Online Courses

Optimizing Antimicrobial Therapy with Timeouts

This CME/CPE activity provides a practical approach to performing “Antibiotic Timeouts” in the inpatient setting. Using short, didactic sessions, we will provide examples on how to reassess antibiotic therapy started empirically using clinical, laboratory, and microbiological data. The majority of this CME/CPE will be high-yield, interactive inpatient cases covering skin and soft tissue infections, pneumonia, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and neutropenic fever, that illustrate the timeout process and the principles of appropriate use of antimicrobials.

Safe Opioid Prescribing and Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS)

This course aims to improve knowledge, competence and performance in prescribing opioids in the treatment of chronic pain. Specifically, it will increase knowledge of the significant potential for abuse of opioid analgesics and knowledge of the emerging opioid formulations and combinations with the goal to decrease the risks of diversion and abuse. This course will focus on the assessment and recognition of psychological co-morbidities that increase the risk for opioid abuse and diversion, developing treatment plans and implementing interventions aimed at decreasing risk for unintentional misuse in addition to abuse of and addiction to opioid analgesics.

Teaching Basic Bedside Transthoracic Echocardiography Examination to Evaluate Hypotension and Hypoxemia

Small, relatively inexpensive hand-carried cardiac ultrasound (HCU) devices have become available in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Because they are relatively easy to use and portable, HCU's have made powerful echocardiographic diagnostic data available to physicians. Yet, many of today's practicing physicians lack formal training or a thorough understanding of the basic principles of operation of these devices and the diagnostic benefits they offer. This course will provide an evidence-based overview of the use of HCU's at the clinic and the bedside using video based didactics and demonstrations.

Prescription Drug Misuse and Addiction: Compassionate Care for a Complex Problem

This CME activity provides a practical approach to the management of prescription drug misuse and addiction, including how to use the clinical interview and CURES (California’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program) to identify if a problem exists, and how to intervene once the problem has been identified. Animated didactic videos, interactive slides, and video case scenarios will be used to put these principles into practice with a treatment algorithm. The most compassionate approach to tapering patients down and off the medication they are misusing will also be discussed.

Practical Tips to Improve Asian American Participation in Cancer Clinical Trials

Racial and ethnic diversity is critical to the success of cancer clinical trials. Asian Americans, like other ethnic groups, have low recruitment, accrual and retention rates in cancer clinical trials. This online course will educate healthcare providers and allied health professionals about cancer clinical trials and cultural humility skills as well as provide educational resources and tips for reinforcing change in practice to improve outcomes in Asian American clinical trial participation.

Managing Shoulder Pain in the Clinic: What to Look for and When to Intervene

This CME activity is a refresher on relevant functional musculoskeletal anatomy and physical exam techniques of the shoulder. Using case examples as well as didactics, animated visualizations, and video demonstrations, this course is designed to elevate the practicing physician’s confidence in understanding the current evidence base in managing routinely encountered conditions of the shoulder. 

Congenital Hypothyroidism: What Every Primary Care Provider Needs to Know

Using a case-based approach, this CME activity will provide practical training on the management of congenital hypothyroidism directed at the primary care physician. The course will address the initial diagnostic testing and initiation of treatment in infancy through childhood and adolescence.

The course will review the clinical signs of hypothyroidism, the initial work up, appropriate dosing and delivery of thyroid hormone replacement, the schedule of lab testing to monitor treatment and how to interpret results. 

You’ve Called 911, Now What? A Simplified, Evidence-based Approach to Six Life-Threatening Office Emergencies 

This CME activity will present a practical approach to several high-risk emergency conditions that can present to office-based practices. The course instructors will describe the immediate recognition and management of these complex patients through a discussion of specific case-based scenarios and a review current, evidence-based practice. By learning and applying these high-yield principles, course participants will be able to optimize patient outcomes.

Thinking Critically: Interpreting Randomized Clinical Trials

This course seeks to fulfill the clinical community’s need to improve skills in the critical evaluation of clinical research papers. Competency in critical appraisal skills can have a significant impact by improving clinical practice, quality of research projects, and peer-review of manuscripts and grants. The course will utilize efficient and engaging videos with relevant clinical examples to cover essential research methodology principles.

The online format will provide opportunities for self-paced learning and practicing critical appraisal of a variety of published studies that evaluate benefit, harm, and prognosis.

Crisis Code: Teaching Crisis Management Skills to Enhance Management of Advanced Cardiac Life Support

Healthcare professionals are required to handle medical emergencies and crises. These situations require teamwork and evidence-based techniques. This course will teach physicians crisis resource management principles and the provision of Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) during cardiac arrest.

Each module of this course will include learning trigger videos and video podcast lectures.

Writing in Science

Many physicians and medical researchers have not had a formal training in scientific writing and have not had mentors in their professional setting to assist them with improving this skill. Scientific writing is an important skill enabling effective disseminating of medical knowledge, clear communication and obtaining grant funding. This course seeks to improve skills in scientific writing as it applies to publishing clear and effective scientific papers and reviewing clinical research.

Statistics for Medical Professionals

This course seeks to fulfill the need in the clinical community to better understand medical statistics as it pertains to practicing evidence based medicine, communicating treatment outcome probability to patients and interpreting the results of studies and scientific papers, and in turn improving quality of patient care. This applies to all specialties in various settings of practice.

Antimicrobial Stewardship: Optimization of Antibiotic Practices

Antibiotics are among the most frequently prescribed classes of drugs and it is estimated that approximately 50% of antibiotic use, in both the outpatient and inpatient settings, is inappropriate. 

This course will offer a number of illustrative cases, recognizable to the practicing physician in his or her practice to engage the learners in the thought processes that lead to optimal decision making, improved outcomes of individual patients, and harm reduction vis-a-vis the bacterial ecology.