Heart failure remains a serious complication, contributing to great rates of morbidity and mortality in affected patients. Persistent disparities in heart failure have reinforced the need to take a closer look at why some populations bear the brunt of disease burden more than others, demonstrating the need for bridging cardiovascular care gaps. Health inequities was a large topic explored throughout the 100th American Heart Association (AHA) conference. Khadijah Breathett, MD, MS, FACC, associate professor of medicine, Indiana University, spoke to the impact of social determinants of health and, notably, how community-based research can inform efforts to tackle inequities in cardiovascular disease.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Transcript: An Expert's Perspective on Bridging Cardiovascular Care Gaps

What findings from community-based research have been the most surprising, specifically regarding factors that drive disparities in cardiovascular health and bridging cardiovascular care gaps?

I think there are multiple issues that have come to the horizon. One: we definitely need to include the community. In my own work, I've focused on developing a patient and stakeholder community advisory board that's national that we use to develop ideas, to understand what the problems are, to develop the strategies, using actually implementation science frameworks, to then attempt to deploy in studies to fix some of these major disparities that are facing our nation, particularly in the way that we deliver cardiovascular care.

I think there's a greater focus on that now, on community-based research, community-based participatory research as well for bridging cardiovascular care gaps. I think one of the major benefits that have happened over the past couple years is that some of the large funding organizations also recognize that this is important, and have made this a major requirement to compete for some of these large awards.

We have to include the community as we're moving forward to bridge cardiovascular care gaps. It's devastating underrepresented populations, and it's only projected to worsen over the next several decades.

Read the full article about cardiovascular health disparities by Kyle Munz at AJMC.