Top 10 COVID-19 Comorbidity Queries

Program Description

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly becoming endemic, there are still certain populations at higher risk of progressing to severe COVID-19 should they become infected with SARS-CoV-2. These include people with comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, hematologic disorders, metabolic syndrome, and conditions requiring treatment with biologics, among others. There are treatment considerations for many of these populations, including drug-drug interactions. In this self-directed activity, Drs. Nancy Reau, Eric Daar, Neil Skolnik, and Hanny Al-Samkari answer common questions about 10 common comorbidities placing patients at high risk of severe COVID-19.

Target Audience

This activity is intended for clinicians who are best positioned to identify and treat patients at high-risk for severe COVID: MD, NP, and PA internal medicine, primary care, family medicine, and urgent care clinicians.

Educational Objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• Describe the impact that age, racial and ethnic minority status, and high-risk conditions have on the severity and complications of COVID-19, resulting in poor patient outcomes
• Promptly identify high-risk patients with COVID-19 and, when appropriate, initiate treatment to improve overall patient outcomes and mitigate the associated patient, economic, and health care burden of COVID-19
• Incorporate national treatment guidelines as well as recently published evidence to inform clinical decision-making for nonhospitalized patients with mild to moderate COVID-19

Faculty and Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

PACE requires instructors, planners, managers, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of this activity to disclose all financial relationships they may have with ineligible companies. All relevant financial relationships are thoroughly vetted and mitigated according to PACE policy. PACE is committed to providing learners with high-quality accredited CE activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in health care and not a specific proprietary business interest of an ineligible company.

The faculty reported the following relevant financial relationships or relationships to products or devices they have with ineligible companies related to the content of this educational activity:

Hanny Al-Samkari, MD: Consultant/Advisor/Speaker: Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc., Argenx, Forma Therapeutics, Novartis AG, Pharmacosmos, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi); Researcher: Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amgen, Novartis AG, Sobi, Vaderis Therapeutics AG; Other: Moderna, Inc.

Eric S. Daar, MD: Consultant/Advisor/Speaker: Gilead Sciences, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Theratechnologies Inc., ViiV Healthcare; Researcher: Gilead Sciences, Inc., ViiV Healthcare

Nancy S. Reau, MD: Consultant/Advisor/Speaker: AbbVie Inc., Arbutus Biopharma, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Neil Skolnik, MD: Consultant/Advisor/Speaker: Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals LLC, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Inc., GSK plc, Idorsia, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck & Co., Inc., Novartis AG, Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi S.A., Sanofi Pasteur, Teva; Contracted Research: AstraZeneca, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals LLC, GSK plc, Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi S.A.

The PACE planners and others have no relevant financial relationships to disclose with ineligible companies. The Integritas Communications planners and others have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Joint Accreditation Statement

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Partners for Advancing Clinical Education (PACE) and Integritas Communications. PACE is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the health care team.

Physician Continuing Education

PACE designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Continuing Professional Development

The maximum number of hours awarded for this Nursing Continuing Professional Development activity is 1.0 contact hour.

Disclosure of Unlabeled Use

This educational activity may contain discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the US Food and Drug Administration. The planners of this activity 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 the planners. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.

Disclaimer

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 patient’s conditions and possible contraindications and/or dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities.

Instructions for Credit

To receive credit for this activity, participants must complete the preactivity questionnaire, complete and receive a minimum score of 75% on the posttest, and complete the program evaluation.

CME Questions – PACE Contact Information

For information about the accreditation of this program, please contact PACE at https://partnersed.com/.

Integritas Contact Information

For all other questions regarding this activity, please contact Integritas via email at info@exchangecme.com.

System Requirements

PC
1.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster processor (or equivalent)
Windows 10, 8.1 (32-bit/64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)
512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or later, Windows Edge browser, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome
For HTML Client – Google Chrome (v70.0 or above), Mozilla Firefox (v65.0 or above), or Edge (v42.0 or above)

MAC
1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster processor
512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended)
MAC OS X 10.12, 10.13, or 10.14
Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome
For HTML Client – Google Chrome (v70.0 or above), Apple Safari (v12.0 or above), or Mozilla Firefox (v65.0 or above)