Building on the momentum established in last year’s pioneering initiative led by Swansea University’s Dr Emma Rees and Dr Aimee Drane, the IMPROVE-HF programme has now entered a new and exciting phase. Supported by the NIHR, the project continues to unite healthcare professionals, researchers, patients and policymakers to drive forward the future of heart failure innovation in Wales.
Since the original announcement, significant progress has been made across the project, from nationwide engagement to data-driven innovation. Here are the key updates that mark a major step toward establishing a national approach to heart failure that matters to the public, patients and healthcare professionals.
A Successful All-Wales “Sandpit” Event
In September 2025, the team hosted a national “sandpit” in Swansea, bringing together 27 clinicians, researchers, public contributors and partners from across Wales. This interactive workshop allowed attendees to:
- Summarise the heart failure services within their organisations
- Explore the root causes of poor outcomes
- Prioritise key areas for improvement
- Collaboratively design potential interventions
Participants identified three overarching challenge areas:
- Variation and inequality in services across Wales
- Early detection, prevention and diagnosis of heart failure
- Stronger collaboration, innovation and research capacity
A wide range of potential interventions emerged, including targeted point-of-care testing, AI-assisted echocardiography, rapid medicine optimisation, improved patient experience and empowerment, multidisciplinary heart failure teams, enhanced digital infrastructure, and public-facing awareness strategies.
Insights from this event were shared at the recent National Cardiovascular Research Network meeting.
Refining Research Priorities: Focus on Early Detection and Diagnosis in Primary Care
Thematic analysis from the sandpit event highlighted a clear need to improve the early detection and diagnosis of heart failure within community and primary care, addressing delays that contribute significantly to poorer outcomes.
Knowing that other UK and international teams are also exploring screening and pathway redesign for those with suspected heart failure, the IMPROVE-HF team is conducting a systematic review – in collaboration with the Swansea Trials Unit – to map the published evidence of the effectiveness of existing relevant interventions. The review protocol has been published on PROSPERO, and the team are at the point of extracting data from key trials for analysis, marking an important milestone for this work package.
Strengthening Wales’ Capability in Data-Driven Heart Failure Research
At the British Society for Heart Failure Annual Meeting, the team presented findings from another core phase of work conducted in collaboration with Swansea Bay University Health Board, Dr Libby Ellins (National Cardiovascular Research Network) and SAIL Databank. Together the researchers have shown that it is feasible to extract large volumes of ultrasound heart scan (echo) measurements from routine healthcare data and link them to population-level health records. This is important for heart failure research at a population level because adding the scan data will enable researchers to have greater detail about the type and severity of heart failure. This achievement lays the foundation for a new Wales-wide approach which has the potential to transform:
- Population epidemiology
- Early-risk stratification
- Evaluation of cardiovascular clinical pathways and outcomes
- Service planning across Welsh health boards
The research group is now exploring how this model can be extended to other regions of Wales and results have generated excitement among clinical researchers elsewhere in the UK who have reached out to the team to explore future collaboration.
Next Steps
This growing multidisciplinary team strengthens the project’s capacity for analysis, community engagement and future trial development. Meanwhile, the research community continues to grow, with collaborators from Wales and beyond contributing insights, evidence and support.
With findings promising results nationally, the team is now finalising the systematic review, which will provide evidence to feed directly into the programme’s culminating output: a national consensus document outlining best practices and priority areas for heart failure research across Wales.
This final report – developed through collaboration between universities, health boards, patients, and community partners – will form the basis for major future funding applications and coordinated all-Wales research programmes.
The IMPROVE-HF initiative continues to advance the mission of the National Institute for Sport & Health: supporting impactful healthcare innovation that improves population wellbeing.