Hot Topic: Translating the Updated IDSA C.difficile Infection Guidelines to Clinical Practice

Release Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Expiration Date: Thursday, August 15, 2019

Educational Overview
C. difficile infection (CDI) is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infection and mortality in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recognized
C. difficile infection as an urgent public health threat. The emergence of the BI/NAP1/027 hypervirulent strain has resulted in greater morbidity and mortality and a high likelihood of recurrence. Optimal management requires stratifying patients based on risk for complications and recurrence and selecting the appropriate treatment regimen.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) along with the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) released updated C. difficile clinical practice guidelines in February 2018 that provide evidence-based recommendations on the diagnosis and treatment of initial and recurrent CDI episodes. Therefore, any clinician involved in the diagnosis and management of CDI must be made aware of these guidelines along with the latest clinical evidence of newer therapeutic approaches in order to optimize outcomes for their patients.

Target Audience
This continuing medical education activity is planned to meet the needs of physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals in a variety of practice settings, including large and small healthcare systems, outpatient clinics, managed care organizations, long-term care facilities, and academia who are responsible for the management of patients with or at risk for C. difficile infection and/or recurrence.

Learning Objectives
Upon completing this activity, participants will be able to:

Describe the pathophysiologic processes involved in C. difficile infection (CDI) and the role of patient immune response in disease manifestation
Evaluate approaches to assess patient risk for CDI recurrence to help guide management decisions to improve outcomes
Implement the latest evidence-based guideline recommendations in the treatment of initial and recurrent CDI episodes

Additional Resources
Please click here to view the updated IDSA CDI Guidelines

Educational Format

This online activity includes structured discussions from an interprofessional panel of Infectious Diseases experts that address current issues and challenges related to C. difficile infection (CDI). Each episode is comprised of audio with accompanying slides and focuses on a specific topic for convenient learning. The expert panel reviews the latest clinical evidence in the management of CDI and describes how to incorporate the recently-released IDSA/SHEA guideline recommendations into clinical practice.

Episode 1
CDI Burden and Pathophysiology
Ciarán Kelly

Episode 2
Recognizing Patient Populations at Risk
Erik Dubberke

Episode 3
Latest Approaches in CDI diagnostics
Kevin Garey

Episode 4
Treatment of Initial and First Recurrent CDI Episode
Kevin Garey

Episode 5
Prevention of CDI Recurrence
Erik Dubberke

Episode 6
Place of Immunotherapy in CDI Management
Ciarán Kelly

Faculty

Erik R. Dubberke, MD, MSPH, FSHEA

Professor of Medicine
Clinical Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO

Kevin W. Garey, PharmD, MS, FASHP

Chair, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research
Professor of Pharmacy Practice
College of Pharmacy
University of Houston
Houston, TX

Ciarán P. Kelly, MD

Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Director Gastroenterology Fellowship Training
Director Celiac Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, MA

Physicians
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint providership of Center for Independent Healthcare Education (Center) and Vemco MedEd. Center is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Center designates this Enduring Internet activity for a maximum of 1.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Physician Assistants
AAPA accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for the PRA from organizations accredited by ACCME.

Nurse Practitioners
Nurse Practitioners will receive certificate of AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ as this is an ACCME accredited program and its accreditation is recognized by Nurse Practitioner boards.

Pharmacists
Center for Independent Healthcare Education is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider for continuing pharmacy education. Center has assigned 1.75 contact hours (0.175 CEUs) of continuing pharmacy education credits for participating in this activity.
ACPE UAN: 0473-9999-18-008-H01-P
Activity type: Knowledge-based

For questions regarding the accreditation of this activity, please contact us at info@jointsponsor.com

Method of Participation and Instruction for Credit

Review the entire CME/CPE information including target audience, learning objectives, and disclosures.
Review the activity in its entirety.
Complete the Online Post Test, Evaluation, and Credit Application form
Please note that to receive credit you must achieve a score of at least 70%.
Pharmacists: The information that you participated will be uploaded to CPEMonitor and you will be able to access your credits from the profile you set up with NABP. For more information, please visit http://www.nabp.net/.
Physicians: Certificate of Credit will be emailed to you within 4 weeks.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
In accordance with policies set forth by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), Center for Independent Healthcare Education requires all faculty members and spouses/significant others with an opportunity to affect the content of a continuing education activity to disclose any relevant financial relationships during the past 12 months with commercial interests. A commercial interest is any entity producing, marketing, reselling or distributing health care goods or services consumed by or used on patients. Relationships with commercial interests and conflicts of interest resulting from those relationships must be revealed to the audience and resolved prior to the activity.

Relevant relationships include roles such as speaker, author, consultant, independent contractor (including research), employee, investor, advisory committee member, board member, review panelist, and investigator. If a potential speaker or author indicates a possible conflict of interest, the conflict will be resolved by choosing another speaker or author for that topical area, or the slides, handouts, and/or monograph will be reviewed and approved by a qualified commercially-disinterested peer.

Disclosures
Erik R. Dubberke, MD has relevant financial relationships with the following commercial interests:
        Advisory Board: Merck & Co., Inc., Rebiotix, Synthetic Biologicals, Valneva
        Consultant: Merck & Co., Inc., Pfizer Inc., Valneva
        Research Support: Pfizer Inc., Rebiotix
Dr. Dubberke discusses the off-label uses of the following: FMT as a means to prevent recurrent CDI.

Kevin A. Garey, PharmD has relevant financial relationships with the following commercial interests:
Research Support: Merck & Co., Inc.
Dr. Garey discusses the off-label uses of the following: Metronidazole for the treatment of C. difficile infection.

Ciarán P. Kelly, MD has relevant financial relationships with the following commercial interests:
        Advisory Board: Artugen, Facile Therapeutics, Vedanta
        Consultant: First Light Biosciences, Finch, Matrivax
        Research Support: Institut Merieux, NIH, Merck & Co., Inc.
Dr. Kelly discusses the off-label uses of the following: Metronidazole, FMT, Fecal-derived spore preparation, Defined live bacterial therapies, Non-toxinogenic C. difficile.

No (other) speakers, authors, planners or content reviewers have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Content review confirmed that the content was developed in a fair, balanced manner free from commercial bias. Disclosure of a relationship is not intended to suggest or condone commercial bias in any presentation, but it is made to provide participants with information that might be of potential importance to their evaluation of a presentation.

Fee
There is no fee to participate in this activity.

Hardware/Software Requirements
Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or Google Chrome with the QuickTime Plug-in
Note: Please disable any “pop-up blocker” features.

Software/Hardware
Adobe® Reader version 7 or above to view PDF files (If you do not have Adobe® Reader, you can download it for free from Adobe.com)
Adobe Flash Player version 10 or above to view multimedia content (If you do
not have Adobe Flash Player, you can download it for free from Adobe.com)

Connection Speed
Cable, DSL, or better of at least 300 kbps

System Check
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Joint Providership
This activity is jointly provided by Center for Independent Healthcare Education and Vemco MedEd.