{"podcast":{"title":"The Podcast by KevinMD","slug":"the-podcast-by-kevinmd-449609","podcast_index_feed_id":449609,"rss_url":"https://kevinmd.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.kevinmdpodcast.com/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/0/f/5/e/0f5e20bb3bf53d75/The_Podcast_by_KevinMD_.jpg","author":"Kevin Pho, MD","episode_count":2202,"summary":"Social media's leading physician voice, Kevin Pho, MD, shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. 15 minutes a day. 7 days a week. Welcome to The Podcast by KevinMD.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-13T16:21:30.622150+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-podcast-by-kevinmd-449609"},"episode":{"title":"2026 cholesterol guidelines: LDL goals, Lp(a), and coronary calcium scoring","slug":"2026-cholesterol-guidelines-ldl-goals-lp-a-and-coronary-calcium-scoring","published_at":"2026-04-30T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-podcast-by-kevinmd-449609/2026-cholesterol-guidelines-ldl-goals-lp-a-and-coronary-calcium-scoring","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-podcast-by-kevinmd-449609","url":"https://kevinmd.libsyn.com/2026-cholesterol-guidelines-ldl-goals-lpa-and-coronary-calcium-scoring","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/kevinmd/2026-cholesterol-guidelines--LDL-goals--Lp-a---and-coronary-calcium-scoring.mp3?dest-id=2093345","summary":"In this sponsored episode from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a leading preventive cardiologist walks through the 2026 cholesterol guideline update and what it means in practice. Seth J. Baum, a Columbia-trained preventive cardiologist, founder of Flourish Research, chairman of the Family Heart Foundation, and past president of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, breaks down the major changes in the March 2026 ACC and AHA guideline release. You will hear why LDL targets are explicit again after nearly a decade, why universal lipoprotein A screening is now recommended, why a coronary calcium score above 300 places a patient in the highest-risk treatment tier, and why apolipoprotein B measurement can refine risk assessment when LDL is at goal. Baum also covers the alternatives available when a patient cannot tolerate a statin, including ezetimibe, PCSK9 inhibitors, inclisiran, and bempedoic acid, along with practical framing for the statin-hesitant patient. You will also hear his approach to discussing cholesterol with patients, from the science of lipoprotein physiology to the case for earlier and more aggressive lipid-lowering treatment. Dr. Baum was not compensated for his participation in today's episode. The opinions expressed are his alone and do not represent the opinions of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. At Novartis, our mission is to ensure no heart is lost too soon. We envision a world where preventable CV deaths are no longer part of our lives. We're proud of the positive impact we've made over the past 40 years and remain dedicated to tackling the most challenging problems in CVD. Through cutting-edge science and technology, we are focusing on areas of high unmet need, including scaling our xRNA platform across multiple risk factors a…","meta_description":"In this sponsored episode from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, a leading preventive cardiologist walks through the 2026 cholesterol guideline update…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2707,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-podcast-by-kevinmd-449609/episodes/2026-cholesterol-guidelines-ldl-goals-lp-a-and-coronary-calcium-scoring/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-podcast-by-kevinmd-449609/2026-cholesterol-guidelines-ldl-goals-lp-a-and-coronary-calcium-scoring.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}