The American Heart Association has launched Primary Care Perspectives, a new platform designed to help primary care professionals identify heart failure risk earlier and manage patients with overlapping cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic conditions. Supported by Bayer, the platform provides practical education, tools, and resources to address the increasing complexity of caring for patients at risk for heart failure.
Nearly 7 million people in the United States currently 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 co-occur, elevating the risk of heart failure progression—sometimes for years before symptoms appear. Primary care professionals are often the first point of contact for these patients, yet they face barriers including limited time, evolving clinical guidance, and underused screening tools.
“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 risk factors linked to heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF). Many eligible patients hospitalized with heart failure do not receive guideline-directed medical therapy at discharge. Earlier identification and management in primary care may improve long-term outcomes.
“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.”
The three-year initiative is intended for primary care professionals caring for patients across the cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic continuum. It will launch with an educational webinar on June 29, 2026, titled Early Diagnosis and Initial Management of Heart Failure in Primary Care. Offerings will include a core curriculum, screening tools, professional education and certification, resources for shared decision-making, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
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.
