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 disease progression. With nearly 7 million people in the United States living with heart failure—a number expected to rise—the initiative addresses the overlap of cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance, which often increase heart failure risk years before symptoms appear.
Supported by Bayer, the platform provides practical education, tools, and resources tailored to the realities of everyday primary care. It focuses on earlier identification and management of cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic (CKM) risk. Eduardo Sanchez, MD, MPH, FAHA, chief medical officer for prevention at the American Heart Association, noted that primary care professionals face increasing complexity across these conditions, often with limited time and fragmented guidance. Primary Care Perspectives aims to support clinicians in recognizing risk earlier and making informed decisions.
The platform's first initiative, Heart Failure in Primary Care, targets heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF). Primary care professionals are often the first point of contact for at-risk patients but face barriers such as rapidly evolving guidance, limited time, underused screening tools, and care coordination challenges. Even with established guidelines, many eligible patients hospitalized with heart failure do not receive guideline-directed medical therapy at discharge.
Robert Perkins, M.D., M.P.H., FACP, vice president of U.S. medical affairs cardiovascular and renal at Bayer, emphasized that heart failure burdens patients, caregivers, and health systems, and this initiative will help identify risk earlier. The three-year initiative includes a core curriculum, practical screening tools, professional education, certification opportunities, and resources for shared decision-making. The first educational webinar, Early Diagnosis and Initial Management of Heart Failure in Primary Care, is scheduled for June 29, 2026.
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. The American Heart Association, a leading source of health information for over a century, funds research and advocates for public health.
