Singling out the Heart: Revolutionizing Heart Failure by Harnessing Translational Technologies

Heart failure (HF) affects more than 64 million individuals worldwide, including 6.5 million adults in the United States.1,2 In addition to its escalating global prevalence, HF is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, resulting in increasing hospitalizations and significant health care expendi-tures. Despite considerable advances in medical and device therapies for patients across the spectrum of HF, the burden of HF continues to grow; thus, there is an urgent global priority to address further the pathogenesis and treatment of HF. HF is a complex and heterogeneous clinical syn-drome that requires an understanding of the under-lying disease etiology, severity, congestive profile, and pathogenesis so as to optimize treatment and management. Additionally, from a global perspec-tive, the distribution of HF etiologies varies by geo-graphic region, necessitating local investigation to address the unique HF features of that population. In addition to ongoing clinical efforts, further unrav-eling of the molecular mechanisms of HF is needed in order to accelerate the development of novel eti-ology-specific therapies. Translational research in HF can play an integral role in facilitating a personalized approach to HF, including care of spe-cial populations in whom differences have been documented increasingly.