Family Medicine Update scheduled for Oct. 20-23

LITTLE ROCK — The 24th annual Family Medicine Update at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will offer up to 16 hours of online continuing education Oct. 20-23 for family physicians, doctors of Osteopathic Medicine, advanced practice registered nurses, registered nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, physical therapists, respiratory therapists and certified health educators.

The conference is completely virtual. Courses will be offered in two-hour blocks, twice daily, at $25 per block. Attend all three days at a discounted price of $130. The Tobacco & Disease Symposium on Oct. 23 is free.

To register, call 501-686-6626 or visit http://www.cme.uams. edu.

Topics include women and infants, diabetes, colorectal cancer, COVID-19, coaching patients through adversity, improving the health of your practice, and opioids, pain and addiction for special populations. Friday’s Tobacco & Disease Symposium will cover lung health, tobacco and vaping.

Featured speakers include Don Teater, M.D., of Meridian Behavioral Health Services and Mountain Area Recovery Center in North Carolina and Jose Romero, M.D., secretary of the Arkansas Department of Health.

Teater is a family physician with a focus on pain, opioids and addiction. He was the lead facilitator for the expert panel during the development of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. From 2013-2016. Teater was the medical adviser at the National Safety Council, leading its effort to reduce opioid abuse and overdose in the community and in the workplace, a news release said.

“As secretary of health, Romero is leading the COVID-19 response in Arkansas. He also chairs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunization practices, which is guiding the U.S. development and administration of a COVID-19 vaccine. Previously, Romero served as director of the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital and as the director of Clinical Trials Research at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute,” the release said.

The Family Medicine Update is provided by the Community Health and Education Division of the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and is an “annual opportunity for health care professionals to learn about the latest advances and information impacting family medicine.”