Four-Integrated Preventive & Restorative Medicine Programs
We are BaCHRI—the Black Catholic Health Research Institute. Rooted in faith and justice, we conduct unapologetic research to expose systemic harm, elevate Black voices, and shape equitable futures.
4 Integrative Preventive & Restorative Medicine Programs
Black Catholic Health Research Institute (BaCHRI) is the research arm for our four programs.
Day-to-day programming does not collect data. Once each year, BaCHRI conducts an Institutional Review Board (IRB)–approved study with fully consented, compensated participants to verify impact, improve efficacy, and publish peer-reviewed results. We also host conferences and methods workshops. Explore each program below (links on program pages).
Read more on each program page and contact us if you’d like to host or participate in an IRB cycle.
SpirArt Museum™ Pastoral Tools
Visual, biblical storytelling with simple practices for chaplains, deacons, and lay leaders to support healing in any setting.
slimmAI-HRV™
AI-Guided Preventive & Restorative Cardiology.
Our SlimmAI-HRV platform merges high-resolution heart-rate variability analytics with explainable AI to surface hidden cardiometabolic stress before disease begins.
ANNUAL RESEARCH & POLICY MILESTONES COMPLETE
SITES ACTIVATED FOR STRESSVITALS™
MINISTRY & COMMUNITY FACILITATORS EQUIPPED (THIS YEAR)
RE-ENTRY PARTNERS ONBOARDED (CO-OP PATHWAY)
Research & News
📌 BaCHRI just gave cardiovascular AI an equity upgrade
✈️ Coming in 2026: God’s Little World – A Cooperative Simulation Campus
After 20 years of visionary planning, God’s Little World is preparing to launch its permanent campus in Fort Worth, TX. This immersive simulation, designed to explore financial empowerment and health equity, is expanding from its award-winning tour model into a full-scale, physical site.
🎯 Opening in 2026
📍 Fort Worth, TX
📌 Weekly Outreach Launches at St. Vincent de Paul
Update:
In partnership with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, BaCHRI is launching a new community-led cooperative initiative in Phoenix, AZ. Once a week, we’ll meet with residents experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity to co-develop a cooperative business based on their needs, vision, and skills. This is our commitment to transforming inequity through dignity, ownership, and structural change.
📍 Pilot starts Summer 2025 — Supported by the Spirit, and maybe the AIM-AHEAD program.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
– Jeremiah 29:11
Trusted Partners
The miracle of cooperation is a team strategy that opens a gap in the wall of an indifferent crowd that excludes the weakest.” — Pope Francis
Excited to share that our clinical abstract “A Machine-Learning Framework to Identify Ecological Risk Pathways in Cardiovascular Stress” has been accepted for presentation at Machine Learning for Healthcare (MLHC) 2025 — sponsored by the Mayo Clinic main campus in Rochester MN (Aug 15-16).
What we built
🔸 SlimmAI — Python-based decision-tree model with transparent SHAP explanations
🔸 97 % accuracy identifying cardiovascular-risk patterns in a 100 % Black biomarker cohort
🔸 Maps each risk profile to its ecological tier, so clinicians see where to intervene, not just what to treat.
Why it matters
✔️ Chronic stress + structural racism drive the nation’s highest CVD death gap.
✔️ Conventional risk tools ignore those drivers — leaving Black patients misclassified or unseen.
✔️ SlimmAI closes that blind-spot and gives public-health teams an explainable roadmap for upstream action.
Next steps
• Open-source demo + HRV extension later this year
• Integrating SlimmAI into God’s Little World, our cooperative-economy simulation & research campus breaking ground Dec 2025.
🙏🏾 Grateful to the MLHC reviewers, the Mayo Clinic sponsoring team, and every mentor who believed Black health data could power its own solutions.