CME

Guest: Robert A. Baldor, MD

Guest: Chadwick R. Johr, MD

This innovative, 30-minute, online activity features a Video Expert Dialogue with two prominent faculty covering important, timely issues and data related to the detection of autoimmune (AI) disorders. The emphasis is on the unique role primary care providers play in diagnosing and managing AI and maximizing patient care. Topics include:

• Overview of connective tissue diseases and ANA testing
• ANA IFA and ELISA
• New tests
• Subserologies with IFA
• Choosing wisely about ANA testing
• Diagnosis of RA, Sjögren’s, Lupus, and Systemic Sclerosis
• Titer Information
• Negative ANA testing
• When to refer

We’ll be discussing autoantibody testing for autoimmune diseases, or more precisely, connective tissue diseases. Our purpose here is to discuss how autoantibody testing, such as the ANA, may be used in the primary care setting to diagnose these disorders. Using the ANA test combined with a good medical exam and a good history, along with signs and symptoms of connective tissue diseases, will help to achieve greater benefits in diagnosing and treating patients.

Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO

Guest: Thomas C. Wright, Jr., MD

The Cervical Cancer Screening practice environment continues to change for both physicians and patients. Physicians are constantly tasked with evaluating analyses of new data on how best to approach cervical cancer screening for a particular patient demographic; and patients remain confused and unsure if the “new” approaches are better, or even less safe, than the “Pap” that has served as the bedrock for so many years.

This activity previously aired as a ReachMD Live Broadcast, where Dr. Thomas Wright, Jr., addressed these wide-ranging issues in a real-time, question and answer forum.

THIS ACTIVITY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR CME CREDIT.

Guest: David S. Friedman, MD, PhD, MPH

Guest: Steven J. Gedde, MD

Guest: W. Daniel Stamer, PhD

THIS ACTIVITY IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR CREDIT.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss worldwide and it is expected that the number of people affected by glaucoma will increase dramatically in coming decades due to the aging of the world’s population. Despite advances in ocular imaging and visual field testing, a substantial proportion of patients with glaucoma remain undiagnosed and present late in the course of their disease. At the same time, while several classes of drugs are used to manage patients with glaucoma, significant unmet needs persist in glaucoma care.

In this CME/CE-certified enduring activity, glaucoma experts will discuss new pharmacologic and surgical advances in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and ocular hypertension. Expert faculty will discuss the unmet clinical needs in glaucoma management and will review recently approved therapies together with those in the pipeline that may influence clinical decision-making, and may result in optimum outcomes for non-compliant patients or those refractory to medical therapy alone. Through discussion of creative clinical case scenarios, faculty will also highlight important treatment strategies for glaucoma that ophthalmologists can readily incorporate into clinical practice. These may include reduced complications with MIGS stents and ocular inserts vs. definitive, invasive trabeculectomy; …

Guest: Sandro Esteves, MD, PhD

Recent studies have highlighted limitations of the existing definitions of poor ovarian response.

In this video, Dr. Sandro Esteves will review these limitations, explain the new POSEIDON criteria, discuss its new marker of success in Assisted Reproductive Technology, and provide innovative alternatives for clinical management.

Guest: Leonard H. Calabrese, DO

Guest: John R. Tesser, MD

This activity provides patient and practice-specific biosimilars content for clinicians in rheumatology practice.

Host: Shira Johnson, MD

Guest: Robert Vonderheide, MD

For years, the foundations of cancer treatment, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy were utilized with the objective of weakening cancer.

But over the past several years, immunotherapy – therapies that enlist and strengthen the power of a patient’s immune system to attack tumors - has emerged as a new tool for fighting cancer. In August 2017, one such treatment approach, called Chimeric Antigen Receptor or CAR T-cell Therapy, received FDA approval for the treatment of children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Additionally, research is continuing to look at CAR-T therapy’s effectiveness for treating solid tumors as well.

Host Dr. Shira Johnson sits down with Dr. Robert Vonderheide, Director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the John H. Glick, MD, Abramson Cancer Center Director’s Professor, to talk about the potential of CAR-T therapy alongside other emerging immunotherapies in fighting cancer.

Host: Randall Wong, MD

Host: Russell Faust, MD

Want to speed up your site? Want to improve your SEO? These WordPress plugins can improve your website download speed, a crucial variable in the SEO equation. Making your website faster and improving your SEO will help you get the high rankings you want. And don’t let the technical jargon scare you. If Russ and Randy can use these plugins, so can you!

Drs. Russ Faust and Randy Wong share a few of their personal favorite plugins for making your website faster.

Host: Shira Johnson, MD

Guest: Jean Bennett, MD, PhD

There are 39 million people worldwide who are in total blindness and another 246 million with very low vision. The most frequent forms of visual impairment are caused by problems that can be corrected. Dr. Shira Johnson welcomes Dr. Jean Bennett, Professor of Ophthalmology and Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania and researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Bennett discusses her innovative work and research in curing blindness through gene therapy.

A phase 3, multi-center, multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of levofloxacin inhalation solution (APT-1026) in stable cystic fibrosis patients. Flume PA, VanDevanter DR, Morgan EE, Dudley MN, Loutit JS, Bell SC, Kerem E, Fischer R, Smyth AR, Aaron SD, Conrad D, Geller DE,Elborn JS.

J Cyst Fibros. 2016 Jul;15(4):495-502. doi: 10.1016/j.jcf.2015.12.004. Epub 2016 Feb 4.

Abstract

RATIONALE:

For patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), the use of inhaled antibiotics has become standard of care to suppress chronic Pseudomonas airways infection. There are limited antibiotic options formulated and approved for inhaled use and antibiotic efficacies attenuate over time, making additional inhaled antibiotic classes desirable. APT-1026 (levofloxacin inhalation solution, LIS) is a fluoroquinolone in development for management of chronic P. aeruginosa airways infection in patients with CF.

OBJECTIVES:

To compare the safety and efficacy of a 28-day course of treatment with LIS 240mg or placebo BID in persons ≥12years old with CF and chronic P. aeruginosa infection.

METHODS:

A multinational, randomized (2:1), double-blinded study of LIS and placebo over 28days in CF patients ≥12years with chronic P. aeruginosa infection. Time to exacerbation was the primary endpoint. FEV1 (% predicted) and patient-reported …

Microbial colonization and lung function in adolescents with cystic fibrosis. Hector A, Kirn T, Ralhan A, Graepler-Mainka U, Berenbrinker S, Riethmueller J, Hogardt M, Wagner M, Pfleger A, Autenrieth I, Kappler M, Griese M, Eber E, Martus P, Hartl D.

J Cyst Fibros. 2016 May;15(3):340-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jcf.2016.01.004. Epub 2016 Feb 5.

Abstract

With intensified antibiotic therapy and longer survival, patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are colonized with a more complex pattern ofbacteria and fungi. However, the clinical relevance of these emerging pathogens for lung function remains poorly defined. The aim ofthis study was to assess the association of bacterial and fungal colonization patterns with lung function in adolescent patients with CF. Microbial colonization patterns and lung function parameters were assessed in 770 adolescent European (German/Austrian) CF patients in a retrospective study (median follow-up time: 10years). Colonization with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and MRSA were most strongly associated with loss of lung function, while mainly colonization with Haemophilus influenzae was associated with preservedlung function. Aspergillus fumigatus was the only species that was associated with an increased risk for infection with P. aeruginosa.Microbial interaction analysis revealed three distinct microbial clusters within the longitudinal course of CF lung disease. …