The science of lipidology impacts underwriting and improves mortality.

Substantial change in how we think about lipids and atherosclerosis is on the afoot. Discoveries in lipidology are changing the relative importance of commonly used lipid markers, and indentifying new lipid markers for premature disease, new targets for treatment, and new treatment regimens. These advances in lipid science will definitely change clinical practice. They will also force life insurance medical directors to write new underwriting guidelines and consider new testing paradigms. At a minimum, the new science of lipidology offers an opportunity for alert medical directors to substantially improve risk classification and selection.