NELA Chapter Update: Recovery and Growth

This edition of the Lipidspin on cardiometabolic disease, is co-sponsored by NELA and SELA. The 2022 NELA Chapter and Board would like to personally thank all NELA/SELA authors and contributors to this issue as well as the editors for helping to put together this edition. NELA met twice over the past year to discuss how to expand its membership. The NELA membership continues to grow and now includes over 432 lipid colleagues. Please congratulate our recent clinical lipid specialists (successfully passed the ABCL or ACCL) and our new Fellows of the NLA.

Clinical Lipid Specialists:

• Jessica Schillow, NP
• Archna Bajaj, MD
• Mara Caroline, MD
• Dianna Gaballa, MD
• Heather Shasa, RD, CLS
• John Hornick, MD
• Joseph Morley, MD
• Marjan Mujib, MD
• Andrew Oehler, MD
• Sunitha Sura, MD

Fellows of the NLA:

• Rodrigo Alonso, MD, PhD, FNLA
• William Blau, MD, FNLA

NELA congrats the success of our membership over the past year and thanks all those who provided updates. Here are their updates:

Guy L. Mintz, MD, FACC, FNLA: President of the NELA and Co-Director of Membership for the NLA

• Director of Cardiovascular Health & Lipidology at Northwell Health has created the first Lipid Apheresis program on Long Island and only the third program in NY state.
• Presented “Hottest Topic in 2022- Novel Agents in Lowering LDL and Other Atherogenic Lipids” at the Hot Topics in Cardiovascular Care Symposium, September 2022, Northwell Health.
• NEW: Introducing NELA Nights – an evening of educational exchange with national experts on variety of topics.

Eugenia Gianos, MD, FACC, FNLA: Immediate Past-President of NELA

• System Director of the Cardiovascular Prevention Service Line at Northwell Health.
• Directs the Lenox Hill Women’s Heart Program, and the Preventive Cardiology Fellowship at Lenox Hill Hospital- all the prevention fellows passed their Lipid Boards.
• Active in Lipid Education: Drs. Gianos and Evelina Grayver planned and directed “From Prevention to Intervention: Focus on Women’s Heart Health”. NELA members Drs. Benjamin Hirsh and Anjori Dunbar also participated in this program.
• As president of NELA, Dr. Gianos coordinated a very successful well attended evening program on “Best Practices for a Lipid Clinic.” A lot of valuable shared information was exchanged. Dr. Gianos held a NELA recap of the 2021 Scientific Sessions introducing new members presenting overviews of the main sessions; this was a very popular event.

Roda Plakogiannis, PharmD, CLS, FNLA: President-Elect of NELA

• Lead recruiter of associate members for NELA 2021-2022.
• Active in lipid education for pharmacy students at the Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy, Brooklyn, NY.

Laney K. Jones, PharmD, MPH, CLS, FNLA: Treasurer of NELA and Co-Chair of the Health Quality and Research Committee of the NLA

• The HQR Committee received a grant from Amgen and Regeneron to education clinicians on guideline-based care for individuals with high risk ASCVD. Several NELA members are participating on the steering committee including Dean Karalis, Jessica Pena, Nihar Desai, and Penny Kris-Etherton. Other NELA members serve on the Educational Committee, including Robert Block and Frances Burke
• The HQR committee drafted a review article of the use of telehealth in lipidology that is now under review. The steering committee includes Dean Karalis, Guy Mintz, Catherine McNeal, Nihar Desai, and Joel Marrs.
• Awarded an R61 grant, called Collaborative Approach to Reach Everyone with Familial Hypercholesterolemia (CARE-FH) from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to implement screening for familial hypercholesterolemia in primary care clinics at Geisinger.
• Presented on implementation science and lipidology at the 2022 NLA Scientific Sessions in Scottsdale, AZ.

Benjamin Hirsh, MD, FACC, FNLA: Secretary of NELA

• Director of Preventive Cardiology at North Shore University Hospital.
• Working with Dr. Eugenia Gianos on the Beyond Diabetes Program- Northwell Health.

