Pharmacist CME Courses
Pharmacist CME Courses
By the end of the session the participant will be able to:
- Describe the epidemiology of AUD and outline current and evolving diagnostic criteria
- Describe challenges to the successful identification of patients with AUD
- Identify the treatment modalities currently available for management of AUD and apply them to patient cases using evidence-based medicine
- Develop strategies for recognizing and improving therapeutic adherence in patients treated for AUD
Alcohol use disorder (AUD), referred to colloquially as alcoholism, is an integration of past terms that have include in past as alcohol dependence or abuse, and may be marked by any one of a number of different symptoms or behaviors that include physical cravings, compulsion, guilt, and frequent consumption over an extended period of time. There are about 7.9 million people in the United States who suffer from the disease, but a fraction – 2.2 million people – seek treatment for it. The number of people who are considered heavy drinkers is about double at somewhere between 15.9 and 17.6 million, and just under a quarter of Americans over age 12 reports having engaged in binge drinking at least once in the last month. Alcohol accounts for over 687,000 emergency department visits by people under age 20 per year, and AUD is estimated to cost $223.5 billion per year. Worldwide, 76.3 million people are estimated to have AUDs, and they account for an annual mortality rate of 1.8 million. AUD is largely undertreated, constituting one gap in care and justifying CME
Antiretroviral therapy has improved dramatically over the past decade. This progress has yielded more treatment choices for clinicians and patients but also adds greater complexity to the already diverse field of HIV. Upon successful completion of these activities, participants should be better able to:
- Apply updated evidence-based guidelines and recommendations when selecting initial treatment for patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- Select and optimize HIV treatment regimens based on clinical safety and efficacy, propensity for resistance, and patient characteristics.
- Consider patient preferences when selecting HIV treatment regimens to increase adherence and compliance to therapy.
- Implement effective switching strategies, as necessary, in patients who are virologically suppressed, have become virologically resistant to therapy, or who have become nonadherent.
Some have suggested that criteria used for the past two decades are inadequate for addressing the disease burden of RA because by the time a physician detects rheumatoid nodules or radiographic erosion, the optimal time has passed for treatment initiation, representing a gap in care relating to diagnosis of disease. Another potential gap is illustrated by studies in which researchers demonstrated that a systematic, objective approach to therapy with Disease Activity Score-driven therapy yields superior outcomes to routine care.
By the end of the session the participant will be able to:
- Describe the pathophysiology of RA such that it might inform treatment mechanisms.
- Describe professional guideline recommendations’ approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of RA and, where applicable, apply them to patient cases
- Identify the currently available and emerging pharmacotherapeutic treatments for management of RA and apply them to patient cases using evidence-based medicine.
- Evaluate a treatment plan for a specific patient with RA to optimize safety and efficacy, suggesting modifications for improvement, including the management of comorbidities.
- Describe the challenges and barriers to care associated with treating patients with RA.