American Heart Association Launches First-Ever Heart Transplant Research Network to Address Innovation Gaps and Inequities
The American Heart Association's new research network, involving 14 centers and a coordinating center, aims to modernize heart transplant care by improving data infrastructure, advancing research, and standardizing quality care to address long-standing disparities and innovation gaps.
The American Heart Association (AHA) has announced the launch of its first-ever heart transplant research network, a multi-institutional initiative designed to fundamentally transform how heart transplant care is delivered across the United States. The network includes 14 medical research centers and a coordinating center, bringing together scientists to create a national, unified data, research, and quality care infrastructure. This effort aims to address critical gaps in innovation, equity, and patient outcomes that have persisted despite decades of advances in cardiovascular medicine.
According to the AHA's 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, approximately 4,500 heart transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2025, the highest number ever recorded. However, more than 3,700 people remained on the waiting list. "Despite decades of breakthrough advances in cardiovascular medicine, the system supporting heart transplantation has remained largely unchanged," said Mariell Jessup, M.D., FAHA, the AHA's chief science and medical officer. "Transplant recipients still face serious challenges, including difficulty detecting heart rejection early, reliance on immunosuppressive therapies that have seen little advancement over the past 20 years and inconsistent outcomes, especially among Black patients and children."
The initiative focuses on three key pillars. First, a Global Heart Transplant Data Infrastructure will be developed in collaboration with leading transplant organizations to create a dynamic, harmonized platform for real-time insights to support research, quality improvement, and policy advancement. Second, a Research Network for Breakthrough Science will bring together top institutions to advance care in areas such as earlier detection of transplant rejection, remote monitoring technologies, viral surveillance, and development of safer therapies. The network will also support planning grants for clinical trials and research into immune tolerance and chronic rejection. Third, a Coordinated Path Forward will establish a scalable quality improvement framework, modeled after the AHA's Get With The Guidelines® program, to standardize care and improve long-term outcomes.
The four-year research grants begin July 1, 2026. The coordinating center is led by Emilia Bagiella, Ph.D., at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Other centers include Baylor College of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Columbia University, Duke University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Medical University of South Carolina, Stanford University, University of California San Diego, University of Colorado Denver, University of Pennsylvania, University of Utah, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
"By bringing together this exceptional data, research and clinical expertise, the Heart Association can help accelerate discoveries and translate them into better care for every patient, no matter who they are or where they live," Jessup said. The AHA has funded more than $6.1 billion in research since 1949, making it the largest non-profit, non-government supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S. According to an Annenberg Policy Center poll, 82% of U.S. adults are confident in the AHA to provide trustworthy public health information. More details are available at heart.org.