American Heart Association Heart Transplant Research Network
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An institution may submit only one application in response to this RFP.
Background
The first heart transplant was performed in 1967, one of the most extraordinary feats of modern medicine. The system that supports it, however, has failed to evolve significantly since then, with none of the astonishing novel therapies we see being developed in other areas of medicine. Despite decades of innovation in almost all the other cardiovascular spheres, heart transplant care remains fragmented, inequitable, and frustratingly stagnant. Patients face ongoing cardiac rejection with imprecise methods to detect the immunologic process, potentially toxic immunosuppressive regimens which have not been updated substantially for two decades, and inconsistent outcomes—especially among Black recipients and pediatric populations. Data are siloed, research is underfunded, and quality improvement is virtually nonexistent. The majority of clinical practice guideline recommendations are driven by consensus rather than an evolving catalog of evidence.
There is no unified national data infrastructure that can support retrospective and prospective research, no standardized quality improvement framework, and no coordinated research agenda to address these challenges. In short, we are crawling in one of the most high-stakes areas of healthcare.
The American Heart Association is launching a bold, multi-phase initiative to transform heart transplantation care across the United States, a transformation in treatment built on three pillars:
- A Global Heart Transplant Data Infrastructure In collaboration with key transplant organizations, the American Heart Association will manage a comprehensive heart transplant database, designed not as a static registry, but as a dynamic, harmonized data platform to drive research, quality improvement, and policy change.
- A Research Network for Breakthrough Science We are now recruiting from leading institutions to launch a research network focused on rejection detection, remote monitoring, viral load surveillance, and innovative, safer therapies. This network will be the sandbox for high-impact studies, including planning grants for clinical trials in immune tolerance, and chronic rejection.
- A Quality Improvement Infrastructure Modeled after our Get With The Guidelines® success, we will build a scalable Quality Improvement (QI) framework to standardize transplant care, reduce disparities, and improve long-term outcomes. This will drive system-wide change.