The American Heart Association has launched Primary Care Perspectives, a new platform designed to help primary care professionals recognize heart failure risk earlier and support patients before the disease progresses. Nearly 7 million people in the United States are living with heart failure, and that number is expected to grow. Cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and insulin resistance often overlap, increasing the risk of progression to heart failure, sometimes for years before symptoms appear. The platform is supported by Bayer and aims to provide practical education, tools and resources that reflect the realities of everyday primary care.
“Primary care professionals are managing increasing complexity across cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic conditions, often while navigating limited time and fragmented guidance,” said Eduardo Sanchez, MD, MPH, FAHA, chief medical officer for prevention at the American Heart Association. “Primary Care Perspectives was created to support clinicians with practical education and tools that can help them recognize risk earlier, make informed decisions with confidence and support patients before heart failure becomes more difficult to prevent or manage.”
The platform’s first initiative, Heart Failure in Primary Care, focuses on helping clinicians identify and manage cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic risk factors connected to heart failure, particularly HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and HF with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF). Primary care professionals are often the first and most frequent point of contact for patients at risk of heart failure. Yet many clinicians face real-world barriers that can contribute to delays in diagnosis, treatment and referral, including rapidly evolving guidance across cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic conditions, limited time during patient visits, underused screening and risk-assessment tools and challenges coordinating care across settings.
Even with established guidance, many eligible patients hospitalized with heart failure do not receive guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) at discharge. Earlier identification and management in primary care may help improve long-term outcomes and reduce preventable disease progression. “Bayer is proud to support the American Heart Association’s Primary Care Perspectives initiative and its focus on providing practical education and resources that can help clinicians navigate the growing complexity of cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic conditions,” said Robert Perkins, M.D., M.P.H., FACP, vice president of U.S. medical affairs cardiovascular and renal at Bayer. “Heart failure continues to place a significant burden on patients, caregivers and health systems, and this initiative will help primary care professionals identify risk earlier and support timely care.”
Heart Failure in Primary Care, a three-year initiative, is intended for primary care professionals caring for patients across the cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic continuum, especially those with early risk factors and those with or at risk for heart failure. By using heart failure as a practical entry point, the initiative helps clinicians connect everyday care decisions with earlier risk identification and management. The initiative will launch with its first educational webinar, Early Diagnosis and Initial Management of Heart Failure in Primary Care, on June 29, 2026, designed to support primary care teams in recognizing and managing heart failure earlier.
Offerings are expected to include: a core curriculum focused on earlier cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic risk identification and management in primary care; practical screening and risk-assessment tools; professional education and certification opportunities; resources to support shared decision-making with patients; and peer-to-peer learning opportunities shaped for real-world primary care settings. Additional resources include the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure and the Heart Failure in Primary Care page on Professional Heart Daily.
