MER Primary Care Conferences Internal Medicine for Primary Care Addiction Pulm Rheum Sep 25-27, 2026

Description

+ Include:  videos + file sub vtt, size:  GB

+ Target Audience: Internists, Family Medicine Physicians, Pulmonologists, Rheumatologists, Addiction Medicine Specialists, and Pain Medicine Specialists

+ Sample video: contact me for sample video

+ Information:

Internal Medicine for Primary Care: Addiction/Pulmonology/Rheumatology is an exceptional continuing medical education program organized by Medical Education Resources (MER). Held at The Equinox Golf Resort & Spa in Manchester, Vermont, this conference is designed to deliver primary care practitioners up-to-date, evidence-based clinical insights and practical management strategies across addiction medicine, pulmonary medicine, and rheumatology. Through structured lectures and pragmatic case reviews, attendees will explore guideline-driven approaches to chronic respiratory conditions and infections, clinical differentiation and pharmacology of arthritis, and evidence-based screening and pharmacotherapies for substance use disorders and chronic pain.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this program, participants should be better able to:

• Diagnose and manage patients with asthma.

• Design treatment strategies reflective of current evidence-based medicine for common respiratory infections.

• Describe the current therapeutic management of COPD.

• Discuss diagnosis and screening strategies as well as treatment plans for lung nodules and lung cancer.

• Review the risks and benefits of the treatment options for arthritis (non-selective NSAIDs, COX-2 inhibitors, DMARDs, narcotics, and tramadol).

• Describe the differential diagnoses of inflammatory arthritis based on clinical presentation and laboratory workup.

• Utilize current evidence to design treatment strategies for osteoarthritis.

• Diagnose and treat gout and pseudogout.

• Describe the neurobiology of addiction.

• Review the effects of addictive drugs including hallucinogens, stimulants, inhalants, sedatives, tobacco, and alcohol.

• List FDA-approved medications for addiction treatment and examine the role of each.

• Discuss options for patients with chronic pain addictions.

Target Audience

This program is targeted to office-based primary care providers and other health professionals with updates in primary care medicine.

Best for Internists, Family Medicine Physicians, Pulmonologists, Rheumatologists, Addiction Medicine Specialists, and Pain Medicine Specialists.

Topics

• Friday, September 25, 2026

  • Pulmonology: Asthma (The medical impact of asthma; fundamental role of inflammation, with possible scarring and irreversible loss of lung function; practical points of diagnosis; goal setting management based on levels of severity; risk factors for mortality and treatment in the acute setting; management options for the difficult to control asthmatic patient)

  • Pulmonology: Controversies in the Treatment of Common Respiratory Infections (Acute and chronic bronchitis; pneumonia [community versus hospital-acquired]; role of the Pneumonia Severity Index score in determining indication for hospitalization; cost-effective use of antibiotics; clinical significance of drug resistance; guidelines for management)

  • Pulmonology: COPD (Definition; pathophysiology; early detection and intervention; risk reduction; management update including new modalities [including lung volume reduction surgery] and the role of inhaled corticosteroids and domiciliary oxygen)

  • Rheumatology: Update in Pharmacology for Arthritis (Review risks and benefits of traditional NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors; analgesics [narcotics and tramadol], acetaminophen, conventional-synthetic DMARDs, and bDMARDs)

  • Rheumatology: Differential Diagnosis of Inflammatory Arthritis (Clinical presentation and laboratory work-up and treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, spondyloarthropathies [SpA], infectious arthritis, and systemic sclerosis; treatment of RA with DMARDs; treatment principles of SLE, Sjogren’s, SpA, and PMR)

• Saturday, September 26, 2026

  • Rheumatology: Osteoarthritis (Pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment)

  • Rheumatology: Crystal Disease: Gout & Pseudogout (Properly diagnosing and treating crystal diseases such as gout and pseudogout)

  • Pulmonology: Lung Cancer Screening & Pulmonary Nodules (Appropriate use of the new lung cancer screening recommendations; Fleischner Society guidelines and American College of Chest Physicians Lung Cancer guidelines; approach to definitive evaluation and management strategies)

  • Addiction: Addiction 101 (The disease model of addiction and its underlying neurobiology; screening for unhealthy use of substances and diagnosis of use disorders; non-pharmacologic interventions for use disorders)

  • Addiction: Certain Substances (The concept of addiction liability; a survey of the various classes of addictive substances; clinical pearls of urine drug testing)

• Sunday, September 27, 2026

  • Addiction: Pharmacotherapy (A survey of medications used to treat various substance use disorders with a focus on nicotine replacement, bupropion, varenicline, disulfiram, naltrexone, acamprosate, methadone, and buprenorphine)

  • Addiction: Chronic Pain and Addictions (Treatment of pain in the context of opioid use disorder; the impact of alcohol and sedatives on acute and chronic pain)