Letter from the NLA President: Greetings from Texas

Hello NLA members, 

I am honored to serve as the 2024-2025 National Lipid Association President, and present to you the fall installment of LipidSpin, Exploring the Costs of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. As a busy clinician myself, I look forward to the discussion this edition may bolster. 

Our recent Fall Clinical Lipid Update in Dallas, Texas went off without a hitch. We had some fantastic sessions on prediabetes, imaging, and diet, and dove into NLA’s newest manuscripts on management of apoB, FCS, and hypercholesterolemia in elderly patients. We had a new session on clinical research for beginners, which I know many members found useful. I hope to see more sessions like this in the future! Naturally, we celebrated being together in a big Texas way – with armadillo races! Yes, that’s right, with cowboy hats and all! Exchanging scientific ideas with members at these meetings is incredible, but I love that we always manage to squeeze in quality time with each other (sometimes in a silly way!).

During my presidency, I will be focusing on the NLA’s renewed mission, “To enhance the science and practice of lipidology and promote optimal cardiometabolic health”, by tailoring our education initiatives and developing several new manuscripts with the publications committee focusing on: 

  • Resistant/Persistent Chylomicronemia
  • Primary Prevention Made Simple
  • LDL-C Management Made Simple
  • Familial Hypercholesterolemia (2011 NLA Update)
  • Team-Based Approach to Management of Lipids and Cardiometabolic Disease
  • Cascade Screening Made Simple

We will also continue many critical efforts and collaborations including membership recruitment and retention, our pursuit of a taxonomy code for “Lipidology” through the National Uniform Claims Committee (NUCC), pursuit of restored low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) quality measures to improve measurement and management of patients requiring LDL-C lowering, further expansion of the Lipid Scholars Program, and development of additional preconference and online education, including cardiometabolic heart and nutrition.

In the coming months, you should expect modifications to the way communications are distributed by our organization. The plans in the pipeline excite me – NLA is going to revolutionize and modernize with increased social media efforts and encourage a broader, global conversation about lipids. I would like to thank all the key members of our communications efforts over the past few years, including LipidSpin editors Jamie Underberg, Robert Wild, Kevin Maki, Joe Saseen, Dan Soffer, Lynne Braun, and Kaye-Eileen Willard. We would not be where we are today without you!

I look forward to seeing you all at the 2025 Annual Scientific Sessions in Miami, Florida, May 29 – June 1. Venue details and conference registration can be found here, lipid.org/sessions.  

Article By:

Christie M. Ballantyne, MD, FNLA

President, National Lipid Association 
Houston, TX

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