Overview

This is a comprehensive, 100-hour continuing education program designed to strengthen physician associates'/assistants' knowledge and clinical decision-making across a broad range of common and complex conditions affecting adult health. The curriculum integrates evidence-based approaches to cardiovascular and metabolic disease, musculoskeletal and neurologic disorders, behavioral health, pain and substance-related concerns, and ethical and end-of-life care. Topics include heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, overweight and obesity, osteoporosis, back pain, Parkinson disease, behavioral addictions, opioid safety, anabolic steroid use, medical ethics, and counseling patients and families at the end of life. The program also addresses the evidence, safety considerations, and potential drug interactions associated with natural medicines and dietary supplements used for depression, anxiety, and weight loss. Emphasizing whole-person care, this program equips physician assistants to apply current evidence and clinical principles to the assessment, management, counseling, and ongoing care of diverse adult patients.

Education Category: Community Health
Release Date: 09/01/2026
Expiration Date: 08/31/2027

Table of Contents

  1. 1. Part I— Treatment of Heart Failure: An Update — 10 CREDITS
  2. 2. Part II — Hypertension: Strategies to Improve Outcomes — 5 CREDITS
  3. 3. Part III — Low Back Pain — 15 CREDITS
  4. 4. Part IV — Alternative Therapies for Depression and Anxiety — 5 CREDITS
  5. 5. Part V — Medical and Illicit Use of Anabolic Steroids — 5 CREDITS
  6. 6. Part VI — Supplements for Weight Loss — 5 CREDITS
  7. 7. Part VII — Type 2 Diabetes: Treatment Strategies for Optimal Care — 5 CREDITS
  8. 8. Part VIII — Diagnosing and Treating Overweight and Obese Patients — 5 CREDITS
  9. 9. Part IX — Osteoporosis: Diagnosis and Management — 5 CREDITS
  10. 10. Part X — Behavioral Addictions — 15 CREDITS
  11. 11. Part XI — Parkinson Disease — 10 CREDITS
  12. 12. Part XII — Counseling Patients at the End of Life — 5 CREDITS
  13. 13. Part XIII — Medical Ethics for Physicians — 5 CREDITS
  14. 14. Part XIV — Opioid Safety: Balancing Benefits and Risks — 5 CREDITS

Audience

This course is designed for physician assistants and interested healthcare professionals.

Accreditations & Approvals

In support of improving patient care, TRC Healthcare/NetCE 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 healthcare team. NetCE is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). NetCE complies with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognized internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices. As a result of this accreditation, NetCE is authorized to issue the IACET CEU.

Designations of Credit

NetCE designates this enduring material for a maximum of 100 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. NetCE is authorized by IACET to offer 10 CEU(s) for this program.

Faculty

Patricia Lea, RN, DNP, MSEd, CCRN, received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing in 1973 from Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas. She returned to graduate school to complete a Master’s degree in Education, specifically Health Education, in 1996 from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and a Doctorate in Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership in 2014 from American Sentinel University in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Lea specializes in critical care nursing, with an emphasis on heart failure and sepsis. She started her career at the Houston Methodist Hospital in the cardiovascular ICU and opened an acute dialysis unit at what is now Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Houston Medical Center. Dr. Lea was a Cardiovascular Clinical Coordinator and Director of the Heart Failure Clinic at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, Texas. In 2004, Dr. Lea returned to Houston and was employed as a Senior Research Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Texas Heart Institute coordinating stem cell and cardiac stent trials. She is currently Associate Professor and Baccalaureate Program Director at the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing in Galveston, Texas.

John J. Whyte, MD, MPH, is currently the Chief Medical Officer at WebMD. In this role, he leads efforts to develop and expand strategic partnerships that create meaningful change around important and timely public health issues. Previously, Dr. Whyte was the Direc­tor of Professional Affairs and Stakeholder Engage­ment at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and the Chief Medical Expert and Vice President, Health and Medical Education at Discovery Channel, part of the media conglomerate Discovery Communications.

