JACKSONVILLE, FL--(Marketwired - February 22, 2016) - The National Lipid Association's (NLA) Annual Summary of Clinical Lipidology 2016 was just published the Journal of Clinical Lipidology. This year's summary enhances the NLA's established commitment to a patient-centered approach and individualized care, which is an approach now increasingly taken by other medical organizations.
New in 2016 are updates that reflect the National Lipid Association Recommendations for Patient-Centered Management of Dyslipidemia: Part 2, published in 2015. These new sections included lipid considerations of patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as updates to sections regarding lifestyle therapies, groups with special considerations (e.g., children and adolescents, women, older patients, ethnic, and racial groups), patients with residual risk, and strategies to improve patient outcomes by increasing adherence and team-based collaborative care.
Building On a Patient-Centered Approach
In April 2015, the NLA published its full report of the NLA's Recommendations for Patient-Centered Management of Dyslipidemia: Part 1, which set forth basic principles and recommendations in the care of patients with abnormal cholesterol levels. This full report was followed in September 2015 by the NLA's Recommendations for Patient-Centered Management of Dyslipidemia: Part 2, which made recommendations regarding more selected patient populations.
"The NLA Annual Summary of Clinical Lipidology 2016 summarizes recommendations set forth in both Part 1 and Part 2 of the NLA Recommendations, and thus provides clinicians a summarized updated overview of essential principles of cholesterol management," said Carl Orringer, MD, president of the NLA and associate professor of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Radical Departure in Medical Information Access: Catching Up to the Information Age
In addition to providing clinicians with a "one-stop shop" for all things lipids, this year's Annual Summary represents a radical departure in the manner medical information is accessed. This document includes direct links to online sentinel charts, tables, and figures. Hundreds of references are also linked, such that a reference article can easily be accessed with one click. Finally, additional links lead to practical applications of the medical science, as it pertains to resources of value to clinicians, such as links to lipid clinic course material, documents regarding coding and reimbursement, as well as links to applicable podcasts, webcasts, slideshows, websites, applications, continuing medical education, and patient information.
"Historically, clinicians utilized paper publications as their main access to medical information," said Harold Bays, an executive officer of the NLA and lead author of the NLA Annual Summary. "But we live in an age of wide-scale availability of the Internet, routinely accessed by computers, smartphones, and tablets. It is therefore critical medical science embrace the information age, via a publishing format that provides clinicians a central directory of vetted online charts, tables, and figures. Equally important is we do so in a manner useful for the practical day-to-day management of patients, and consistent with how today's clinicians access other electronic information."
About the National Lipid Association
The NLA is a multidisciplinary specialty society focused on prevention of cardiovascular disease and other lipid-related disorders. The NLA's mission is to enhance the practice of lipid management in clinical medicine, and one of their goals is to enhance efforts to reduce death and disability related to disorders of lipid metabolism in patients. Members include physicians (MDs and DOs), as well as allied health clinical team members, including PhD researchers, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, exercise physiologists, and dietitians.
Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/2/10/11G082278/Images/Bays,_Harold-f9e3fbff0c7bb628aab5ce0cd8309057.jpg
Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/2/10/11G082278/Images/Carl_Orringer,_MD-1bf34cc2e821b788b4f0035bdb1819ac.jpg
Contact Information:
Judith Thomas
National Lipid Association
904-422-7508
jthomas@lipid.org
