Colin Church, BSC(hons), MBChB, FRCP, PhD, Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Glasgow, UK
Paul Corris, MB, FRCP, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Robert Frantz, MD, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
Mardi Gomberg-Maitland, MD, MSc, George Washington University Health and Medical Sciences, Washington DC, USA
John Granton, MD, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Marco Guazzi, MD, PhD, San Paolo Hospital, Milan, Italy
Brian A. Houston, MD, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
Steven Hsu, MD, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA
Denise J. Lewis, RN, BSN, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Bradley A. Maron, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Dana P. McGlothlin, MD, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, CA, USA
Steven Nathan, MD, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia, USA
Joanna Pepke-Zaba, PhD, FRCP, Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK
Ioana Preston, MD, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
Ryan J. Tedford, MD, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
Jean Luc Vachiery, MD, Erasme University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium

This course is primarily designed to benefit clinicians and allied health professionals who are in the early stages of their careers, or who are in training and/or are part of a new program, or desire an update on the current state of the field.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a life-threatening condition commonly encountered in patients with advanced heart and lung disease. Despite significant advances in the field, patients with PH are complex and their management can be challenging. Recognition of the PH problem and delay in diagnosis remains an issue and this contributes to the poor long term survival of these patients. Misidentification of the causes and misclassification of PH leads to poor survival rates.

This course is designed for those who are:

• in the early stages of their careers or
• training or
• part of a new program

Future clinicians must have this essential training in order to manage patent treatment and improve patient outcomes by learning to recognize pulmonary vascular disease when it is present and then determine the underlying etiology. This course will help to highlight the risks of misclassification of PH and the misuse of approved specific therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension.

  This activity is designed to:

• increase the learner’s knowledge in their understanding of the approach to the diagnosis and management of PH.
• improve competence by applying strategies to systematically and effectively assess the etiology of PH in patients.
• improve performance in reducing misclassification of PH and misuse of approved therapies for arterial hypertension leading to better patient outcomes.

At the conclusion of this educational activity, participants will have improved competence and professional performance in their ability to:

1. Discuss context and historic background for pulmonary hypertension.
2. Define and classify pulmonary hypertension.
3. Evaluate pulmonary hypertension as an increasingly recognized condition of many causes that is uniformly associated with reduced survival.
4. Review the FDA approved indications for all of the currently available specific therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension.
5. Identify the risks of misclassification of PH and misuse of approved specific therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension.
6. Discuss what physicians are using currently to treat PH patients.
7. Apply the management strategies for patients with advanced right heart failure including mechanical support.
8. Discuss the essential interaction with allied health professionals including specialist nurse, palliative care.

No financial commercial support was received for this educational activity.

No in-kind commercial support was received for this educational activity.