FIT-HEART

2025

Habitual physical activity is beneficial for cardiovascular health. Yet, many patients with cardiovascular disease are sedentary, and current physical activity programs often fail to achieve lasting improvements. At the extreme end of the activity spectrum, more athletes engage in long-term, high-volume, high-intensity training. Emerging evidence suggests that there may be an upper limit of exercise for heart health and exceeding this threshold may attenuate the benefits of an active lifestyle. The FIT-HEART consortium seeks to develop tailored physical activity interventions for cardiovascular disease patients and to investigate safe exercise limits for recreational and elite athletes.

The research

FIT-HEART has three main goals:

Co-create, implement and evaluate an innovative program that promotes physical activity by integrating incentives from the individual’s (social) environment tailored to the needs of specific subgroups, which can be seamlessly integrated into healthcare systems across the Netherlands, with potential for future expansion to other patient groups and the broader population.
Assess the upper limits of exercise on heart health in recreational and professional athletes by conducting prospective studies in unique cohorts. This approach integrates extensive cardiac phenotyping, wearable monitoring, novel AI technologies, digital twinning, immunophenotyping, and long-term evaluation of clinical outcomes.
Establish and expand a multidisciplinary, synergistic consortium focused on sports, exercise, and heart health. Our mission is to nurture young talent, foster innovative cross-domain collaborations, and secure funding for ongoing and future research. In partnership with end-users, we will disseminate outcomes to professionals, patients, and the public, while raising awareness of the wide-ranging health benefits of an active lifestyle.

The origin

The FIT-HEART consortium emerged from a shared ambition among academic institutions, healthcare partners, patient organizations, and policymakers to address sedentary lifestyles in cardiovascular disease patients and to investigate the cardiac effects of extreme exercise in both elite and recreational athletes. This interdisciplinary initiative builds upon prior collaborative research in sports cardiology, preventive medicine, and behavioral interventions aimed at promoting physical activity.

FIT-HEART is well-aligned with the strategic agendas of the Dutch Heart Foundation and the Dutch CardioVascular Alliance (DCVA), both of which prioritize innovative solutions to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.

By integrating incentives from people’s social environment, the consortium aims to create personalized treatment options that encourage lasting physical activity, while taking into account subgroup-specific needs. In parallel, the integration of advanced cardiovascular methodologies enables FIT-HEART to identify recreational and professional athletes at an early stage who are at risk for adverse cardiovascular health outcomes.

Collaborators

Funded

Contact person:

Thijs Eijsvogels

Thijs.Eijsvogels@radboudumc.nl

Principal investigators

Thijs Eijsvogels

Thijs.Eijsvogels@radboudumc.nl

Harald Jorstad

h.t.jorstad@amsterdamumc.nl

Veronica Janssen

v.r.janssen@lumc.nl

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Registry-based research enables faster and cheaper clinical research by using real world data. This is particularly important in patient populations where research is otherwise difficult to conduct, such as heart failure patients with comorbidities. The main aim of the Heart4data consortium is therefore to develop a sustainable infrastructure for cardiovascular registry-based research in the Netherlands. This includes governance and Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, research methods, FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) data creation and data linkage with relevant databases.     About Heart4Data  The Heart4Data consortium is building on the core qualities and experience of DCVA partners. Heart4Data will create a DCVA Health Data Hub that will be part of the DCVA pillar Data Infrastructure to combine all expertises across the different DCVA partners as part of the sustainability program.    In addition, Heart4Data will contribute to improvement of valorisation and implementation through accelerating the generation of results and facilitate DCVA consortia by providing a platform for research at lower operational costs compared to more traditional research methods.    The Research 1. To create a national and sustainable FAIR data-based infrastructure for cardiovascular registry-based research.  The infrastructure includes a framework/structure for the governance, and the ethical, legal, financial, technological and methodological factors. There will be a special focus on heart failure in this project by creating a sustainable heart failure (and atrial fibrillation (AF)) registry in the Netherlands Heart Registration (NHR) and links with other relevant national and regional registries and data sources.    2. To use and prove value of the infrastructure by conducting two projects:    - Observational, longitudinal research on the entire spectrum of patients with heart failure (including patients with HFpEF) in the Netherlands (project A) with focus on guideline recommended diagnostic trajectories and treatment.  - Prospective randomized clinical research on pharmaco-therapeutic treatment in patients with chronic heart failure (project B: SELEQT-HF). 
The origin
One of the five top priorities named on the cardiovascular disease research agenda that the Dutch Heart Foundation set in 2014 was finding better treatment for heart failure and arrhythmias. Back in 2014, when the research agenda was drawn up, it became clear that registry-based research is essential for this. The Dutch Heart Foundation therefore funded this study as part of the collaboration with the ZonMw GGG program on Good Use of Medicines (Goed Gebruik Geneesmiddelen).
For a complex project such as this, collaboration within the entire cardiovascular field is an important starting point. The consortium is a collaboration between several DCVA partners; the Dutch Heart Foundation, ZonMw, NHR, WCN, Harteraad, NLHI, NVHVV, NVT, NVVC, VIG and Health-RI.
 

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Aneurysm-NL

2025

An aneurysm is a bulging or dilation of a blood vessel that usually causes no symptoms but can become life-threatening if it ruptures. It most commonly occurs in the body’s main artery (aorta) or in the brain arteries. Each year, thousands of people in the Netherlands are diagnosed with an aneurysm. The national initiative Aneurysm-NL brings together knowledge and research to improve diagnosis and treatment. By fostering collaboration between physicians, researchers, and patients, we aim to detect aneurysms earlier and treat them more safely, ultimately improving care and reducing mortality from this condition.
The Research

Aneurysm-NL aims to build a sustainable, nationwide infrastructure that connects medical centers, researchers, and patients to accelerate innovation in aneurysm research and care. A central focus is the development of a national data platform that integrates clinical records, imaging, biobank samples, and genetic information. This resource will allow researchers to reconstruct lifetime disease trajectories, improve risk prediction, and enable more personalized treatment.
In parallel, the project develops advanced research tools, including patient-derived in vitro aneurysm models and large-scale omics-approaches to identify new therapeutic targets. By integrating clinical insights with computational modeling and real-world outcome data, Aneurysm-NL supports better decision-making and more effective interventions for both aortic and cerebral aneurysms. It also evaluates the safety and effectiveness of current endovascular and neurosurgical treatments for unruptured brain aneurysms through a large multicenter study.
Aneurysm-NL also invests in building a strong and inclusive research community. The project emphasizes collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and patients, and actively works toward linking its infrastructure to national registries and existing healthcare data sources to ensure long-term sustainability and broad accessibility. By uniting expertise from across the country, Aneurysm-NL strives to generate new knowledge, enable earlier and more accurate diagnosis, and personalize treatment strategies for aneurysm patients.
The Origin
The Aneurysm-NL consortium was established following an exploratory initiative within the Dutch CardioVascular Alliance (DCVA), aimed at identifying opportunities for a national approach to aneurysm research. Based on this exploration, Barend Mees, Hanneke Takkenberg and Mervyn Vergouwen were appointed as coordinators to lead the formation of the consortium. Following a national call in April 2024, they brought together clinicians, researchers and patients from across the Netherlands to collaborate in this new initiative. With funding from the Dutch Heart Foundation, Aneurysm-NL now aims to grow into a nationwide network and data infrastructure, uniting clinical and scientific expertise to advance aneurysm research and care in the coming years.

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