The American Heart Association has launched Primary Care Perspectives, a new platform designed to help primary care professionals recognize the risk of heart failure earlier and manage patients before the disease progresses. The initiative, supported by Bayer, provides practical education, tools, and resources tailored to the realities of everyday primary care, with a focus on cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic (CKM) conditions.
Nearly 7 million people in the United States live with heart failure, a number expected to rise. Conditions such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance often overlap, increasing the risk of progression to heart failure, sometimes years before symptoms appear. Primary care professionals are often the first and most frequent point of contact for at-risk patients, yet they face barriers including rapidly evolving guidance, limited time during visits, underused screening tools, and challenges in coordinating care across settings.
"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 CKM risk factors connected to heart failure, particularly heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF). Even with established guidance, many eligible patients hospitalized with heart failure do not receive guideline-directed medical therapy 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 is a three-year initiative intended for primary care professionals caring for patients across the CKM continuum. Offerings will include a core curriculum, practical screening tools, professional education and certification opportunities, resources for shared decision-making, and peer-to-peer learning. The first educational webinar, Early Diagnosis and Initial Management of Heart Failure in Primary Care, will take place on June 29, 2026. Additional resources include the Heart Failure in Primary Care - Professional Heart Daily | American Heart Association and the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure.
