Serious Bacterial Infections: A Focus on Gram-Negative & Clostridium difficile Infections

Release Date: Thursday, June 9, 2016 Expiration Date: Friday, June 9, 2017

EDUCATIONAL OVERVIEW

Serious bacterial infections place a substantial clinical and economic burden on healthcare systems. The rising prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative pathogens (such as ESBL-producing and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae and P. aeruginosa) as well as the spread of a hypervirulent strain of C. difficile has seriously challenged clinicians. As the CDC has included these pathogens on their list of serious healthcare threats in the US, clinicians must be aware of the latest approaches to minimize the burden of these infections through prevention efforts and selecting timely and effective treatment. This program will review the latest evidence demonstrating how treatment selection should be guided by patient and pathogen risk factors for poor clinical outcomes. The program will also highlight the role of the latest treatment approaches, including the use of newly-approved beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor combinations for serious Gram-negative infections, and novel approaches for C. difficile infection.

TARGET AUDIENCE

This continuing medical education activity is planned to meet the needs of surgical care team members, including surgeons, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and internists, who are involved in the management of patients with or at risk for serious bacterial infections.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completing this activity, participants will be able to:

Discuss epidemiological trends of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections and C. difficile infection
Utilize the latest evidence-based strategies for the management of serious bacterial infections based on patient and pathogen factors
Evaluate the role of new and novel therapeutic approaches when managing serious infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria and C. difficile

EDUCATIONAL FORMAT

These Online Presentations are based on the CME Satellite Symposium held in conjunction with Surgical Infection Society Annual Meeting.

Please Note: If you have received credit for attending the live symposium by the same name, you are not eligible to apply for credit for this online version.

This online activity is divided into two portable and easy to access episodes:

Episode 1:	Current Therapeutic Options for Antimicrobial-Resistant Gram-Negative Infections Thomas M. File, Jr., MD
Episode 2:	*Novel Approaches in the Management of Clostridium difficile* Infection** Stuart Johnson, MD

FACULTY

	Thomas M. File, Jr., MD, MS, MACP, FIDSA, FCCP Chair, Infectious Disease Division  Summa Health System  Akron, OH  Professor, Internal Medicine; Master Teacher  Chair, Infectious Disease Section Northeast Ohio Medical University  Rootstown, OH

	Stuart Johnson, MD Professor, Department of Medicine Stritch School of Medicine Loyola University Chicago, IL

Accreditation

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 the Center for Independent Healthcare Education and Vemco MedEd, LLC. Center for Independent Healthcare Education (Center) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Center for Independent Healthcare Education designates this Enduring material for a maximum of 1.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Physician Assistant

AAPA accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ for the PRA from organizations accredited by ACCME.

Nurse Practitioners

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

For questions regarding accreditation, please contact info@jointsponsor.com

Method of Participation and Instruction for Credit

Review the entire CME information including target audience, learning objectives, and disclosures.
Review each episode.
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%.
Certificate of Credit will be emailed within 4 weeks of successful completion of the activity.

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.

Disclosure

Thomas M. File, Jr., MD has relevant financial relationships with the following commercial interests:
Advisory Board: Allergan, Cempra, Melinta, Merck, MotifBio, Nabriva, Pfizer,
Tetraphase, Sensor Kenesis Corp.
Grant Recipient/Research Support: Nebriva
Dr. File intends discuss the off-label use of following: Non-approved
indications for new agents.

Stuart Johnson, MD has relevant financial relationships with the following commercial interests:
Advisory Board: BioK+, Summit Therapeutics, Seres Therapeutics
Dr. Johnson discusses the off-label use of following: Metronidazole, rifaximin, nitazoxanide are not FDA-approved for treating CDI, but are commonly used.

No (other) speakers, authors, planners or content reviewers have any relevant financial relationships to disclose. No (other) speakers or authors will discuss off-label use of a product.

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

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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

Please e-mail any questions or concerns to info@vemcomeded.com.

Copyright Statement

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Joint Providership

This activity is jointly provided by Center for Independent Healthcare Education and Vemco MedEd.

Commercial Support

This activity is supported by an educational grant from Merck & Co.

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