The American Heart Association has announced the launch of its first-ever heart transplant research network, a bold initiative designed to fundamentally transform how heart transplant care is delivered across the United States. The 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 to improve heart transplant outcomes.
According to the American Heart Association’s 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, approximately 4,500 heart transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2025, the highest number ever, yet more than 3,700 people remained on the waiting list. The initiative aims to address critical gaps in innovation, equity, and patient outcomes that have persisted for decades.
“Despite decades of breakthrough advances in cardiovascular medicine, the system supporting heart transplantation has remained largely unchanged,” said Mariell Jessup, M.D., FAHA, 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.”
Currently, heart transplant care is hindered by fragmented data systems, limited research investment, and a lack of standardized quality improvement efforts. Many clinical guidelines are based on expert consensus rather than robust, evolving evidence. The new initiative aims to change that by fostering collaboration across institutions, generating actionable data, and ensuring that advances reach all people equitably.
The multi-phase initiative focuses on three key pillars. First, a Global Heart Transplant Data Infrastructure will be developed in collaboration with leading transplant organizations. Unlike traditional registries, this dynamic, harmonized platform will enable 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 critical areas, including earlier and more precise detection of transplant rejection, remote monitoring technologies, viral surveillance, 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. Third, a Coordinated Path Forward, modeled after the Association’s Get With The Guidelines success, will establish a scalable quality improvement framework to standardize care, advance accessibility, and improve long-term outcomes.
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 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 American Heart Association has now 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, more than 8 in 10 U.S. adults say they are confident in the American Heart Association to provide trustworthy information related to public health.
