BWFH hosts course focused on primary care

Recently, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital hosted “Clinical Update in Medicine: High Yield Topics in Primary Care,” a Continuing Medical Education (CME) course intended to provide primary care providers (PCPs) with an update on a wide variety of topics that have rapidly changing or challenging parameters of practice.

Accredited by Partners HealthCare’s Office of Continuing Professional Development, the course was designed for physicians, primary care providers, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. “This group of providers is on the front lines of healthcare,” says BWFH’s Chief of Medicine Dr. Scott Schissel. “Our latest course was intended to address some of the issues they face every day, including responsible antibiotic use, management of drug allergies, chest CT for lung cancer screening, the expanding use of tomosynthesis for breast imaging, new heart failure drugs, as well as advances in diabetes management. We also focused on the increase in frequency of detection of ‘incidental findings’ on abdominopelvic CTs with a rational and cost-effective algorithm for managing them.”

Among the speakers were many representatives from BWFH, including Radiologists Dr. Francine Jacobson and Dr. Daniel Souza, Chief of Cardiology Dr. Leonard Lilly and Chief of Endocrinology Dr. Florencia Halperin.

“The day-long course allowed us to touch on many topics,” says Dr. Schissel. “Providers left learning how to recognize and manage potentially significant incidental findings on abdominal imaging. They also learned how to integrate into practice the many new medications and devices for diabetes management and when to refer patients to our integrated diabetes practice at BWFH. The review of entirely new heart failure medications was also very revealing for our primary care providers, especially since certain heart failure guidelines are changing to incorporate these new therapies. Participants also were able to appreciate novel approaches to classify and manage drug allergies and acquired the knowledge and tools to discuss with patients the benefits of tomosynthesis in breast imaging and cancer screening. The review of appropriate antibiotic use for common clinical conditions by Dr. Paul Sax from the BWH Division of Infectious Disease was outstanding and helps promote good antibiotic stewardship.”

Dr. Schissel adds, “Those who attended were engaged and left with a lot of information to incorporate into their practice. I think it was a very high yield experience and we look forward to our 2019 course!”