A Comprehensive Update for State-of-the-Art Primary Care

Updates Are Provided Across All Major Areas of Primary Care Practice

Held online this year, using live streaming, electronic Q&A, and other remote learning technologies.

OVERVIEW

This program provides a comprehensive update of the most important changes and advances impacting primary care practice. It is led by Harvard Medical School’s leading clinical faculty— representing more than 30 fields of medicine.

Participants can rely on this program for education and skills advancement workshops covering:

  • Comprehensive updates for diagnosis and treatment
  • State-of-the-art approaches to the most frequent clinical challenges 
  • Guidance for care of the patient with complex medical needs
  • Advanced techniques for in-office procedures 
  • Examination skills
  • Disease prevention: screening and vaccination updates
  • Strategies to account for social, racial, sex and gender, and cultural differences to ensure optimized care for all patients

► All updates are coupled with guidance to incorporate them into everyday clinical practice.

2024 Highlights

State-of-the-Art Approaches to Frequent Clinical Challenges
  • Obesity: prescribing GLP-1 agonists and more
  • Hypertension: new targets, new treatment options
  • Women's health: menopause and prescribing hormone therapy
  • Hypercholesterolemia: how low to go (and how to get there)
  • Diabetes: new paradigms of care
  • Cancer screening recommendations 
  • Contraception: current state of the art
  • LGBTQ health: special considerations
  • Cardiovascular disease: setting and achieving goals specific to patient risk
  • Smoking cessation
  • Depression and anxiety: practical stepwise approaches for primary care
  • Dyspepsia and dysphagia
  • Artificial intelligence: applications in primary care
  • Gender-affirming care; compassionate care in gender transitioning
  • Osteoporosis and bone health: reducing fracture risk
  • Arthritis: effective management of articular inflammation
  • Headaches: established and innovative options
  • Anemia: straightforward approaches for abnormal results 
  • Asthma: SMART (single maintenance and reliever therapy) and more
  • Thyroid disorders
Guidance for the Care of Patients with Complex Medical Needs
  • Heart failure: improving patient functional capacity with combined therapies
  • Opioids: dosing, patient selection, addiction, and weaning
  • Opioid use disorder: what you need to know about medication-assisted treatment
  • Biomodulators: must-know information for primary care clinicians
  • Liver diseases: treatment strategies that preserve function
  • Neurology: cannot-miss presentations in primary care
  • Pulmonology: management of inflammatory conditions
  • Anticoagulation: expanding the use of the new targeted agents
  • Kidney health: improved strategies for nephron protection
  • Atrial fibrillation: pharmacologic and ablation strategies
  • Medication interactions: avoiding unintended adverse outcomes
  • Our aging demographic: supporting independence and autonomy
  • Alcohol use disorder: diverse approaches that expand your repertoire of options
  • Cognitive decline: what can we do based on the evidence?
  • Motivational interviewing for weight loss
  • Female sexual health
  • Peripheral vascular disease
Knowledge Advancement and Skills Development Workshops

You can choose from 36 live streaming workshops, or attend them all, to tailor the program to your specific practice needs. These workshops will all be recorded, allowing you to (re)view them online, at your convenience, for up to 11 months following the conclusion of this program. CME will begiven for all viewing and evaluations completed within 30 days:

