The American Heart Association (AHA) has launched a bold new initiative to transform heart transplant care across the United States, nearly 60 years after the first successful heart transplant. The AHA’s first-ever heart transplant research network will include 14 medical research centers and a coordinating center, bringing together scientists from around the country to create a national, unified data, research, and quality care infrastructure. The goal is to improve heart transplant outcomes by addressing long-standing gaps in innovation, equity, and patient care.
According to the American Heart Association’s 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, about 4,500 heart transplantations were performed in the U.S. in 2025, the highest number ever, yet more than 3,700 people remained on the waiting list. Despite advances in cardiovascular medicine, the system supporting heart transplantation has largely remained unchanged. Transplant recipients 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.
“This is one of the most high-stakes areas in medicine, yet innovation has lagged far behind. The American Heart Association has an urgent opportunity and responsibility to rethink care for heart transplant patients,” said Mariell Jessup, M.D., FAHA, the chief science and medical officer of the AHA.
The initiative aims to foster collaboration across institutions, generate actionable data, and ensure that advances reach all people equitably. The multi-phase effort focuses on three key pillars: a global heart transplant data infrastructure, a research network for breakthrough science, and a coordinated path forward modeled after the AHA’s Get With The Guidelines® program. The data infrastructure will develop a comprehensive heart transplant database enabling real-time insights for research, quality improvement, and policy. The research network will focus on earlier detection of rejection, remote monitoring technologies, viral surveillance, and safer therapies. The coordinated framework will standardize care, advance accessibility, and improve long-term outcomes.
The network kicks off with four-year research grants starting July 1, 2026. The coordinating center will be led by Emilia Bagiella, Ph.D., at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. 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. “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.”
The AHA has funded more than $6.1 billion in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health research since 1949, making it the largest non-profit, non-government supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S. According to a recent Annenberg Policy Center poll, 82% of U.S. adults say they are confident in the AHA to provide trustworthy public health information.
