 Under Dr. Joseph Rogers' leadership, Texas Heart Institute will forge a better future for those with cardiovascular disease through an unwavering commitment to global leadership in patient care, pioneering innovation, and unparalleled training. We have an idea of how to prevent many of the acquired cardiovascular conditions. And I'm specifically talking about conditions like atherosclerosis or cornear artery disease or hardening of the arteries. Those are all names for the same disease, but it's been always about smoking cessation, managing blood pressure, managing cholesterol, managing diabetes, keeping a normal way, exercising. So I don't know that there's a lot that we have currently that is going to add to that portfolio of risk factors. The challenge is how do you affect it? You know, we've told people for decades now, these are the things that you have to do, and it's hard. And that's why our success has been modest, honestly. But there's one other area that I think is critically important as we move forward. And we've developed a real appreciation for the social drivers of health. And I think until we begin to explore and understand how to manage food insecurity, how to manage early childhood experience, how to deal with educational inequities. I don't know that we're ever really going to move our populations towards health. And part of that is cardiovascular health. Quality care and clinical excellence have guided THI's research and training programs. And Dr. Rogers is dedicated to integrating advances into clinical practice. He sees patients at THI's clinical practice, the Texas Heart Medical Group, where he emphasizes prevention and patient-centered care. I have distinct recollections of sitting in exam rooms with patients who are very overweight and were very financially insecure. And I said, help me understand this discrepancy. You know, you hardly have enough money to even get to the office today to see me. And you're overweight. How does that work? And almost uniformly, people would say to me, I don't have enough money to eat healthy food. Right. I eat fast food three times a day. And when you looked at the pictures of their children, they look the same. You know, we need to get to a place where it's affordable to obtain healthy food. And then we probably are going to have to go back and start having conversations about how we teach people to cook and eat differently. But until we do that really hard, fundamental work, I'm not sure that we're going to bend the curve on cardiovascular disease. It's the lack of access. You can go and run around the block, right? But what's the motivation to do that? Correct. You know, it needs to be multi-pronged in order for it to be successful. Right. What are some things about you that we should know about? What are some things that you do in your spare time? If you have any, it doesn't sound like you do, since you took on this new role and are leading THI into the future. I enjoy exercising, although maybe not the way many people do. I don't go out and run. I like to walk. And people have said, well, how do you like Houston? And I love Houston summers. Hot, humid, and I'll go out and walk in the middle of the afternoon. I think it's absolutely wonderful. Well, because you're from Nebraska. Exactly. And in Nebraska, it's really cold. It is in the winter. Yes, well, you came to the right place. I like to walk. And so, and I would encourage others to, you know, to follow that lead. You don't have to go out and run. The Heart Association has suggested that we try to get in 10,000 steps a day. That's a nice marker. Most of us are walking around with cell phones in our pockets that can measure that. So you have a nice barometer about how you're doing. Is there anything else you would like to add that we have not talked about? It's a great time at THI right now. People are enthused. We've got a great team here. And I'm looking forward to see what we're able to do in the next decade. Me too. Until next time on the Heartbeat, I'm Maya Pomeroy.