  • Challenges and complications of medical marijuana
  • Advanced diabetes management
  • Opioid use disorder
  • Best practices in the care of LGBTQ+ patients
  • Reproductive endocrinology
  • Fluid and electrolyte abnormalities
  • Unraveling the mysteries of abnormal LFTs
  • Lower back pain
  • Therapeutic approaches to the foot and ankle
  • Therapeutic approaches to the knee
  • Exploring the risks of supplements your patients are taking (and not telling you)
  • Help! My patient is on monoclonal antibody therapy—what do I do?
  • Sexual health: menopause 101
  • GYN oncology
  • Female urinary incontinence and sexual pain
  • Immunotherapy: things to know about changing paradigms in oncology care
  • Prostate problems and challenges
  • Risk assessment of breast and ovarian cancer
  • Managing alcohol use disorder
  • Urinary incontinence in women
  • Common otolaryngology issues in primary care
  • Tick-borne diseases
  • Peripheral vascular disease
  • Management of adult attention deficit disorder
  • Common ophthalmology issues in primary care
  • Movement disorders
  • Concussion management: on the field and in the office
  • Mild neurocognitive disorder: decisions at the gateway to dementia
  • Supporting the independence and autonomy of older adults
  • Trauma-informed care
  • Biases and behaviors in clinical practice
  • Palliative and hospice care
  • Gender-affirming care, gender transitioning
  • Contraception update 2024
  • Updates in dermatology: common rashes
  • Challenges in opioid prescribing for chronic non-cancer pain
Women's Health
  • Risk assessment of breast and ovarian cancer
  • Menopause: proactive patient care
  • Women’s heart health: addressing the number 1 killer of women in the U.S.
  • Female incontinence: basic approaches and new options
  • Primary care of the pregnant patient
  • The fourth trimester: care after delivery for the PCP
  • Treating sexual pain in women

Practical, Comprehensive Education

Optimized for Remote Learning

The 2024 program has been enhanced for distance learning. In addition to live-streamed content, all sessions will be recorded and made available to participants for online viewing starting 1 day after the session’s live broadcast and can be accessed for 11 months after the course. Questions in the chat not covered live by the speakers will be responded to either immediately afterwards or within a month; this bonus Q&A will be posted in the course archives for participants to review.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Demonstrate a solid understanding of the most common and clinically important medical topics used in the practice of primary care.
  • Discuss the current use and future directions for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medical practice.
  • Explain the origins and value of current guidelines and develop implementation of office-based strategies to ensure treatment of elevated cholesterol, diabetes, heart failure, hypertension, menopause care, contraception, and osteoporosis.
  • Broaden understanding of the evidence base for providing care informed by sex and gender, social determinants of health, and race to advance health equity.  
  • Develop new and innovative skills in clinical reasoning and problem solving.
  • Recognize the side effects and interactions among medications prescribed by primary care clinicians and their consultants.
  • Summarize the therapeutic potential of newly developed biomodulators and understand interactions with current therapies and newly described untoward side effects.
  • Discuss the expected results of therapies and summarize current treatment strategies for cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurologic/neurovascular, endocrine, ophthalmic, orthopedic, immunologic, reproductive, dermatologic, gastrointestinal, hepatic, geriatric, psychiatric, metabolic, sleep medicine, and women's health conditions.
  • Assess the clinical value of specific diagnostic tests used in general internal medicine and specialty practices, including test sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values.
  • Develop strategies to help patients (and yourself) achieve greater stress resiliency.
  • Integrate lifestyle messages for patient self-care into daily practice.
  • Identify the disease prevention and health promotion priorities of general internal medicine.
  • Design practical and effective approaches to behavioral health challenges, including alcohol use disorder, marijuana misuse, and opioid addiction.
  • Describe how to provide the best pain management.
  • Develop confidence with the use of buprenorphine for patients with opioid use disorders.
  • Apply evidence-based palliative care strategies in clinical practice.
  • Create practical home-based interventions for elderly patients that support their autonomy and independence.
  • More confidently examine and assess patients with common orthopedic back, shoulder, knee, and hand complaints.

My story imagePast participants consistently report that this live streaming program has inspired and improved their practice of medicine: 

“I have never attended a course that did a better job of delivering presentations that are relevant to primary care."

“I feel energized and equipped to be the best primary care doctor I can be.”

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“I was able to integrate a lot more change into my practice given the time I had access to these videos. I re-watched many of my favorites and it was wonderful learning experience. Thank you!”

“I will have a more up-to-date approach to management of common problems such as diabetes, hypertension, headache, sleep disorders.”

“With livestream, we can view the other workshops we missed on our own time, creating more learning opportunities for us.”

"Every presentation and every piece of information given to us was backed up with the most recent studies, trials, statistics and evidence-based medicine."