From the MWLA President: Our Outcome Challenges are Universal in Scope

When the task of writing the quarterly Lipid Spin was announced at our Board meeting, the vast geographical 11 state volunteers immediately responded. The knowledge, talent, skills and passion expressed show the commitment and specialized expertise of the membership. Their enthusiasm for participating in this issue showed their commitment to educating health providers and patients.

Lipidologists and the National Lipid Association are rapidly evolving to keep pace with the overwhelming research and information available to enhance our specialty skills. This age of high technology and methods of communications are changing our practices and standards of care. Health care is a comprehensive team approach as lipid specialists communicate with professionals who treat patients’ complex lipid abnormalities.

Medical costs continue to escalate and lipidologists, with their specialty expertise, help to control costs, reduce patient risks and the number of vascular events. The informed lipidologist practices and utilizes the best scientific evidence for medical interventions and treatments.

As lipidologists, the privileged patient encounter is a relationship to optimize our patients’ health. It is a very trusting relationship as we plan their primary or secondary preventions or tertiary health plans.

A lipidologist’s intervention for a successful outcome continues to be a challenge. It must include daily recommendations, personal attitudes, behavioral activity, medication effects and available resources. Time is always at a premium as we inform and educate patients to optimize their health outcomes. C. Everett Koop, MD, our former United States surgeon general, once said,"“Drugs don't work in patients who don’t take them."¹ As specialists, we have the ability to teach and encourage as we impact our patients' future health.

The Midwest Lipid Association and NLA culture is global. Lipidologists' challenges are to modify risks in the face of the varied ethnic and broad cultural and medical beliefs in patients we manage. The shared risks are universal - smoking, diabetes mellitus, lipid control, obesity, hypertension, diet, physical activity, alcohol and psychosocial factors. The challenge of specialists is to collect accurate health information and conditions. We must recommend treatments and share health care information to be able to work on alternative treatments that will improve cultural beliefs for personal health status.

Our practices are in the rural states of North Dakota and Wisconsin. We value discussions of complex cases with experts from our association. Thank you all for your expertise.

The NLA membership is a vast care-giving team. The health care provided by lipid specialists is an area of expertise in the continual challenge of vascular diseases that remain the No. 1 cause of death. A respectable career as a lipidologist in our health care system has a mission to impact our patients for a positive health outcome.

As members of the NLA it has made our professional growth in this extensive area of lipids a valuable educational asset that has benefited the health of our patients. We hope you all realize the impact you have made in your local communities as a specialist in lipids. We are a small organization, but by each of us committing to the mission of the NLA and the challenge of preventing vascular events, we have an impact on the health of America. We all must keep our passion for excellence in the care of our patients. We are few but we continue as specialists in the world of academia and in the dayto- day challenges of primary care in rural America.