On July 29, 2025, HonorHealth achieved a historic milestone by launching our Artificial Heart Program and implanting our first destination therapy left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The patient is recovering well, and this marks a new era for advanced heart failure care at HonorHealth.

Program impact to date

Since launching in 2025, our Advanced Heart Failure team has identified 16 patients who met criteria to be considered for an LVAD within the HonorHealth system. We’ve already seen significant progress with multiple patients receiving life-saving heart transplants and VAD implants.

Why this program matters

With a population of 7.5 million, Arizona performed only 81 heart transplants and 34 VADs in 2024. This gap represents hundreds of patients with less than one year to live who are missing access to life-extending therapies. Our new program is designed to close that gap, ensuring more patients receive the advanced care they need.

Smarter patient identification with InView

To avoid missed opportunities, we’re implementing InView, an Epic-integrated tool that identifies advanced heart failure patients using objective, literature-vetted parameters. InView:

• Identifies 1-2% of hospitalized patients system-wide (two to four patients at any given time).
• Demonstrates high specificity in patient selection.
• Triggers Best Practice Alerts (BPAs) to primary cardiologists for awareness.

Referral decisions, as always, remain entirely at your discretion.

Let’s collaborate

The success of this program depends on a collaborative effort across the entire HonorHealth Medical Staff. We encourage you to keep an eye out for potential candidates as we work together to find patients who can benefit from this life-changing therapy.

To learn more, visit the Artificial Heart Program page or visit our HonorHub homepage. For questions, please contact Geoffrey Jao, MD, medical director, advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology.