UW Medicine 22nd Annual Clinical Cardiology Pearls for Primary Care 2023

Friday, April 28, 2023, 8:00 AM – 4:35 PM, Webinar (Online), Seattle, WA

This course is tailored for a primary care audience and is intended to provide practical, up-to-date information on commonly encountered cardiovascular diseases. World-class faculty from the University of Washington School of Medicine will teach participants using case-based lectures and an audience response system to encourage interactive dialogue. Recent guidelines for hypertension, cholesterol management, primary prevention of heart disease, and heart failure will be reviewed. Everyday primary care topics including diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, valvular heart disease and supraventricular arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, will be covered. Practical issues regarding use of new anticoagulants will be discussed. Appropriateness of cardiac testing will be discussed during lectures on the cardiovascular physical exam and the evaluation of chest pain with stress testing and coronary CT imaging.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Upon completion of this activity, attendees should be able to:
1. Treat and manage high blood pressure based on updated clinical guidelines.
2. Apply cholesterol guidelines and latest clinical trial data of novel cholesterol treatments to the management of patients with cardiac risk factors and atherosclerotic vascular disease.
3. Evaluate patients with chest pain and order the appropriate stress and imaging tests for your patients based on current guidelines.
4. Evaluate and manage patients with valvular heart disease; identify which heart murmur patients should be referred for an echocardiogram and when patients should be referred for valve repair or replacement.
5. Diagnose and treat patients with palpitations and understand the appropriate use of heart rhythm monitors and when to refer patients to cardiology.
6. Evaluate and treat atrial fibrillation and learn how to use direct oral anticoagulants to reduce stroke risk from atrial fibrillation, and when to refer to a specialist to consider rhythm control with antiarrhythmics or catheter ablation.
7. Evaluate patients with heart failure and treat with guideline directed medical therapy including novel treatments like angiotensin receptor-neprolysin inhibitors and SGLT2 inhibitors.
8. Utilize novel diabetes drugs that have proven benefit in reducing cardiovascular events