Prior to this, Dr. Whyte was in the Immediate Office of the Director at the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality. He served as Medical Advisor/Director of the Council on Private Sector Initiatives to Improve the Safety, Security, and Quality of Healthcare. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Whyte was the Acting Director, Division of Medical Items and Devices in the Coverage and Analysis Group in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS is the federal agency responsible for administering the Medicare and Medicaid programs. In his role at CMS, Dr.Whyte made recommendations as to whether or not the Medicare program should pay for certain procedures, equipment, or services. His division was responsible for durable medical equipment, orthotics/prosthetics, drugs/biologics/therapeutics, medical items, laboratory tests, and non-implantable devices. As Division Director as well as Medical Officer/Senior Advisor, Dr. Whyte was responsible for more national coverage decisions than any other CMS staff.

Dr. Whyte is a board-certified internist. He completed an internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center as well as earned a Master’s of Public Health (MPH) in Health Policy and Management at Harvard University School of Public Health. Prior to arriving in Washington, Dr. Whyte was a health services research fellow at Stanford and attending physician in the Department of Medicine. He has written extensively in the medical and lay press on health policy issues.

Mark Rose, BS, MA, LP, is a licensed psychologist in the State of Minnesota with a private consulting practice and a medical research analyst with a biomedical communications firm. Earlier healthcare technology assessment work led to medical device and pharmaceutical sector experience in new product development involving cancer ablative devices and pain therapeutics. Along with substantial experience in addiction research, Mr. Rose has contributed to the authorship of numerous papers on CNS, oncology, and other medical disorders. He is the lead author of papers published in peer-reviewed addiction, psychiatry, and pain medicine journals and has written books on prescription opioids and alcoholism published by the Hazelden Foundation. He also serves as an Expert Advisor and Expert Witness to law firms that represent disability claimants or criminal defendants on cases related to chronic pain, psychiatric/substance use disorders, and acute pharmacologic/toxicologic effects. Mr. Rose is on the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis-based International Institute of Anti-Aging Medicine and is a member of several professional organizations.

Chelsey McIntyre, PharmD, is a clinical pharmacist who specializes in drug information, literature analysis, and medical writing. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics from the University of California, Davis. She then went on to complete her PharmD at Creighton University, followed by a clinical residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. McIntyre held the position of Drug Information and Policy Development Pharmacist at CHOP until her move to Washington state in 2017, after which she spent the next six years as a clinical editor for Natural Medicines, a clinical reference database focused on natural products and alternative therapies. She continues to create rigorous professional analysis and patient education materials for various publications while also practicing as a hospital pharmacist. Her professional interests include provider and patient education, as well as the application of evidence-based research to patient care.

Lisa Hutchison, LMHC, has more than 20 years of experience providing individual and group counseling with adults. She specifically focuses on teaching assertiveness, stress management, and boundary setting for empathic helpers. Ms. Hutchison graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, with a Master’s degree in education for mental health counseling.

John M. Leonard, MD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, completed his post-graduate clinical training at the Yale and Vanderbilt University Medical Centers before joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1974. He is a clinician-educator and for many years served as director of residency training and student educational programs for the Vanderbilt University Department of Medicine. Over a career span of 40 years, Dr. Leonard conducted an active practice of general internal medicine and an inpatient consulting practice of infectious diseases.

Faculty Disclosure

Contributing faculty, Patricia Lea, RN, DNP, MSEd, CCRN, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Contributing faculty, John J. Whyte, MD, MPH, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Contributing faculty, Mark Rose, BS, MA, LP, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Contributing faculty, Chelsey McIntyre, PharmD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Contributing faculty, Lisa Hutchison, LMHC, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Contributing faculty, John M. Leonard, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Division Planners

John V. Jurica, MD, MPH

John M. Leonard, MD

Division Planners Disclosure

The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

About the Sponsor

The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.

Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.

Technical Requirements

Supported browsers for Windows include Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Supported browsers for Macintosh include Safari, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Other operating systems and browsers that include complete implementations of ECMAScript edition 3 and CSS 2.0 may work, but are not supported. Supported browsers must utilize the TLS encryption protocol v1.1 or v1.2 in order to connect to pages that require a secured HTTPS connection. TLS v1.0 is not supported.

