Editor's Corner: The Challenge of the Climb

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, everascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” – Winston Churchill

Many times in the last chaotic year we have felt stressed to the maximum. Yet we have had to deliver quality clinical care during a time of uncertainty, new and poorly understood circumstances, overwhelming reduction of resources, and astonishing sheer numbers of acutely ill patients.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been massive. It has entered every arena of our lives and our social destiny. Economic stresses have deepened our awareness of social determinants as they influence health care; politicization of the pandemic itself has created barriers to progress in battling the disease and incited spread of misinformation, which has heightened conflict. Behavioral health problems have skyrocketed with lockdowns and quarantines accelerating tensions within households. Cardiovascular disease has been impacted as well, relative to the pathophysiology of the infection, and by late presentation of symptomatic patients due to fear of coming to the hospital for care.

Yet, we have made progress - tremendous progress. We have been forced to accelerate the timeline of appropriate and constructive telemedicine care. We have learned efficient ways of communicating and conducting business in the absence of person-to-person interactions. A pandemic creates a responsibility to think about ‘population health’ in a whole new, innovative way. These factors have all now become a normal way of life.

The NLA has responded brilliantly to the challenges we have faced, and I am proud to be part of such a forward-thinking organization. The success of our online and digital meeting platforms has been amazing.

For example, as part of our Spring Clinical Lipid Update, I was privileged to take part as a panelist in an excellent discussion coordinated by Amina Resheidat, one of our wonderful NLA staff members, dedicated to topics surrounding systems of care in cardiovascular disease. We brought together a diverse group of experts across the healthcare landscape to discuss our understanding of unmet needs for innovation in the treatment and prevention of ASCVD. We reviewed how quality outcome measures are the responsibility of everyone involved in providing care, from hospital administrators, to third party payers, and of course, clinicians. We discussed how all these ‘players’ can influence social disparities which negatively drive outcomes.

This edition of LipidSpin focuses on contemporary understanding of managing residual risk of ASCVD with a multipronged, multidisciplinary, and inclusive approach. This is totally in line with all we have spotlighted in the last year, particularly how to ‘multi-task’ and think
innovatively in the care of an increasingly complex and diverse patient population. I am so grateful for my new co-editor Lynne T Braun, who is proving to be an outstanding partner, and of course to our NLA staff members who are always available, thoughtful and meticulous in their approach to all our endeavors.

As Churchill says, we will never get to the end of the journey – but we should enjoy the challenge of the climb!

Disclosure statement: Dr. Willard has received honoraria from Amgen.