The Future of NLA Scientific Statements: To Infinity and Beyond!

The NLA has long prided itself on developing timely and relevant scientific statements, which is also a key strategy to help the NLA achieve its mission, “to enhance the practice of lipid management in clinical medicine.” Developing scientific statements is an important responsibility of the NLA, and its members have dedicated many hours to it as these documents take a herculean effort to produce. As we look ahead, NLA scientific statements will become even more important given the rapid and continued development of novel lipid lowering therapies, the exponential rate of new evidence published daily, and the increasing complexity of our healthcare system. Will scientific statements remain relevant in the future and what opportunities are there for the NLA to improve the dissemination of scientific statements?

This is an exciting time for not just the field of lipidology, but the entire spectrum of cardiovascular prevention. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in drug development and our understanding of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Yet, this progress has been met with only more uncertainty and unanswered questions. As a result, clinical practice guidelines struggle to keep up with a constantly changing evidence base and growing armamentarium of treatment options. This is where scientific statements can fill important gaps by providing guidance where there are literature “grey zones” as well as guiding future research by highlighting evidence gaps. The documents serve as practical resources and clinicians will continue to rely on scientific statements to fill the gaps that commonly exist in clinical practice guidelines. As such, there will remain a significant opportunity for the NLA to continue to develop timely and relevant scientific statements.

The mere act of publishing scientific statements, however, is only a starting point as these documents must reach the hands (and minds) of the clinician if they are to have real impact. In this age of distraction and information overload, greater efforts will be required to increase dissemination of scientific statements beyond publishing in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology and presenting at NLA meetings. Novel approaches may include creating standardized presentations for regional chapter representatives and NLA members to present locally at their instructions, use of social media and digital infographics, greater engagement with other professional organizations and advocacy groups, and co-developing scientific statements with like-minded partners. Greater dissemination of future scientific statements is critical to extend the reach of the NLA and its relevancy as the home of lipid specialists.

Producing high-quality scientific statements is not without its challenges, however. Significant time and effort are required to identify which topics warrant a scientific statement, recruit a diverse writing committee with the necessary expertise, and ensure scientific statements are produced in a timely manner and be approved by the NLA board of directors. Fortunately, the NLA has an outstanding multidisciplinary group of clinicians dedicated to the practice of lipid management and we’ll need your help to develop, and even more importantly, disseminate our scientific statements in the years ahead. Despite the challenges and ambitious goals, the future of NLA scientific statements is very bright with limitless possibilities.