A CME/CE-Certified Enduring Material
Release Date: June 15, 2010
Expiration Date: June 15, 2011
Estimated time to complete this activity: 1.5 hours

This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of health care providers who care for patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), including physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses.

Despite the considerable progress made during the last decade in the understanding and treatment of CHB—particularly the introduction of effective antiviral medications—morbidity and mortality from CHB remains unacceptably high. Most individuals with CHB remain undiagnosed and unaware of their infection until serious complications, such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis, appear in the later stages of the disease, creating a significant burden of potentially preventable disease. In addition, many clinicians are unfamiliar with recent treatment guidelines, such as those from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) or the treatment algorithm developed by a panel of expert hepatologists, that provide recommendations for the prevention, identification, and management of CHB. All providers of CHB care need a practical resource guide to ensure the maximum identification and management of persons living with CHB.

B Aware: Experts Address FAQs About Chronic Hepatitis B is a resource booklet that poses the fundamental questions many clinicians have about screening, diagnosis, and treatment of CHB, and provides brief responses supported by the available data to answer these questions or better inform clinicians about these issues.
 

After completing this activity, participants will be better able to:
* Identify those at risk to screen for hepatitis B infection
* Describe how to diagnose CHB infection
* Outline treatment recommendations for CHB infection
* Describe how to monitor and manage CHB infection
* Explain how to prevent or limit the development of resistance in the treatment of CHB infection

Willis C. Maddrey, MD, MACP
Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, TX

Tram T. Tran, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Geffen UCLA School of Medicine
Medical Director, Liver Transplant Program Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, CA

ACCREDITATION STATEMENT
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential
Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
(ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM)
and HealthmattersCME. PIM is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical
education for physicians.

CREDIT DESIGNATION
Postgraduate Institute for Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

CREDIT DESIGNATION
This educational activity for 1.6 contact hours is provided by Postgraduate Institute for Medicine.

ACCREDITATION STATEMENTS
Postgraduate Institute for Medicine is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing
education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

CALIFORNIA BOARD OF REGISTERED NURSING
Postgraduate Institute for Medicine is approved by the California Board of Registered
Nursing, Provider Number 13485 for 1.9 contact hours.
 

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) assesses conflict of interest with its instructors, planners, managers, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of CME activities. All relevant conflicts of interest that are identified are thoroughly vetted by PIM for fair balance, scientific objectivity of studies mentioned in this activity, and patient care recommendations. PIM is committed to providing its learners with high-quality CME activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in health care and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest.

The faculty reported the following financial relationships or relationships to products or
devices they or their spouse/life partner have with commercial interests related to the content of this CME activity.

Willis C. Maddrey, MD, MACP
Consulting Fees: Fees for consulting on advisory boards related to drug safety for Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis, Human Genome Sciences

Tram T. Tran, MD
Consulting Fees: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Inc
Fees for Non-CME: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Inc

The following PIM planners and managers, Jan Hixon, RN, BSN, MA; Trace Hutchison, PharmD; Julia Kimball, RN, BSN; Samantha Mattiucci, PharmD; Patricia Staples, MSN, NP-C, CCRN; and Jan Schultz, RN, MSN, CCMEP, hereby state that they or their spouse/life partner do not have any financial relationships or relationships to products or devices with any commercial interest related to the content of this activity of any amount during the past 12 months.

The following HealthmattersCME planner/manager, James Murphy, hereby states that he or his spouse/life partner do not have any financial relationships or relationships to products or devices with any commercial interest related to the content of this activity of any amount during the past 12 months; and HealthmattersCME ANCC planner, Carla Molliner, PA-C, MHS, has disclosed the following financial relationship: consulting fees for Schering-Plough (Hepatitis C Advisory Board).

There are no fees for participating and receiving CME credit for this activity. During the period May 31, 2010 through May 31, 2011, participants must read the learning objectives and faculty disclosures and study the educational activity.
PIM supports Green CME by offering your Request for Credit online. If you wish to receive acknowledgment for completing this activity, please complete the post-test and evaluation on www.cmeuniversity.com. On the navigation menu, click on “Find Post-test/Evaluation by Course” and search by course ID “7216”. Upon your registering and successfully completing the post-test with a score of 70% or better and the activity evaluation, your certificate will be made available immediately. Processing credit requests online will reduce the amount of paper used by nearly 100,000 sheets per year.

This educational activity may contain discussion of published and/or investigational
uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA. Postgraduate Institute for Medicine
(PIM), HealthmattersCME, and Gilead Sciences do not recommend the use of any agent outside of the labeled indications.

The opinions expressed in the educational activity are those of the faculty and do not
necessarily represent the views of PIM, HealthmattersCME, and Gilead Sciences. Please
refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.

Participants have an implied responsibility to use the newly acquired information to enhance patient outcomes and their own professional development. The information presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management.
Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patients’ conditions and possible contraindications on dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities.

This activity is jointly sponsored by Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and
HealthmattersCME.

 

This activity is supported by an independent educational grant from Gilead Sciences
Medical Affairs.



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