Retroviruses Conference: Summaries for Physicians

The results most important to physicians from the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (February 8-11, 2004) have been presented as CME (Continuing Medical Education) training modules by Clinical Care Options. Credit is offered for physicians and registered nurses.

The five major topics are:

• Management of Treatment-Naive Patients;
• Resistance, Salvage Therapy, & Treatment Strategies;
• Metabolic Complications and Lipodystrophy;
• Pharmacology and Adverse Drug Effects; and
• Hepatitis Coinfection and Opportunistic Infections.

Each of these five CME modules is a discussion among experts, on an average of about 12 sub-topics each. Links from the expert discussion to "capsule summaries" show key results in a standardized table format. The advantage of these summaries is that they present the data in a way that all the experts accept, so discussion can focus on the key issues instead of on presenting the numbers.

Most patients will need help understanding these training modules, which were written for physicians. They could benefit from a discussion group, led by someone who knows the material. The leader could explain the information that is important to everyone in the group, and answer questions as necessary. Since each topic is generally independent and does not require knowledge of the others, patients could come to the meetings that focused on what they needed to know, and skip the others.

AIDS groups could contribute by organizing such discussions. Most of the advance preparation has already been done, since the material has been selected and organized by leading experts.

One way to run such a group is the "journal club" format, where students each have a printed copy of the material to be covered that day, and take turns reading from it. Anyone can ask questions.

The five physician training modules are at: www.clinicaloptions.com/hiv/.

Free one-time registration is required.

Look for "11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections," and click on one of the five major topics. Click "Begin Module." You can use the whole module, or select topics within it.