American Heart Association Launches First-Ever National Heart Transplant Research Network to Transform Patient Care
Key Insights
The American Heart Association has established a groundbreaking research network comprising 14 medical centers and a coordinating center to address critical gaps in heart transplant care innovation and equity.
Despite 4,500 heart transplantations performed in the U.S. in 2025, more than 3,700 patients remained on waiting lists, highlighting the urgent need for improved transplant systems and outcomes.
The initiative focuses on three key pillars: developing a comprehensive global heart transplant database, advancing breakthrough science in rejection detection and remote monitoring, and establishing standardized quality improvement frameworks.
The American Heart Association has launched its first-ever heart transplant research network, bringing together 15 leading medical centers to fundamentally transform how heart transplant care is delivered across the United States. The initiative addresses long-standing gaps in innovation, equity and patient outcomes nearly 60 years after the first successful heart transplant.
According to the American Heart Association's 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, approximately 4,500 heart transplantations were performed in the U.S., representing the highest annual volume to date. However, more than 3,700 people remained on the waiting list for heart transplants in 2025, underscoring the critical need for systemic improvements.
Addressing Decades of Stagnant Innovation
"Despite decades of breakthrough advances in cardiovascular medicine, the system supporting heart transplantation has remained largely unchanged," said Mariell Jessup, M.D., FAHA, the chief science and medical officer of the American Heart Association. "Today, 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."
Current heart transplant care faces significant obstacles including fragmented data systems, limited research investment and a lack of standardized quality improvement efforts. Many clinical guidelines remain based on expert consensus rather than robust, evolving evidence.
Three-Pillar Strategic Framework
The multi-phase initiative is designed to accelerate progress through coordination, data and discovery, focusing on three key pillars:
Global Heart Transplant Data Infrastructure
In collaboration with leading transplant organizations, the Association will develop and manage a comprehensive heart transplant database. Unlike traditional registries, this dynamic, harmonized platform will enable real-time insights to support research, quality improvement and policy advancement.
Research Network for Breakthrough Science
The network will advance care in critical areas including earlier and more precise detection of transplant rejection, remote monitoring technologies to support patients outside the hospital, viral surveillance to better manage infection-related risks, and development of safer, more effective therapies.
The network will also support planning grants to accelerate clinical trials and advance research into immune tolerance and chronic rejection, identified as two of the most pressing challenges in transplant medicine.
Coordinated Quality Improvement
Modeled after the Association's Get With The Guidelines® success, a scalable quality improvement framework will be established to drive system-wide change by standardizing transplant care, advancing accessibility to transplants and improving long-term outcomes.
Leading Medical Centers Join Network
The initiative kicks off with four-year research grants starting July 1, 2026. The coordinating center will be led by Emilia Bagiella, Ph.D., a professor of biostatistics in the Department of Population Health Science & Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
The 14 participating research centers span major academic medical institutions across the United States, including 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.
Addressing Health Equity and Innovation Gaps
"This is one of the most high-stakes areas in medicine, yet innovation has lagged far behind," Jessup noted. "The American Heart Association has an urgent opportunity and responsibility to rethink care for heart transplant patients."
The initiative specifically aims to address outcome disparities, particularly among Black patients and children, while ensuring that advances reach all people equitably. For patients and families navigating life after a heart transplant, this initiative represents hope for safer treatments, more personalized care and better long-term outcomes.
Substantial Research Investment
The American Heart Association has funded more than $6.1 billion in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health research since 1949, making it the single largest non-profit, non-government supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S. This new heart transplant initiative represents a cornerstone investment in addressing one of medicine's most challenging areas.
"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. "With this ambitious effort, the American Heart Association is taking a critical step toward modernizing heart transplant care, ensuring that innovation in this field finally catches up with the rest of cardiovascular medicine."