Stanford launches free webinar series for health professionals on hot topics in medicine

Stanford Medicine’s Center for Continuing Medical Education is launching a series of free webinars on hot topics in medicine, featuring Stanford experts who will provide guidance to physicians and other health professionals on controversial and challenging issues they may face in their practices.

The first webinar, to be offered May 16, will feature two Stanford specialists in pediatric infectious disease who will discuss the challenges of dealing with Zika virus. They will offer physicians advice on management and prevention of Zika infection, which can cause serious neurological complications in infants born to infected women. The webinar comes at the start of the warm season, particularly in the southern part of the country, when Zika-carrying mosquitoes are more active and a resurgence of the disease may occur.

The webinar will feature Desiree LaBeaud, MD, an associate professor of pediatrics whose research focuses on Zika and other mosquito-borne infections. The one-hour session will be moderated by Charles Prober, MD, professor of pediatrics and senior associate dean for medical education at the School of Medicine.

It will be the first in a series of webinars this year, all designed to showcase Stanford’s expertise on timely issues of pressing concern to physicians and other providers, said Linda Baer, the school’s director of CME.

“What we are trying to accomplish through this new series is having our Stanford experts seen on a national stage for the excellent research and clinical work we do here, and to get doctors up to speed on difficult issues they may face in their day-to-day practices,” Baer said.

The first webinar is designed for primary care physicians, pediatricians, neurologists, infectious disease specialists and obstetrician/gynecologists, as well as nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Baer said future webinar topics have yet to be finalized, though they could deal with such issues as physician-assisted suicide, medical marijuana and opioid use and addiction.

The course will be valid for 1.0 CME credit. Interested clinicians can sign up online for the first webinar.