Closing the Gap Between Discovery and Care: A Conversation With American Heart Association President Manesh Patel, MD

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EP LAB DIGEST. 2026;26(9).

Interview by Isabel Vega 

The American Heart Association (AHA) has named Manesh R Patel, MD, as its volunteer president for 2026-2027, bringing decades of leadership in cardiovascular medicine, clinical research, and quality improvement to the role. Throughout his career, Dr Patel has been a strong advocate for accelerating the translation of scientific discovery into everyday clinical practice—a priority he describes as closing the gap between discovery and care. In this interview, Dr Patel discusses his vision for the AHA, the future of arrhythmia care, the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI), and the opportunities to improve cardiovascular outcomes.

Congratulations on becoming President of the AHA for 2026-2027. How have your previous leadership roles within the AHA prepared you for this position?
I'm humbled and honored to serve as the AHA’s volunteer president for 2026-2027. What excites me most is the organization's people and its mission to improve human health.

I've been involved with the AHA throughout my career. As a fellow, I presented research, competed for early-career awards such as the Melvin Judkins Award, and became deeply invested in the organization's mission. As a junior faculty member, I served on committees focused on catheterization and scientific statements, including work related to vascular closure devices. I also became involved locally through Heart Walks and regional AHA committees.

Later, I had the opportunity to serve on the Scientific Sessions Planning Committee twice before chairing it from 2020 to 2022. That experience gave me a broad perspective on how the AHA advances and shares cardiovascular science. More recently, serving on the National Board has allowed me to see the full scope of AHA’s work—from advocacy and scientific research to quality improvement, cardiopulmonary resuscitation education, and public health initiatives. I also had the privilege of serving on the 2028 Impact Goal Working Group.

Looking back, every stage of my involvement has reinforced the same lesson: the AHA brings together people who are committed to improving cardiovascular health and making a meaningful difference in the world. That's what makes this opportunity so special.

You've spoken about closing the gap between discovery and care as a key priority for your presidency. How will that focus shape your vision for the AHA and its future direction?
Closing the gap between discovery and care isn't just my priority—it's a priority for our country, for the world, and for the AHA. It's something we've been working toward for many years.

I often refer to it as the "last-mile problem": taking proven therapies and making sure they get to everyone everywhere. That idea was central to the AHA's Impact Goal—that the greatest discoveries in health must reach people where they are.

Today, it can take 8 or 9 years from the time a therapy is proven in a clinical trial or presented at Scientific Sessions until it's widely adopted in clinical practice. Shortening that timeline would have a tremendous impact on patient outcomes, while also helping us learn more quickly about what patients need.

The AHA has already made important progress through initiatives like Get With The Guidelines. Now, with advances in technology, AI, and digital health, we have an opportunity to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based care and deliver proven therapies to patients faster than ever before.

From your perspective, what do you see as the biggest challenges—and greatest opportunities—in improving care for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and other arrhythmias, particularly when it comes to expanding access, improving patient outcomes, and increasing adoption of evidence-based therapies?
When we think about arrhythmia care, AF is the most common cardiac arrhythmia that clinicians and patients face, and its prevalence continues to grow. One of the greatest opportunities moving forward is prevention. The science is increasingly focused on identifying ways to prevent AF before it develops, with advances in precision medicine and a better understanding of individual risk factors. Lifestyle interventions, including the AHA's Life's Essential 8, also play an important role—not only in prevention but in improving outcomes for patients who already have AF.

Another major priority is stroke prevention. Over the course of my career, we've seen significant advances with therapies such as direct oral anticoagulants, which have transformed care for many patients. At the same time, not every patient is an appropriate candidate for long-term anticoagulation, so we're continuing to see important innovations, including factor XI inhibitors and left atrial appendage occlusion devices.

Ultimately, none of these advances matter unless patients have access to them. Whether through digital health, new models of care, or other innovations, we need to shorten the gap between scientific discovery and clinical practice so patients can access evidence-based therapies for prevention, stroke reduction, and arrhythmia care more quickly.

AI and advances in clinical research are rapidly changing cardiovascular medicine. Which innovations do you believe will have the greatest impact on arrhythmia care over the next decade?
AI and arrhythmia care are becoming increasingly interconnected. One of the greatest opportunities is using AI to identify patients who are at risk for developing arrhythmias such as AF before they experience clinical events.

Just as importantly, we need to evaluate these technologies with the same scientific rigor we apply to any new therapy or medical device. The AHA, along with investigators around the world, is working to establish structured approaches for studying AI so we can determine where these tools truly improve patient care.

We're already seeing tremendous potential through electrocardiogram interpretation, wearable technologies, and other digital tools. If we evaluate them carefully and demonstrate meaningful improvements in outcomes, these innovations can ultimately inform clinical guidelines, support implementation in everyday practice, and improve cardiovascular health on a broad scale.

Many effective therapies remain underused despite strong clinical evidence. What do you see as the biggest barriers to translating new research into everyday clinical practice, and how can organizations like the AHA help overcome them?
That's one of the most important challenges we face. Even when therapies have been proven to improve outcomes, they don't always reach the patients who could benefit from them. I think about the barriers in 3 broad categories.

First is awareness and trust. Patients and clinicians may not be familiar with the evidence supporting a therapy, or they may be hesitant to adopt it. That's true across cardiovascular prevention—from lipid management and hypertension to AF and stroke prevention. Continuing to communicate and reinforce high-quality science remains a critical responsibility for organizations like the AHA.

Second is access. Patients may understand the value of a therapy but still be unable to receive it because they lack access to specialists, healthcare resources, or affordable treatment. Improving access and addressing the affordability of healthcare will remain essential if we want evidence-based therapies to reach more patients.

Finally, we have to recognize that adopting new therapies often requires changes in behavior—for both clinicians and patients. Implementing evidence-based care consistently takes education, support, and system-level changes. Addressing all 3 of these barriers will be essential if we're going to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and improve long-term outcomes.

At the end of your presidency, what would success look like for you, and what impact do you hope your leadership will have on the AHA and the cardiovascular community?
For me, leadership is ultimately about service and purpose. At the end of my presidency, I hope the greatest impact will be on the people—our volunteers, our clinicians and scientists, and the next generation of leaders who will continue advancing cardiovascular health.

I hope we've continued to strengthen the AHA's mission of giving people everywhere the opportunity to live healthier lives. I also hope we've built on important initiatives such as Get With The Guidelines while developing new systems to evaluate rapidly evolving technologies, including AI and the growing use of health data. Efforts like the Precision Health Platform have the potential to create trusted networks that continuously evaluate these innovations and help translate them into better patient care.

Finally, I hope I've inspired more people to pursue careers in cardiovascular medicine and science. Few fields offer the opportunity to translate scientific discovery into meaningful improvements in people's lives, and I hope others will be inspired to become part of that mission.

The transcripts were edited for clarity and length.