The American Heart Association is launching its first-ever heart transplant research network, a bold initiative to transform the delivery of heart transplant care across the United States. The network includes 14 medical research centers and a coordinating center, bringing together scientists nationwide to create a national, unified data, research, and quality care infrastructure. 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 most ever, yet 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 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.” The initiative aims to address these long-standing gaps in innovation, equity, and patient outcomes.
Heart transplant care currently suffers from 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 evidence. The new initiative will foster collaboration across institutions, generate actionable data, and ensure equitable advances. It focuses on three pillars: a global heart transplant data infrastructure, a research network for breakthrough science, and a coordinated path forward modeled after the Association’s Get With The Guidelines success.
The data infrastructure, developed with leading transplant organizations, will be a dynamic, harmonized platform enabling real-time insights for research and quality improvement. The research network will focus on earlier and more precise detection of transplant rejection, remote monitoring technologies, viral surveillance, and development of safer therapies. It will also support planning grants to accelerate clinical trials in immune tolerance and chronic rejection.
The four-year research grants start 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 American Heart Association has funded more than $6.1 billion in cardiovascular research since 1949, making it the largest non-profit supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S.
