people that have, or are going through, the same agonizing recovery that you are.
Get isBullShit’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
AI is everywhere, and is promising you nirvana. Perhaps, it will take us all the promised land. Snapping back to reality, AI can be used today to help with your cardiac recovery using something called AI Agents. AI agents determine how to achieve their objectives by evaluating the context, identifying the tools they need, and adapting their approach in real time. Traditional AI is great at solving a specific task or use case. Agents are capable of not only interpreting user intent but orchestrating entire processes that draw on multiple data sources and analytical models. For example, the question, “Can I stop taking some of my pills now, or in the future?” is multi-faceted, and highly dependent on your current health and the medicines you are on and have been on. Agentic AI will have knowledge of your medical history, your medicines, and how you have reacted to certain medicines. It will use this information to triage (I am sure you have heard of this term used frequently in the medical field) the multiple sources of information and tools, and provide a concise, tailored response for you.
We all suffer from a concern of being judged, and feeling like we are asking “stupid questions”. We all desire our privacy to be honored, and prefer to keep our trepidation, hesitation, or reluctance clandestine. A digital agentic AI platform mitigates, subdues, and/or eliminates these concerns, fears, worries, anxieties, and apprehensions. It is a secure (think HIPAA), private platform that engages with you privately, but utilizes a vast community of medical experts and patients likes yourself that have a wealth of recommendations, best practices, success stories, and anti-patterns that can help you to do the right thing, for you.
Let’s “stop rolling the dice” with our heart health recovery. “Rolling the dice” is what I heard from the hospital staff two days after my heart attack as the medical team applied SOP (standard operating procedure) to remove me from intravenous medicines that were controlling Vtach. Reach out to me today, so we can embark on your personal journey of cardiac recovery using an AI agent based mobile chatbot. You can read about my heart incident, and subsequent recovery here.
View a video demo of Tom’s Heart #smartphone #cardiac #recovery personal advocate #GenAI platform to query the How Not to Have a Heart Attack blog. #heartattack #health #AI #heart using Sidekick Platform #cardiacarrest.
About the author: Tom is driven by three things: paying it forward, creating new, new things, and connecting people. Tom’s values are passion, integrity, and fun. Tom is fanatical about revolutionizing health care after suffering a LAD heart attack and cardiac arrest.
Tom is a Member of Advisor Board for Champion the Challenges. He is the Patient Advocate Ambassador for the Heart & Stroke AI Sidekick developed by Champion the Challenges and powered by the Sidekick Platform. Tom publishes content to help patients recovery from a heart incident on Tom’s Heart. His heart attack and cardiac arrest incident story and timeline are located on the Champion the Challenges website.
He is the founder and president of toosoon.ai. Too Soon is the consumerization of pre-sale intent data in real estate. The solution is for home buyers and small-scale real estate investors who are dissatisfied that the best opportunities are discovered first by agents, wholesalers, and professional investors using data ordinary consumers never see. Too Soon is the first direct-to-consumer real estate marketplace. Too Soon is building the largest consumer-focused life-event intelligence platform for residential real estate, and personal assets.
He is the founder and curator of the is BullShit brand. is Bullshit publishes books, podcasts, and blog posts debunking and disputing myths regarding technology, corporate culture, self-help, life advice, financial planning, leadership, business, and more. He is calling bullshit on social norms and the standard way of doing things- teaching people how to unlearn what they have learned. The inaugural book in the is Bullshit series is available on Amazon — Life Advice is Bullshit.
He is the founder and president of IBS Publications, LLC. IBS is the distributor is Bullshit branded books and materials. IBS authors call out the structural deceptions, the hidden agendas, and the comfortable lies that institutions and leaders use to pacify individuals and preserve their own power. IBS Publications isn’t a vanity press for one voice — it’s an open imprint. We sign outside authors ready to write their own volume under the is BullShit trademark, or existing publications with a bullshit motif: practitioners with raw, lived experience in healthcare, technology, corporate leadership, personal finance, or wherever conventional wisdom has quietly rotted.
Tom is the founder of the Ma Pesch Foundation — paying it forward is the the only way to live. The Ma Pesch Foundation provides scholarships to young adults seeking a Science Technology Engineering and Math (#STEM) degree.
Tom occupies his time mountain biking, meditating, snowboarding, reading, water skiing and surfing, playing pickleball, writing, golfing, riding his Harley, scuba diving, hiking, and dipping into cold water.
