SWLA updates from the President

Greetings!

We have a lot of great activity happening within our region! Here's a brief update on some of our activity:

1. Spring Clinical Lipid Update 2014 - Our agenda is finalized and can be viewed on the website. You should also be getting mailed brochures soon. We are working toward incorporating a discussion of the new guidelines and risk calculator into the agenda. It may be a special session, but several speakers will also be adjusting their topics/talks based on this updated version.

The meeting is in Maui!! We have an incredible room rate at the amazing Waldorf Astorie Grand Wailea Hotel. We will be featuring international perspectives in the opening session with representation from India, Japan, Italy, and Australia among others. We strived to keep the messages practical and diverse to meet everyone's needs. I certainly hope to meet you there!

2. Rural outreach project - As we have extensive rural territory in the entirety of our region, one of our top goals has been to work with rural providers on best practices for lipid management and cardiovascular risk reduction. We have decided to partner with Project ECHO from the University of New Mexico as they already have the infrastructure in place. Dr. Kari Uusinarkus is chairing the committee working on this project. He and a couple other committee members will be attending the orientation the first week of December to start the process - updates to follow. You can review Project Echo here: http://echo.unm.edu/

3. Million Hearts Campaign -- the SWLA board of directors have discussed and decided to work toward a collaboration with ACC and hold a Million Hearts Conference focused on lipids tentatively set around September 2014 in Austin, TX. The Million Hearts Campaign mission is to prevent 1 million heart attacks in a 5 yr period - by 2017. Their 2014 focus is on dyslipidemia, so what better organization to work with than the NLA? More information on this campaign can be found here:  http://millionhearts.hhs.gov/index.html

Happy Holidays!! Stay warm and safe over the holiday season!

If anyone has any thoughts, concerns or questions, I will check back on our newly developed discussion board. You can always email me as well at ej9802@gmail.com.

 

Thanks much --

Beth Jackson ACNS-BC, CLS, FNLA,

    President SWLA