Harvard Infectious Diseases in Adults 2024

State-of-the-Art Approaches to Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Infectious Diseases

Infectious Diseases in Adults will be held online this year, using live streaming technology and electronic and live question and answer sessions. 

OVERVIEW

This comprehensive CME program ensures attendees are current with state-of-the-art approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases. Updates, best practices, and new guidelines are presented by nationally recognized ID experts and master clinicians. Education is practical and results-driven:

• Optimal decision-making in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases
• Newer antimicrobials and treatment strategies for highly resistant infections
• The latest on COVID-19, including long COVID
• Prevention and treatment of infections in immunocompromised hosts
• Update on antifungal diagnostics and therapy
• State-of-the-art and multidisciplinary approaches to common infections
• Clinical approaches to complex, rare, and “don’t-miss” infections
• Infections in persons with substance use disorder
• What’s new in HIV prevention and management
• New, evolving, emerging, and re-emerging infectious diseases

As revised treatment strategies, new diagnostic tests, and guidelines are presented, they are coupled with specific recommendations for incorporating these updates into your day-to-day work.
Highlights of the 2024 Program

Expanded Case-Based and Problem-Solving Education 

The 2024 program features an expanded range of interactive, case-based, and problem-solving education. The formats are engaging, and attendees are encouraged to pose questions of our national experts in live question-and-answer sessions following the lectures and the workshops. Our speakers and panelists include not only ID experts, but those from fields such as surgery, radiology, cardiology, and addiction medicine, thereby providing a 360-degree context for the understanding of ID treatment and patient care. Our twelve multidisciplinary workshops include complicated urinary tract and intra-abdominal infections, native and prosthetic valve endocarditis, musculoskeletal infections, and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections.

Treating Highly Resistant Infections, including:

• MRSA and VISA (vancomycin-intermediate Staph aureus)
• Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Gram-negative rods
• Carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative rods, including NDM-1 metallo-beta-lactamase-producing organisms
• Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE)
• Aspergillus and non-aspergillus mold infections
• Candida auris
• Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM)

Common Infectious Diseases: Updates in Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Updates to keep you current on new strategies, state-of-the-art practices, and the most recent guidelines to address:

• Respiratory viral infections, including COVID-19
• New and updated vaccines
• Infections in the expanding populations of immunocompromised hosts
• Infections in persons with substance use disorder
• Infections of travelers and foreign-born persons
• Systemic fungal infections
• Native and device-related orthopedic infections
• Central nervous system (CNS) infections
• Ear, nose and throat (ENT) and eye infections
• Bronchiectasis and pneumonia
• HIV and its infectious and noninfectious complications
• PEP (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) and PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) to prevent HIV infection
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including mpox and PEP for prevention of STIs
• Hepatitis B and C infections
• Tick- and mosquito-borne infections
• Clostridioides difficile infection
• Complicated urinary tract infections
• Intra-abdominal infections

Challenging, Rare, and Emerging Infectious Diseases

Comprehensive updates on:

• Rare and emerging infectious diseases, including Rift Valley Fever
• Re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases, including poliomyelitis
• Pulmonary and extrapulmonary non-tuberculous (“atypical”) mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium abscessus
• Global infectious diseases of clinical importance

Clinical Decision-Making

Hear directly from world-renowned specialists and master clinicians on their approach and decision-making criteria for:

• Selecting the best antimicrobial and duration of treatment
• Rapid detection and empiric treatment of life-threatening infectious diseases
• Choosing between inpatient and outpatient treatment, and between intravenous and oral antimicrobials
• Optimizing empiric antimicrobial therapy: what to start, and when to narrow or stop

Our multidisciplinary talks and workshops incorporate safety, quality, and practice improvement in infectious diseases, including:

• Antimicrobial stewardship to prevent resistance and reduce cost
• Infection control
• Early inpatient ID consultations to improve outcomes
• Strategies for management of infection in persons who inject drugs (PWID)