HeartBytes is a national youth cardiac registry of seemingly healthy kids. It was developed and funded by Simon’s Heart to fill the void of cardiac data on children. The data and images are crowdsourced by heart screening organizations and made available to qualified researchers (free of charge).

The registry has received IRB approval from Jefferson University Hospital. Download the Data Dictionary to review our data subset. Digital ECG recordings are also available.

Here is a list of all published research projects to date:

The Importance of Family History in a Pre-Participation Screening Program
Prevalence of Hypertension among US High School Students
Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in a College Athlete: Physiological or Pathological?
Parameters Associated with Abnormal Cardiac Conditions in Adolescent Athletes
Trends in Athlete ECG Interpretation in a Large Youth Cardiovascular Screening Organization
Racial and Ethnic Trends in Athlete ECG Interpretation Utilizing International ECG Criteria
Prevalence and Significance of Isolated T-Wave Inversion in Young Athletes

Published manuscripts:

Parameters of cardiac symptoms in young athletes using the Heartbytes database: Jones JC, Sugimoto D, Kobelski GP, Rao P, Miller S, Koilor C, Corrado GD, Shipon DM. Parameters of cardiac symptoms in young athletes using the Heartbytes database. Phys Sportsmed. 2021 Feb;49(1):37-44. doi: 10.1080/00913847.2020.1755908. Epub 2020 Apr 26. PMID: 32281468.

Relationship Between Caffeine Consumption and Young Athletes’ Comorbidities, Exercise-Related Symptoms, and Baseline Electrocardiogram: Farber J, Dikdan S, Ruge M, Johnson D, Shipon D. Relationship Between Caffeine Consumption and Young Athletes’ Comorbidities, Exercise-Related Symptoms, and Baseline Electrocardiogram. Sports Health. 2023 Apr 21:19417381231168828. doi: 10.1177/19417381231168828. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37085973.

Accepted Abstracts:

Farhan S, Dikdan S, Johnson D, Shipon D. Swimming Exercise in Youth Athletes is Associated with Reduced Cardiovascular Risk Factors: An Analysis of the HeartBytes Dataset. Accepted for poster presentation at AHA Scientific Sessions 2023, Philadelphia, PA.

Qiu G, Riley J, Dikdan S, Johnson D, Shipon D. Relationship between Obesity and Youth Athletes’ Physical Activity and Exercise Related Symptoms. Abstract accepted for poster presentation at AHA Scientific Sessions November 2023, Philadelphia, PA.

Fox Ni, Fox No, Farrehi C, Dikdan S, Hajduczok A, Johnson D, Shipon D. (2023, November) Frequency of Abnormal Cardiac Screens: Analysis of a National Cardiac Youth Registry. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2023, Philadelphia PA.

Dikdan S, Sun M, Vyas A, Ruge M, Farber J, Johnson D, and Shipon D. (2023, March). Mental health and the youth athlete: an analysis of the HeartBytes database. Poster presented at American College of Cardiology Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Farber J, Dikdan S, Ruge M, Johnson D, and Shipon D. (November 2022). Caffeine Consumption on Young Athlete’s Comorbidities, Exercise-Related Symptoms, and Baseline Electrocardiogram. Poster presented at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Chicago, IL.

Johnson D, Doshi H, Dikdan S, Frankel E, Shipon D. (2022, April). Echocardiography in youth athlete screening: Simon’s Heart experience. Poster presented at the American College of Cardiology Conference, Washington, DC.

Wellings J, Nair A, Weiss M, Dikdan S, Johnson D, Langstaff R, Koilor C, Miller S, Shipon DM. (2020, March). Endurance Sports Participation is Associated with Increased Syncope in Adolescents: An Analysis of the Heartbytes Screening Registry. Poster presented virtually at the American College of Cardiology Conference, Philadelphia PA.

Nair A, Weiss M, Dikdan S, Wellings J, Johnson D, Rao P, Langstaff R, Shipon, DM. (2020, March) Increased Physical Activity is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Cardiac Symptoms in Adolescents An Analysis of the Heartbytes Screening Registry. American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2020, Virtual.

If you are interested in gaining access to our data, please submit a research request.

Are you a screening group? Download the Android app.

HeartBytes was a collaborative effort. Pulse InfoFrame is the architect. INFINITT North America stores the images on its cloud-based platform. DataMed donated the ECG translation software. Amps LLC donated ECG conversion services.

The Victor Thay Family and Fred and Diane Smith generously donated funding to underwrite the licensing fees for screening organizations.

Simon’s Heart has funded independent research projects as well. Those publications can be found in the links below.

Usefulness of Combined History, Physical Examination, Electrocardiogram, and Limited Echocardiogram in Screening Adolescent Athletes for Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death

Electrocardiographic Screening in National Collegiate Athletic Association Athletes