Member Spotlight: Carl E. Orringer, MD, FACC, FNLA

Dr. Carl Orringer recently moved to Florida and is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Previously he was an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the Harrington Chair in Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. Before his move he directed the Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine Program, the Lipid Clinic and the LDL Apheresis Program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

According to Dr. Orringer, the best part of what he does is the wide variety of activities in which he is involved, such that no two days are ever the same. It is that mixture of patient care, education, administrative work and research that provides Dr. Orringer with a very high level of professional happiness.

In his everyday work, he sees cardiology patients two days per week and runs the Lipid Clinic one day per week. The other two days are taken up primarily with administrative work and educational activities. He has developed several interactive programs for the third-year students at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine focusing on the metabolic syndrome and familial hypercholesteremia and has mentored a select group of cardiology fellows and internal medicine residents to serve as preceptors for these educational sessions. He has also developed a series of educational seminars for cardiology fellows, teaching them basic principles of clinical lipidology, and then provided regular clinical conferences focusing on application of these principles in patient care.

One of Dr. Orringer’s most gratifying educational activities was to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the National Lipid Association Self-Assessment Program. The opportunity to work with his NLA colleagues and with the NLA staff to create this updated and intellectually challenging teaching tool was a privilege that he says he will always treasure.

Dr. Orringer became interested in prevention of cardiovascular disease when he saw patients repetitively admitted to the Coronary Care Unit early in his professional career. He initially became interested in exercise for prevention and was excited when he read about the potential for prevention of cardiovascular disease by lipid reduction when the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial was published in 1984. “This sparked my interest in lipid management and I continued to read voraciously everything related to lipid management following that publication,” said Dr. Orringer.

He attended Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) during his first two undergraduate years. He then finished his final two years at the University of Miami (Florida). He went to medical school at the University of Miami School of Medicine and did his cardiology fellowship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

He learned about the NLA from his good friend, Michael Davidson, MD. The two had met each other on the "lecture circuit" andDr. Davidson asked him to attend one of the regional meetings of the Midwest Lipid Association. After that experience, Dr. Orringer says he was "hooked for life."

Dr. Orringer hopes to inspire young physicians and many of his "not-so-young" colleagues to focus more of their energy on prevention, which he sees as the highest calling in medicine. He has had the blessing to see the evolution of the statin story, from the first days in which these drugs were prescribed because they effectively lowered cholesterol levels to the current focus on prescribing these agents because they reduce atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk in both secondary and primary prevention.

Dr. Orringer is a very active person in his spare time. Exercise has always been a big part of his life usually on an elliptical trainer at least four times per week, and an hour of brisk walking with his wife and best friend, Linda, twice a week. What he really loves is the chance to visit and spend time with his seven children and 14 grandchildren, who are spread out across the U.S. from San Francisco to south Florida. When asked to share something interesting that everyone may not know, Dr. Orringer said he and his wife Linda love ballroom dancing, and have plans to improve CARL E. ORRINGER, MD, FACC, FNLAtheir skills in this area over the coming years.

Dr. Orringer is grateful to have served as Secretary, and now Treasurer of the NLA in 2013 to 2014. He looks forward to the opportunity to continue to serve the NLA for many years to come.