A Message from the President of the Southeast Lipid Association

I am honored that I have been chosen as President of the Southeast Lipid Association. This, of course, is a high honor having been elected to this position for which the likes of such lipid icons as Drs. Virgil Brown, John Guyton and Roger Blumenthal have held. I thank Dr. Paul Ziajka and his leadership as SELA president this last year and particularly what he has accomplished in Florida over the last decade and a half.

As you may know I come from both a lipid-centric but also an exercise and lifestyle medicine background. As such I think I can effectively marry these two disciplines together with your help. SELA remains the largest and fastest growing of the regional NLA chapters with 848 current members and nearly 200 members added in the last year.

By now you also may know that the NLA has engaged in numerous projects this year assigning select NLA members to such projects as lipid goal attainment for electronic health records; ATP IV review and pocket guide; ABCL & ACCL core curriculum and competencies; 2013-14 SAP manual writing; USAGE study update, and more. As worthy as those larger projects are I want to solicit what I think may be opportunistic for interested and energetic SELA members.  What I offer here is becoming directly involved in what is perhaps the most utilitarian and impactful area for the NLA and that is developing practice management tools for both lipid clinic and cardiometabolic risk reduction programs.

Hopefully you have noticed the updated and impressively designed NLA website.  On top of the opening page is a new link: “Practice Tools.” This link includes an inaugural grouping of helpful documents addressing guidelines, committees, career options but perhaps more practically, clinic and patient management tools, specifically: Operations and Economics.  It is here that I would like to see submissions of helpful information that improves program efficiency, patient management, and clinic referral and promotion. Some examples of tools and information needed include: helpful information on reimbursement trends; referral strategies; ICD-10 coding for clinical lipidology; working with accountable care organizations and medical homes; and health care reform opportunities.  Of course, all input and member submissions here have to be approved by the NLA Education/Executive Committees.  I am calling on all interested NLA but specifically SELA members to assist in this effort.

Finally, I want to thank all of the SELA members who wrote their respective articles on statin intolerance for the Summer Lipid Spin.  This issue will stand to be the most utilitarian Lipid Spin issue in recent years because of its direct impact on patient management and lipid goal attainment.

Thank you for all that you do – and will do.

Ralph La Forge
Durham, NC