TCTMD’s Michael O’Riordan Wins Digital Health Award

TCTMD journalist Michael O’Riordan has won Silver in the Spring 2023 Digital Health Awards for his feature story Novel Targets, Gene Edits, and Vaccines: Is a 'Golden Era' Dawning for ASCVD?

The story, published in August 2022, explores all of the emerging therapies targeting lipoprotein(a) to avert coronary artery disease, stroke, and aortic stenosis, characterized by some researchers as the Holy Grail for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) prevention.

O’Riordan’s story also examines the resurgence of a previously abandoned cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor, genes being identified as associated with elevated LDL-cholesterol levels and triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, vaccines that may provide immunity against atherosclerosis, and even gene-editing technologies using CRISPR-Cas9 to splice out DNA fragments that set people on the path to atherosclerosis in the first place.

This latest Digital Health Award follows wins a year ago by reporters L.A. McKeown for Unseen and Unheard: In the Cath Lab, Anti-racism Efforts Fall Short; Yael L. Maxwell for Expired Cardiac Devices May Do Global Good, but Safety Unknown; and Todd Neale for Reports of Sudden Deaths Among Athletes After COVID-19 Vax Are ‘Misinformation’.

The Digital Health Awards, organized by the Health Information Resource Center in the United States, are given out biannually to the best digital health resources developed for health professionals and for the public, with the digital prizes an extension of the National Health Information Awards. The Digital Health Awards Spring 2023 competition featured 65 categories spanning print, video, audio, infographic, social media, and mobile apps. A panel of 80 experts in the field served as judges and selected Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Merit winners from nearly 800 entries.