In support of improving patient care, Boston Children’s Hospital 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. 

OPHTHALMOLOGISTS: Boston Children’s Hospital designates this live activity for a maximum of 12.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in this activity.

OPTOMETRISTS: Boston Children’s Hospital designates this live activity for a maximum of 12.0 COPE credit hours. Optometrists should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. The course number is 250612-JA.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The Harvard Department of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting and Alumni Reunion is a two-day course aimed at updating ophthalmologists (including ophthalmology residents and fellows), optometrists, and vision researchers about the latest advances in ophthalmology clinical care and research. New research advances and therapies are changing the practice of ophthalmology. The pace of these advances leads to gaps in knowledge, as practicing clinicians face the challenge of keeping up-to date on new information; and competence, as physicians often lack strategies for incorporating these advances into their practice.

This course is designed to address a wide range of gaps in knowledge and competence regarding ophthalmic clinical practice and ophthalmic research. Our program is designed to proportionally cover advances in understanding and managing disease of the anterior and posterior segments of the eye. In addition, the impact of emerging technologies and their utilization in ophthalmology will be discussed.  The main goal is to familiarize the audience with new research and updates on emerging clinical practices in the field of ophthalmology. 

The format consists of short didactic lectures each followed by discussion and an interactive question session with the audience. The lectures will feature Harvard faculty members and distinguished alumni discussing their areas of clinical and/or research expertise.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Ophthalmologists and Optometrists 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:  

1. Be better able to describe advances in the diagnosis and management of ophthalmic disease
2. Be able to discuss clinical innovations and updated treatment paradigms in areas outside the scope of their own practice
3. Understand how studying ophthalmic disease at a molecular level can improve the understanding of pathophysiology and guide new therapies
4. Understand the process by which new therapies are developed and assessed as well as potential new drugs resulting from that process
5. Describe opportunities within ophthalmology to use big data and digital technologies to advance knowledge and patient care.

ACCREDITATION AND MARKETING FEES

Fees associated with AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ have been provided by the HMS Department of Ophthalmology. Fees associated with COPE credit hours have been provided by the HMS Department of Ophthalmology.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY

CME should be developed free from the control of commercial interests and be balanced, objective, and scientifically rigorous. BCH is committed to providing lifelong learning opportunities to providers of medical care, medical education, and medical research and has an obligation to lead high quality, evidence-based CME. BCH recognizes that to ensure transparency of financial relationships and eliminate commercial bias in CME activities, anyone who is in a position to control CME content (e.g. planners, instructors, reviewers, etc.) must disclose to their BCH course director any financial relationships with a commercial interest that are relevant to the proposed CME activity in order for BCH, through its course directors and DCME staff, to use the mechanisms described below to identify and resolve all conflicts of interests prior to the CME activity taking place. If any individual who is in a position to control content of CME refuses to disclose relevant financial relationships to BCH, he/she will be automatically disqualified.

The intent of this policy is not to prevent a speaker with a potential conflict of interest from making a presentation. It is intended that any potential conflict should be identified openly so that the potential conflicts are resolved to the satisfaction of the accrediting body early in the planning process. In addition, program participants will have full disclosure of the facts to make an informed judgment.  

Organizer Disclosures

Co-chairs

• Joan W. Miller, MD – Disclosure pending
• Joseph R. Rizzo II, MD – Disclosure pending
• Joseph Ciolino, MD – Disclosure pending
• Rachel Huckfeldt, MD, PhD – Disclosure pending
• Eric Gaier, MD, PhD – Disclosure pending

Continuing Education Reviewers/Approvers

• Lesley Niccolini (CME) – No relevant financial relationships to disclose. 
• Greg Durkin (Nursing) – No relevant financial relationships to disclose. 
• Crystal Tom (Pharmacy) – No relevant financial relationships to disclose. 
• Pamela Chamorro (Social Work) – No relevant financial relationships to disclose. 
• Eugene D’Angelo (Psychology) – No relevant financial relationships to disclose. 
• Stephen Shusterman (Dentistry) – No relevant financial relationships to disclose. 

RECORDING ATTENDANCE

The HMS Department of Ophthalmology will provide sign-in sheets at registration to record attendance. These lists will be shared with the Boston Children’s Continuing Education Department for proof of attendance. In addition, Boston Children’s Continuing Education Department has provided a phone number to allow participants use a text-in-attendance feature during the session. Participants can text course CloudCME activity ID number (pending) to 617-648-7950. 

CME/CE ACTIVITY EVALUATION AND CERTIFICATES

After the meeting, the Boston Children’s Continuing Education Department will distribute a course evaluation form via an online system. Course participants will receive their CE certificates once they have completed their evaluation form in the online system. Each participant is asked to attest to the hours that they participated in the activity.

QUESTIONS

If you have questions, please email Ophthalmology_Events@meei.harvard.edu.