The Comprehensive 2024 Update on Office-Based Primary Care Medicine

Taught Live Online by Harvard Medical School's Leading Clinical Faculty

Office Practice of Primary Care Medicine will be held online this year, using live streaming, electronic Q&A, and other remote learning technologies.

OVERVIEW

Office Practice of Primary Care Medicine provides comprehensive reviews of the most important recent advances impacting primary care medicine and guidance to incorporate these changes into practice for state-of-the-art care. Education is practical and results-focused, structured to help you optimize your approach to the wide array of conditions seen in primary care practice.

Our lectures and workshops are designed to provide practical, case-based reviews of physical exam skills, diagnostic techniques, and the latest in disease management. All sessions are taught by nationally and internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields of medicine, and include time for audience Q&A. This year, we are asking specialist speakers to focus on the key takeaways they recommend for busy PCPs.

2024 Updates and Skills Development

This year’s lectures and workshops are fully updated with a focus on the most important clinical challenges affecting the practice of primary care medicine in 2024. Highlights are summarized below.

Optimizing Your Approach to Challenging Conditions

  • Treating obesity: new medications, lifestyle medicine interventions, surgery
  • Chronic kidney disease management and prevention of complications
  • Providing equitable care and preventing implicit bias in your practice
  • Optimal chronic pain management: opioids and non-opioids
  • Updated approaches to hypertension and lipid care
  • Practical pointers for treating diabetes, including the newest medications
  • Congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and atrial fibrillation
  • COVID-19 updates for primary care practice
  • Menopause management and treatment of osteoporosis
  • Treating headaches
  • Mental health conditions: depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and ADHD
  • Stroke
  • Assessing and treating alcohol and opiate addictions
  • Sleep disorders: insomnia and sleep apnea
  • Pre-op cardiac and pulmonary consultation
  • "Can't-miss" diagnoses

New Treatment Options and Guidelines

  • Breakthrough anti-obesity drugs
  • New diabetes medications and their impact on kidney and cardiovascular disease
  • Using the direct anticoagulants
  • The latest COPD guidelines
  • Buprenorphine (without the waiver)
  • New updates for NAFLD and hepatitis C
  • Top primary care articles
  • Updates in urology
  • Antibiotics in office practice
  • Update on thyroid problems
  • Common eye problems
  • Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses
  • Motivational interviewing

Screening and Immunizations in 2024

  • Update on adult immunizations including the COVID vaccines, and pointers for addressing vaccine hesitancy
  • Updates on screening for breast, colorectal, lung, cervical, and prostate cancer

Practice Tips from World-Renowned Experts

  • Wellness strategies for PCPs
  • Current approaches to anemia
  • Diagnosis and treatment of cognitive impairment
  • Managing anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and ADHD
  • Patient information handouts that are relevant to your practice, in English and Spanish

Education to Improve Your Physical Exam Skills and Use of Diagnostic Tools

  • Evaluating low back pain
  • Physical examination of knee pain and hip pain
  • Physical examination of the hand, elbow, and shoulder
  • Evaluation of peripheral neuropathy
  • Dermatology updates
  • Interpreting ECGs

Optimized for Remote Education

The 2024 program has been enhanced for distance learning:

  • All education will be live streamed.
  • Live streamed sessions include live online chat, where participants can pose their specific questions to faculty.
  • Many speakers will also respond in writing to remaining chat questions immediately following their talks. This bonus Q&A session will be included in the course archive as a reference.
  • All sessions will be recorded and made available to participants for online viewing, at their convenience, via a course archive. Access to recorded sessions will begin the day after a session’s live broadcast and will continue for 6 months after the end of the course. 
  • All live streaming sessions are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ and other relevant credits. (Note: Evaluations must be completed within 30 days in order to receive CME credit.)

Practice-Changing Education

My story imageParticipants consistently report that this program has inspired and improved their practice of medicine: 
 

"Every lecture gave me at least one take-home point to change in my practice."
 

"I am in awe of the quality of the presentations and the outstanding commitment to the highest level of patient care exhibited by the presenters. I value all of the clinical pearls offered in the case-based presentation approach. The level of dedication and passion for the topics that the presenters had was fabulous. For example, 'I love that question.' You can tell that most of the presenters love what they do and are so interested in sharing their wisdom and knowledge with others." 
 

"In just the week following this course, I had already changed HTN management on several patients, recognized suboptimal lipid management in several others, and changed how I field questions on breast cancer screening."
 

"The quality of the main presentations was above anything I have previously experienced. Worth every penny (and I do not have CME funds available to me)!"
 

"Among the many changes to my practice: I’m implementing new information related to preoperative assessment, use of obesity meds, immunization, use of PrEP in HIV, managing complications in CKD, allergy management, derm meds, mechanism of sleep testing and management, and of course buprenorphine use. I’m revising protocols for hyperlipidemia, CHD, COPD, IBS, NAFL, antibiotic use, dementia management, asthma."
 

"The emphasis on equity was very enlightening."
 

"This course has influenced my use of new and better treatment for obesity, changed my thinking in regard to diabetic treatment, taught me better use of medications for asthma and COPD."
 

"I walked away with an increased appreciation for the science of obesity and how alterations in metabolism go beyond just excess calories. The expanding indications of GLP1 agonists have helped tackle metabolic barriers to weight loss in this challenging population."

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