Heart Valve Initiative

The American Heart Association’s Heart Valve Initiative is a comprehensive national effort to improve how valve disease is identified, treated, and managed across the full patient journey. Aligned with the Heart Association’s mission to improve cardiovascular health and advance equitable care, the initiative brings together scientific leadership, care delivery expertise, and patient engagement to help ensure every patient receives timely, appropriate, and high-quality care.

At its core, the initiative is focused on closing the most critical gaps in heart valve disease care, where patients are often identified late, experience delays in echocardiography or referral, or fall through fragmented care pathways. By strengthening early detection through routine clinical assessment, improving access to high-quality imaging, supporting timely referral to specialists, and enabling coordinated, team-based care, the initiative connects each step of the journey from initial suspicion to diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing follow-up.

Heart valve disease is a growing, under-recognized public health challenge and often identified too late, when treatment options are limited, and outcomes are worse. With an aging population and persistent gaps in awareness, access, and care coordination, the Heart Valve Initiative is driving meaningful change to ensure patients are identified earlier, treated sooner, and supported throughout their care journey.