CME: Treatment of acute COVID-19 infection: shifting strategy, evolving enemy

Activity Description / Statement of Need:

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has upended life as humankind knows it, leading to over 238,000,000 cases and 4,800,000 deaths worldwide at the time of writing. SARS-CoV-2 targets the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) receptors present in the nasal epithelium and lungs. Viral replication leads to a variety of clinical presentations and outcomes during the acute infectious process, including: asymptomatic disease; milder symptoms such as fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, anosmia, and ageusia; and, in severe cases, hypoxemia, acute respiratory stress disease, and death. Complications are not limited to the respiratory tract and may present as multi-organ involvement varying from acute cardiac injury, coagulopathies, and multisystem inflammatory syndrome. Some survivors of the disease must also grapple with reduced health-related quality of life as a result of chronic lung fibrosis and central nervous system or mental health dysfunction, including post-traumatic stress disease, attention deficit, anxiety, and overall impaired cognitive function.

This learning activity has been designed to bring physicians knowledge of the strategies for the management of COVID-19 up to date and to improve their competence and performance in diagnosing and treating it.

Target Audience:

HCPs including: Hospitalists and other primary care physicians, infectious disease physicians, pulmonologists, and critical care physicians; physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists in those areas of specialty; and any other healthcare professionals with an interest in or who clinically encounter patients with acute COVID-19 infection.

This program is supported by educational grants from Gilead and Regeneron.

This activity is free of charge.

Release Date: January 30, 2022 -- Expiration Date: January 30, 2023

Faculty: Michael Niederman, M.D., MACP, FCCP, FCCM, FERS

Agenda

Faculty introduction and disclosures

Acute Covid-19 infection introductory content

· Epidemiology and statistics

· Disease pathophysiology and associated hyperinflammatory state

· Clinical symptoms, presentation, complications

· Disease severity

· Predictors of outcomes, morbidity, and mortality

COVID-19 treatment

· Factors impacting therapeutic decisions, indication criteria

· Severity and risk stratification, severe/critical vs. non-severe disease

· Dyspnea and oxygen requirements

· Patient age and weight

· Presently available and investigational treatments, their roles in therapy, and literature support

· SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-targeting monoclonal antibodies, IgG1κ and IgG1λ; virus internalization inhibition

· Viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibition

· Janus kinase inhibition & IL-6 pathway inhibition

· Corticosteroid therapy

· Convalescent plasma

· ATI-450 MK2 pathway inhibition

· Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor inhibition

· Identification of patients who may benefit from novel therapies, including EUA agents in hospitalized patients

· Hypoxemia, acute respiratory disease syndrome, and thromboembolic complication treatment and prevention

· Symptom and chronic anti-inflammatory medication management

· Monitoring and re-testing

· Other treatment challenges

· Special populations: pregnant or breastfeeding patients; influenza, HIV, or bacterial co-infection

· Overprescribing of antibiotics

· Treatment misinformation

· Patient case(s)

Summary, conclusions, and best practice recap

Learning Objectives

By the end of the session the participant will be able to:

Recall challenges associated with the treatment of patients with COVID-19.
Identify and summarize the efficacy of diagnostic and current and emerging treatment strategies for COVID-19.
Formulate a treatment plan for a patient with COVID-19.

Accreditation

ACCME Activity #201826245

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through ScientiaCME. ScientiaCME is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation: ScientiaCME designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ toward the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

CME-MOC_badge

ABIM MOC Recognition Statement: Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to 1.0 MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Participants will earn MOC points equivalent to the amount of CME credits claimed for the activity. It is the CME activity provider's responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit.

Physicians: For applicable courses, to attain maintenance of certification (MOC) credit, you must enter your board certification ID # and birth date correctly. It is the learner's responsibility to provide this information completely and accurately at the completion of the activity. Without providing it, the learner will NOT receive MOC credit for this activity. Please note: not all activities on this site provide MOC credit. If this activity does not specify that it provides MOC credit in the "Accreditation" section on this page, then it does NOT provide MOC credit.

Pharmacists

ScientiaCME is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) as a provider of continuing pharmacy education. This activity is approved for 1.0 contact hours (0.1 CEUs) of continuing pharmacy education credit. Proof of participation will be posted to your NABP CPE profile within 4 to 6 weeks to participants who have successfully completed the post-test. Participants must participate in the entire presentation and complete the course evaluation to receive continuing pharmacy education credit. ACPE # 0574-0000-22-010-H01-P. This is an Application (A)-type activity.

Pharmacists: You must enter your NABP # and birth date correctly so that proof of participation can be posted to your NABP CPE profile. It is the learner's responsibility to provide this information completely and accurately at the completion of the activity. Without providing it, the learner will NOT receive CPE credit for this activity.

Nurse Practitioners (NPs): The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME. ScientiaCME will provide NPs who successfully complete each activity with a certificate of participation indicating that the activity was designated for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.

Physician Assistants: The American Academy of Physician Assistants accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME.

Faculty Disclosure and Resolution of COI

As a provider of continuing medical education, it is the policy of ScientiaCME to ensure balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all of its educational activities. In accordance with this policy, faculty and educational planners must disclose any significant relationships with commercial interests whose products or devices may be mentioned in faculty presentations, and any relationships with the commercial supporter of the activity. The intent of this disclosure is to provide the intended audience with information on which they can make their own judgments. Additionally, in the event a conflict of interest (COI) does exist, it is the policy of ScientiaCME to ensure that the COI is resolved in order to ensure the integrity of the CME activity. For this CME activity, any COI has been resolved thru content review ScientiaCME.

Faculty: Michael S. Niederman, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, has received financial compensation for consulting work from: Gilead, Abbvie, Dompe, Merck, Shionogi and Pfizer.

Faculty WILL discuss off-label use of a commercial product.

Disclosures of Educational Planners: Charles Turck, PharmD, BCPS, BCCCP, CEO of ScientiaCME, has no relevant financial disclosures.

Commercial Support Disclosure: This program is supported by educational grants from Gilead and Regeneron.

Instructions

Read the learning objectives above
Take the Pre-Test (optional). Completion of the pre-test will help us evaluate the knowedge gained by participating in this CME activity.
View the online activity. You may view this is in more than one session, and may pause or repeat any portion of the presentation if you need to.
Minimum participation threshold: Take the post-test. A score of 70% or higher is required to pass and proceed to the activity evaluation.
Complete the activity evaluation and CME registration. A CE certificate will be emailed to you immediately.