Welcome Reception (provided)

7:00–8:30 p.m.

Group Dinner (provided)

7:00 a.m.

Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:00 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

8:30 a.m.

Keynote Address—The Ebola Virus Epidemic in Africa: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re At and Where We’re Going, Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, University of Minnesota

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the significant threat that Ebola West Africa represents to Africa and the rest of the world.
2. Recognize the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and clinical manifestations of Ebola and Marburg virus disease.
3. State the transmission, diagnosis and treatment of Ebola infection.
4. Identify lessons learned from events surrounding the Ebola outbreak and actions we can take to better deal with these serious infectious diseases.

9:30 a.m.

Break

9:45 a.m.

Heart-Failure Management: Update on the New American Heart Association Guidelines and Future Therapies, Gregg C. Fonarow, MD, UCLA Medical Center

The development of the 2013 American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF)/American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines, which introduce quality measures for patient self-education in outpatient settings and postdischarge follow-up appointments, will require some substantial shifts in the care of heart-failure patients. Initiating palliative care, depression screening and physical/cardiac rehabilitation are now essential elements of effective heart-failure care plans.

Opportunities to improve the delivery of comprehensive heart-failure care and implementing strategies to improve patient outcomes are imperative in the management of this condition, which is currently associated with a five-year mortality rate of 50 percent and the highest 30-day readmission rate in the United States at 26 percent. This presentation will provide an overview of the rationale for these new guidelines and discuss the likely future evolution of heart-failure management.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key elements of evidence-based management for heart failure.
2. Provide an overview of the ACCF/AHA heart-failure-treatment guidelines for each stage of heart failure.
3. Describe the current research that is likely to define the future of heart-failure management.

Optimal Strategies to Manage Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain, James W. Atchison, DO, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

Chronic pain costs the nation up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity and is among the most common reasons for people seeking medical attention and aftercare. The pain experience varies widely from patient to patient and is influenced by a complex set of factors. As a result, an effective and appropriate pain-care plan needs to be personalized. A growing concern in pain management is the increasing misuse and abuse of powerful opioids that has led to dependency and addiction in a growing number of people, with adverse effects on well-being and quality of life. With a focus on musculoskeletal pain management, this presentation will discuss contemporary pain-management strategies and appropriate treatments that should be considered in pain management, as well as the adverse outcomes patients may experience with inadequate pain-management strategies.

Learning Objectives:

1. State the incidence and adverse outcomes that may be experienced with inadequate pain-management strategies.
2. Explain the factors that should be taken into consideration when developing an effective comprehensive pain-care plan for these patients.
3. Identify current optimal strategies for the management of musculoskeletal pain and identify promising future trends in this arena.

11:30 a.m.

Lunch and Exhibits

1:00 p.m.

Assist in Optimal Timing and Improved Communication for Hospice, Sharon M. Weinstein, MD, FAAHPM, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah

National guidelines are consistent in suggesting that hospice care is the best way to comprehensively care for patients at or nearing the end of life. Despite this recognition, hospice services continue to be underutilized because referrals are often too late in the continuum of the disease process, or they are never made. This underuse of hospice referral is often due to health care practitioners delaying the initiation of end-of-life discussions with patients and misunderstandings regarding the nature of hospice care on the part of patients and their loved ones. In addition, these conversations are often extremely challenging, leaving HCPs faced with “truth-telling“ dilemmas when communicating with seriously ill patients about their diagnoses, treatment choices, and prognoses. This discussion will review the challenges facing HCPs when caring for seriously ill and dying patients, including how and when to initiate end-of-life discussions to facilitate optimal timing for hospice referral. The importance of a team-oriented approach in the care of terminally ill patients to help ensure they receive expert medical care, emotional and spiritual support, and timely integration of hospice care will be emphasized.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize how and when to begin appropriate end-of-life care conversations and discussions with patients and their families.
2. Recognize the importance of timely referral to hospice and its impact on improving the quality of life of gravely ill individuals.
3. Describe communication and counseling strategies that can be successfully used to initiate end-of-life discussions.
4. Recognize the importance of a team-oriented approach to the care of terminally ill patients and the appropriate integration of hospice care to provide optimal patient outcomes.

2:00 p.m.

Immunotherapy: Revolutionizing the Way We Treat Cancer, Michael R. Bishop, MD, University of Chicago Medicine

We have long known that the immune system can play an important role in the growth and spread of cancers, but the ability to translate knowledge of the immune system to meaningful anti-cancer therapies has been limited until recently. There have been breakthroughs in our knowledge of the immune system and how tumors evade the anti-cancer effects of that system that have provided the basis for a whole new generation of agents aimed at enhancing the body’s ability to fight cancer. Most experts would agree that we are on the threshold of even greater breakthroughs in immunotherapeutics that will provide additional tools in the fight against cancer. This presentation will review the state of the art of cancer immunotherapy and provide a look into its exciting future.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the present status of cancer immunotherapy.
2. Outline how current research will shape the future of this field over the next 5–10 years.

3:00 p.m.

Break

3:15 p.m.

Consumer Engagement in Health Care: Ongoing Challenges and Current State of the Art, Kamal Jethwani, MD, MPH, Partners HealthCare, Center for Connected Health

While the importance of effectively engaging consumers in making decisions about their health and well-being is well known, the reality is that consumer engagement efforts are often unsuccessful, resulting in adverse consequences on both individual and population health. While lack of consumer investment in their own health contributes to soaring health care costs and leads to poor health outcomes, the successful engagement of consumers remains a major challenge for HCPs. This presentation will describe the current state of the art in engaging consumers in making appropriate decisions about their health and lifestyles. It will also focus on the vital role of the physician-patient relationship in improving treatment-adherence behaviors.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify engagement strategies that will empower patients to incorporate into their lives the behaviors that will have a beneficial impact on their health and well-being.
2. Describe new strategies being utilized to facilitate consumer engagement.
3. Discuss the challenges to effective consumer engagement in health-related decision making.
4. Recognize the importance of the physician-patient relationship in improving treatment adherence behaviors.

4:00–5:00 p.m.

The Importance of Accurate Diagnosis in Mental Illness and Strategies to Improve Treatment Adherence, Ronald Albucher, MD, Stanford School of Medicine

Between 35 and 50 percent of people with severe mental disorders do not receive treatment for their conditions. A major cause of this gap is the fact that mental health disorders are frequently undiagnosed and/or misdiagnosed. For example, the diagnosis of depression is missed in about half of the patients who actually have the condition and see their primary care physician. The economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than 100 billion dollars annually in the United States. Without treatment, the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society are staggering and include: avoidable disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, criminal behavior, suicide and wasted lives. Some of the challenges facing HCPs include: correctly diagnosing and treating mental illness and the significant risk of treatment noncompliance in depressed individuals. In this session, the presenter will discuss some of the challenges in diagnosing mental illness and will describe approaches that can help to improve patient adherence to treatment.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss some of the major challenges in diagnosing mental illness (e.g., standard major depression versus depression in a bipolar individual).
2. State the importance of early detection of mental illness and the impact of early intervention on mortality and disability outcomes.
3. Identify challenges that contribute to treatment non-adherence, and strategies that may be employed to improve compliance.

5:00– 7:00 p.m.

Reception and Exhibits
Support for this reception is provided by AstraZeneca.