The American Heart Association (AHA) today announced the launch of a pioneering three-year quality improvement initiative focused on advancing the care continuum for pulmonary embolism (PE) patients across the United States. Pulmonary embolism, a type of blood clot that lodges in the lungs, ranks as the third leading cause of cardiovascular death nationwide and is responsible for over half a million hospitalizations annually, with high-risk cases facing mortality rates approaching 20%. Despite incremental advances in therapeutic options and diagnostic capabilities, PE remains underdiagnosed, inconsistently managed, and often suboptimally treated across healthcare institutions, resulting in substantial variability in patient outcomes.

This ambitious initiative, developed with support from Inari (now part of Stryker), responds directly to critical data cited in the AHA's 2025 statistical update and aims to systematically address the pronounced gaps in care delivery. The program will establish a 20-site national learning collaborative, strategically selected to represent urban, rural, and resource-limited hospitals. By assembling a diverse mix of hospital types—including academic medical centers, community hospitals, and safety-net providers—the initiative seeks to ensure shared learning and scalable best practices that are adaptable across multiple care settings.

The collaborative will use an 'all teach, all learn' methodology, where participating health systems routinely exchange data, clinical insights, workflow strategies, and barriers encountered. Key objectives include: 1) identifying current knowledge shortfalls and practice disparities in PE management; 2) developing innovative solutions for commonly cited barriers such as limited provider awareness, delayed diagnosis, inefficient care coordination, and fragmented follow-up; and 3) formulating and disseminating evidence-based protocols and checklists that can be rapidly adopted by other facilities nationwide. Health IT integration and interoperability are additional focus areas, with an emphasis on leveraging electronic health records and analytics to identify at-risk patients earlier and standardize care pathways.

Tim Lanier, president of the Stryker Inari Division, highlighted the impact of the industry-provider partnership: 'By supporting the American Heart Association’s investment in scalable, evidence-based solutions, we can help ensure more patients have access to the best possible treatment regardless of where they live.' The AHA also noted that previously identified inequities—such as race, geography, and socioeconomic status—often contribute to wide variations in PE mortality and access to advanced interventions. The initiative’s design aims specifically to reduce disparities in care delivery and outcomes by facilitating access to specialized expertise, continuous education, and peer support for clinicians in all hospital settings.

In addition to clinical protocol harmonization and workflow optimization, the initiative will generate robust, multi-site data intended for dissemination through peer-reviewed publications, national conferences, and AHA quality-focused symposia. Participating hospitals will contribute de-identified clinical metrics on process and outcome measures, driving continuous benchmarking and fostering a cycle of iterative improvement. The collaborative is expected to become a blueprint for similar large-scale, disease-specific quality efforts moving forward, offering hospital administrators, clinical leaders, and procurement professionals actionable models for engaging multidisciplinary teams and aligning operational priorities with improved patient safety and value-based care targets.

This development is highly relevant to the strategic goals of American region healthcare organizations seeking to strengthen their critical care, emergency response, diagnostics, and performance management infrastructures. Hospitals interested in joining future cohorts or adopting validated PE care pathways will be able to access initiative-generated resources through the AHA’s platform and associated continuing education programs. The project underlines a growing trend in U.S. hospital management: using collaborative, data-driven models to close care gaps, drive best practices adoption, and reduce unwarranted variation, ultimately translating into improved clinical outcomes and organizational excellence.