In this special Lifetime Achievement Award Spotlight, we asked this year's recipient Debra K. Moser, PhD, RN to share career highlights, opinions on the future of heart failure care, and her professional advice on entering a career in the field of heart failure.

Dr. Moser will receive the award alongside a co-honoree at the HFSA Annual Scientific Meeting 2022 on Saturday, October 1. Learn more >>

Read Debra K. Moser's full bio >>

Q&A

In your opinion, what are important next steps in research to improve heart failure care?

We still have so much work to do in order to improve self-care in heart failure. This work involves discovering not only the best ways to support patients to perform excellent self-care, but the best ways to involve healthcare practitioners and systems in improving patient self-care. We must start including family caregivers as indispensable members in the healthcare team. We need to include those individuals with disparate access to care, disparate treatment opportunities and disparate outcomes in all heart failure research. Social determinants of health, which drive access, treatment and outcomes, must be addressed routinely in research.
 

Over the years, you have served in many key and critical roles within the Heart Failure Society of America.  What do you consider to be some of the pivotal activities that you have lead within our Society?

I was the first chair of the Nursing Committee when it was instituted and the opportunities to put nursing on the map in the society were boundless. We were successful in increasing the interdisciplinary nature of committees in the society and developing activities to draw more nurses to the society. We also wrote the first set of patient education booklets on a number of topics, a series that was very well-received.
 

What advice do you have for early career professionals who are entering the field?

I think it is essential for early career professionals to discover what they are passionate about and focus on excelling in that area This is particularly important in a research career where you want to establish a long and productive program of research and need passion to keep you engaged and active. I would advise early career professionals to learn how to write and publish as much as you can, learn how to speak and present as much as you can, and also discover less traditional forms of dissemination so that you can speak to academics, clinicians, policy makers and the public. Also, find a great mentor and become a great mentor to those more junior than yourself.

About the HFSA Lifetime Achievement Award 
The HFSA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented by the Executive Council of the HFSA. The purpose of this award is to recognize a lifetime body of work by an individual who has made a significant and sustained contributions to the field of heart failure. The 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award has been made possible with the generous support of .......