Nearly 7 million people in the United States are living with heart failure, a number expected to rise as overlapping conditions like cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and insulin resistance increase risk, often years before symptoms appear. To address this, the American Heart Association has launched Primary Care Perspectives, a platform supported by Bayer, designed to provide practical education, tools, and resources for earlier identification and management of cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic (CKM) risk.
Primary care professionals are often the first point of contact for patients at risk of heart failure, yet they face barriers such as rapidly evolving guidance, limited time, underused screening tools, and coordination challenges. The platform's first initiative, Heart Failure in Primary Care, focuses on helping clinicians identify and manage risk factors connected to heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF).
“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.”
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 improve long-term outcomes and reduce preventable disease progression. The initiative includes a core curriculum, screening tools, professional education, certification opportunities, resources for shared decision-making, and peer-to-peer learning.
“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 will launch its first educational webinar, Early Diagnosis and Initial Management of Heart Failure in Primary Care, on June 29, 2026. Additional resources include the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure and Risk-Based Primary Prevention of Heart Failure.