Cindy Bredefeld, DO, FACE:

• Active in lipidology disorders at NYU Langone Hospital Long Island.
• Secretary of non-profit Abetalipoproteinemia and Related Disorders Foundation - non-profit international organization established in 2019, consists of patients with abetalipoproteinemia, familial hypobetalipoproteinemia and related disorders, as well as their caregivers, researchers, and medical professionals.

Robert Block, MD, MPH, FNLA, FACP: At-Large Board Member of NELA

• Has been active in the NLA mentoring program.
• Pursuing a strong interest in Coronary CTA and changes in plaque as marker for MI.
• Published on effects of aspirin and interaction with EPA and DHA in various patient groups, as well as effects on cytokines and angiogenesis factors.

Kristina Grehan, FNP-BC:

• Supervisor of Advanced Clinical Providers, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery.
• Inpatient Clinical Coordinator Lipid Apheresis at North Shore University Hospital.

Dean Karalis MD, FACC, FNLA: Co-Chair of the Health Quality and Research Committee of the NLA

• Remains active in the Philadelphia Lipid Club.
• Active recruiter of associate members in 2021-2022.

Nicholas Marstow, MD, FACC, MPH:

• New NELA member and part of the TIMI group, with a strong interest in genetic dyslipidemias, polygenic risk scores and premature atherosclerosis while involved in clinical trials as principal investigator and co-leader involving hypertriglyceridemia, APOC3, ANGPTL3 and Lp(a) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Merle Myerson, MD, EdD, FACC, FNLA: At-Large Board Member of NELA

• Active at Dartmouth coordinating their Preventive Cardiology Program.
• Assumed the leadership role at the Lipid Clinic at Dartmouth.
• Has launched the New England Lipid Club with vigor. The first meeting in January 2022 featured Dr. Paul Thompson and was a huge success. A second program for 2023 is in the works.
• Investigating lipid lowering therapy in the setting of myocardial infarction.

Rachel Nahrwold, AGNP-BC:

• Lead prevention nurse practitioner at Lenox Hill Hospital has led many educational initiatives including coordinating: “Building Bridges to the Community: A cardiovascular lecture series for the community”.
• Leads system wide nurse practitioner cardiac prevention educational group.

Jessica M. Pena, MD, MPH, FACC, FNLA:

• TEACH-ASCVD steering committee member – study is designed to test the effectiveness of an educational intervention on the care of high-risk patients.

Jessica Schillow, NP, CLS:

• Outpatient Lipid Apheresis Clinical Coordinator, and nurse practitioner at The Lipid Center at North Shore University Hospital.
• Brand new clinical lipid specialist!

Dan Soffer Update: MD, FACP, FNLA: President-Elect of the NLA

• Congratulations to Sohil Golwala MD for completing the inaugural Preventive Cardiology Fellowship at the nation’s oldest hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital.
• University of Pennsylvania is holding its annual Intersection of HTN, Diabetes and Lipids conference on Friday September 30 and will feature Archna Bajaj, MD, Emma MacAllister, CRNP, Doug Jacoby, MD, Jennifer Lewey, MD, Monika Sanghavi, MD, Dan Soffer, MD, and Gayley Webb, CRNP. https://upenn.cloud-cme.com/course/courseoverview?P=0&EID=78302&IsExhibitor=false
• Philadelphia’s Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) has its Cardiology Update October 30, which will feature presentations from Joe Saseen, PharmD, Eugenia Gianos, MD, Nihar Desai, MD, Dan Rader, MD, Jennifer Lewey, MD, and is co-chaired by Dean Karalis, MD and Dan Soffer, MD. https://cviphiladelphia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-CVI_STD_Postcard_PG.pdf

Perry Weinstock, MD, FACC, FNLA: At-Large Board Member of NELA

• Chief of Cardiology at Cooper University Health Care supervising a large faculty and many programs.
• Maintains a focused lipid practice, and lecture series, as the only board-certified Lipidologist in his health system.
• Increased associate membership by engaging his cardiology fellows and allied health professionals to become part of the NLA.
• Actively involved in national lipid clinical trials.

We look forward to the 2022-2013 year with this uplifting quote from Dr. Perry Weinstock, “I cannot think of any other professional organization that gives their members access to the latest science in such a friendly, inclusive and encouraging atmosphere.”