Four Integrative Programs
Black Catholic Health Research Institute (BaCHRI) Black Catholic Health Research Institute (BaCHRI) is the research arm for our four programs. Each program is evaluated through IRB-approved studies.
Read more on each program page and contact us if you’d like to host or participate in an IRB cycle.
ImageClositer™ Pastoral Tools
Self-guided, biblical imagery with simple practices chaplains, deacons, and lay leaders can offer—private help 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.
VREMT Assessment Reports
Concise profiles and parish-ready guidance drawn from anonymous surveys.
ANNUAL RESEARCH & POLICY MILESTONES COMPLETE
SITES ACTIVATED FOR STRESSVITALS™
IMAGE CLOISTER RACKS AVAILABLE
(THIS YEAR)
RE-ENTRY PARTNERS ONBOARDED (CO-OP PATHWAY)
Research & News
📌 IRB-approved study launches in February
Update:
IRB-approved study launching in February
Our medical university has approved a new IRB study examining financial stress in Black communities. We’ll field the survey in February 2026 via Amazon Mechanical Turk and submit findings for peer review in March. Results will power our new VREMT Assessment Reports—actionable, de-identified insights your parish or agency can use. Learn more on our VREMT page (top menu).
📍 New: VREMT Assessment Reports page
📌 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
“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.