Interventional heart failure (IHF) has rapidly evolved as a critical subspecialty within cardiology at the crossroads of advanced heart failure and interventional cardiology. The increasing complexity of patient care—spanning both pharmacological treatments and an expanding array of device-based therapies—has underscored the urgent need for a standardized approach to training and career development in this field. 

That’s the message from experts in a comprehensive review, “Charting the Course for Careers in Interventional Heart Failure: Training, Challenges, Future Directions,” highlighted at Technology and Heart Failure Therapeutics (THT) 2025 in Boston, MA. Co-published in JSCAI, the article highlights and addresses training gaps to advance the specialty, with an eye toward enabling future trainees to drive innovation and improve outcomes for patients with complex heart failure. 

Newborns with heart complications can rely on their newly developed immune systems to regenerate cardiac tissues, but adults aren’t so lucky. After a heart attack, most adults struggle to regenerate healthy heart tissue, leading to scar-tissue buildup and, often, heart failure. 

A new Northwestern Medicine study in experimental animals reveals a critical difference in how macrophages — a part of the immune system — help repair the heart in newborns versus adults after a heart attack. The study highlights a fundamental difference in how the immune system drives healing based on age.