To help bridge this significant practice gap, educational interventions for both clinicians and patients are being offered nationwide, including this unique CME activity for health care providers titled, Now More Than Ever: A Mycophenolate REMS Escape Room Challenge. This interactive, escape room format provides engaging reminders to counsel and follow up with all persons of childbearing potential about the contraindication of mycophenolate in pregnancy. While these challenges are intended to be a fun way to learn and retain information, the subject matter underscores a serious health imperative.
Patients and health care professionals (HCPs) face additional challenges when the treatments prescribed for pain management (e.g., opioids) lead to substance use problems. HCPs must then re-evaluate treatment plans for acute, subacute, and chronic pain and encourage treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). There are strategies available to HCPs to help identify patients at risk for OUD, most notably found in the 2022 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids, which could help prevent OUD in patients through screening and identifying alternate treatments. For those patients who may present with concern for OUD, HCPs should be able to apply Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ (DSM)-5 criteria to properly diagnose OUD and work with patients to initiate effective treatment plans for OUD.
An interactive infographic from CME Outfitters entitled, Opioid Use Disorder: Identifying Patients At Risk and Developing Management Plans, consisting of three “escape-room” style activities, will be presented to show learners tools to identify patients at risk for OUD, diagnose patients with OUD, and develop treatment plans for the underlying pain as well as the subsequent OUD. The three rooms will model practice environments with challenges designed by a team of expert, interdisciplinary faculty that cover strategies from the 2022 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for screening and identifying patients at risk for OUD, as well as ways to diagnose and treat OUD.
Melissa J. Durham is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and an Associate Dean at the University of Southern California (USC) Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Durham received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree, completed a residency in Community-based Pharmacy Practice, and has a Master of Academic Medicine degree, all from USC. She has been a clinical pharmacist at the USC Pain Center since 2008, where she runs a pharmacist-led pain medication management service for patients with a variety of complicated chronic, nononcologic pain conditions. She is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with chronic pain through patient-centered and compassionate care. The value of her unique practice model has been recognized and published both nationally and internationally. Dr. Durham is also a practicing community pharmacist and provides a valuable and unique perspective of a clinician who is both a prescriber and a dispenser.
Chronic cough, defined as a cough lasting 8 weeks or more, affects nearly 10 percent of the global adult population. More than a nuisance, chronic cough negatively impacts health-related quality-of-life and has physical, psychological, social, and financial implications due to symptoms, repetitive medical consultations, and fruitless investigations. In some cases, treating an underlying condition such as asthma or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) will mitigate the problem, but many patients continue to cough despite optimal treatment – a condition known as “refractory chronic cough,” or RCC. There are also patients with chronic cough who have no identifiable associated condition, a so-called “unexplained chronic cough,” or UCC. Randomized controlled trials have now identified P2X3 receptor antagonists as a safe and efficacious strategy to target the distinct pathophysiology associated with RCC/UCC.
In this CME Outfitters “Clinical Clues” series, based on the popular escape room game concept, clinicians are challenged to gather clues in each of four virtual practice environments by learning about key concepts, current treatments, and new/emerging strategies related to chronic cough management. Successfully answering questions allows participants to collect clues needed to unlock subsequent stages. Chronic cough expert, Dr. Mandel Sher, offers practical commentary and management tips along the way.
Mandel Sher, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Division of Allergy & Immunology and John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Dr. Sher has trained over 150 fellows, and has established the Center for Cough in 2009, which is embedded in the Sher Allergy Specialists which was established in 1984. The Center has seen over 2,000 patients with chronic refractory and unexplained cough, and is a leading investigator for clinical trials of novel antitussives. Dr. Sher is involved in multiple stages of cough drug development. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) and the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), and board-certified in Allergy & Immunology and Pediatrics. Dr. Sherreceived his MD from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, completed his residency at Duke University School of Medicine, and post graduate training at Harvard University and the University of Michigan.