#41970: The Adult Patient: Evidence-Based Care for Mind and Body

Part 1 of 14 · Chapter 1 of 13

Part 1. Treatment of Heart Failure: An Update

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. INCIDENCE OF HEART FAILURE
  3. STAGES OF HEART FAILURE
  4. RISK FACTORS FOR HEART FAILURE
  5. NEUROHORMONAL COMPONENTS IN HEART FAILURE
  6. ROLE OF VASOACTIVE SYSTEMS IN HEART FAILURE
  7. DIAGNOSTIC ROLE OF CIRCULATING BNP
  8. MANAGEMENT OF PATIENTS WITH SYMPTOMATIC AND ASYMPTOMATIC HEART FAILURE
  9. AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO HEART FAILURE MANAGEMENT: HEART FAILURE CLINIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS
  10. TREATMENT PLAN
  11. FUTURE OF HEART FAILURE TREATMENT
  12. JOINT COMMISSION GUIDELINES FOR HEART FAILURE
  13. CONCLUSION
  14. Works Cited

Course Objective

The purpose of this course is to provide healthcare professionals with current information about the scientific advances in the treatment of acute heart failure.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

  1. Summarize the incidence and financial impact of heart failure.
  2. Identify the four stages of heart failure.
  3. Discuss the neurohormonal components of heart failure.
  4. Describe the role of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) in the diagnosis of heart failure.
  5. Define the role of vasoactive systems in the pathogenesis of heart failure.
  6. Review the use of BNP as a point-of-care testing tool and in guiding therapy of heart failure in the outpatient setting.
  7. Outline the management of patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic heart failure.
  8. List devices used in the management of heart failure.
  9. Describe impedance cardiography as a noninvasive tool to assess cardiovascular status of patients with heart failure.
  10. Discuss the role of members of the multidisciplinary team in the heart failure clinic.
  11. Outline the treatment plan of those patients enrolled in the heart failure clinic.
  12. Discuss the future directions in the treatment of heart failure.
  13. Summarize the Joint Commission guidelines for heart failure-specific care.

INTRODUCTION

Heart failure represents a major public health concern, with an increasing prevalence in developed countries [1]. In the United States alone, approximately 6.7 million people 20 years of age and older suffer from heart failure [2,8]. The clinical syndrome of heart failure is the final pathway for a myriad of diseases that affect the heart. The economic and psychosocial impact heart failure has on society is phenomenal. The incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality of heart failure have become an epidemiologic nightmare for the healthcare system. The incidence of heart failure has increased as treatment for previously fatal ischemic, structural, and inflammatory cardiovascular conditions have improved and as the bulk of the U.S. population ages. Concomitantly, the proportion of the healthcare economy spent on the diagnosis, treatment, and chronic management of heart failure has increased dramatically, demanding even greater efforts to respond to this condition. Despite advances in treatment, patients admitted with decompensated heart failure have significant mortality and early readmission rates (i.e., rehospitalization within 60 days) [3]. Primary care physicians, nurse professionals, and pharmacists play an important role in the prevention, assessment and management of heart failure as they are often the first healthcare professional to whom a patient with heart failure presents [149]. Following the diagnosis of heart failure, multi-disciplinary teams have proven to be a best-practice management strategy for coordinating care and communication, ensuring adherence to guideline-directed medical therapy, and managing comorbidities.

Works Cited

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2. Benjamin EJ, Muntner P, Alonso A, et at. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2021 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2021;143(8):e254-e743.

3. Pierre-Louis B, Rodriques S, Gorospe V, et al. Clinical factors associated with early readmission among acutely decompensated heart failure patients. Arch Med Sci. 2016;12(3):538-545.

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5. Cheng V, Kazanagra R, Garcia A, et al. A rapid bedside test for B-type peptide predicts treatment outcomes in patients admitted for decompensated heart failure: a pilot study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2001;37(2):386-391.

6. Agarwal MA, Fonarow GC, Ziaeian B. National trends in heart failure hospitalizations and readmissions from 2010 to 2017. JAMA Cardiol. 2021;6:952-956.

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Part 1 of 14 · Chapter 1 of 13

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