Faculty

Advisor

Berrylin J. Ferguson, MD

Associate Professor of Otolaryngology–

Head and Neck Surgery

Chief, Division of Sinonasal Disorders and Allergy

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Target Audience:

This program was created for physicians who treat high numbers of patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma.

Fee: There is no fee for participating in this educational activity.

Term of Offering:

Category 1 CME credit

for this newsletter will be available through August 4, 2003. The

original release date of this material was August 5, 2002. Continuing

education credit is offered upon successful completion of the

post-test.

Upon successful completion of the post-test

(a score of 70% or better), evaluation form, and enrollment form, you

may print out your certificate. If you have any questions, please call

the Pragmaton Office of Medical Education



Faculty



Berrylin J. Ferguson, MD

Associate Professor of Otolaryngology–

Head and Neck Surgery

Chief, Division of Sinonasal Disorders and Allergy

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this program, participants should be able to:

Describe the etiology of allergic rhinitis, with and without coexisting asthma, and characteristic symptomatology

Differentiate

among types of allergic rhinitis, other upper respiratory conditions,

and lower-airway disease that may confound the diagnosis

Outline key components of the evaluation of patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma

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Sponsor

This activity is sponsored by the Pragmaton Office of Medical Education and is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Merck & Co., Inc.

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Accreditation Statements

Physician Accreditation Statement

The Pragmaton Office of Medical Education is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education

(ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Physician Designation Statement

The Pragmaton Office of

Medical Education designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1

hour in category 1 credit toward the AMA Physician’s Recognition Award.

Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he/she

actually spent in the educational activity.

Other Healthcare Professional Statement

A certificate of participation for 1 hour will be issued for all

healthcare professionals not covered by the listed accreditation

statements.

This activity may include information

regarding the use of products that may be inconsistent with or outside

the approved labeling for these products in the United States. Participants should note that uses of these products outside the current

approved labeling are considered experimental and are advised to

consult prescribing information for these products.

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Pragmaton Office of Medical Education

Faculty Disclosure

Policy


It is the policy of the Pragmaton Office

of Medical Education that faculty members of CME/CE-accredited programs

must disclose any significant financial interest, arrangement, or

affiliation with a corporate organization that may have an impact on the

faculty member’s presentation, such as grants, research support,

honoraria, member of speakers’ bureau, consultant, major stock

shareholder, etc.

Faculty Disclosure

Berrylin J. Ferguson, MD

Formal advisor: GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Merck and

Co., Inc.; Research: GlaxoSmithKline; Educational materials development:

Aventis Pharmaceuticals; Speakers’ bureau: Aventis Pharmaceuticals,

Pfizer Inc.

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Pragmaton Office of Medical Education Mission

Statement


The Pragmaton Office of Medical

Education (POME) is the accredited provider of continuing professional

development programs within Pragmaton, a medical communications company.

Pragmaton’s parent company, the Corbett Healthcare Group, provides

organizational support to POME and refers to this support in its mission

statement.

POME’s mission is to develop and implement clinically

oriented educational activities for a multidisciplinary national

audience. These activities must be medically accurate, scientifically

rigorous, and fair balanced. POME engages a CME advisory board, composed

of physicians and pharmacists, as an external monitor to ensure that

our educational activities meet the highest standards.

POME’s educational activities focus on disease states and

therapeutic regimens in areas including, but not limited to, women’s

health, neurology, rheumatology, pulmonology, and pain management. Our

audiences include primary and specialty care physicians, nurses,

pharmacists, and other allied health care professionals. We use a wide

variety of program formats, including live scientific symposia; print-,

multimedia-, and Internet-based self-study programs; and interactive

audioconferences, to meet the individual learning preferences of our

audience members. Through these educational activities, we expect

participants to gain new knowledge and skills that can be applied

clinically toward improving their professional practices and enhancing

patient care. We use immediate postactivity evaluations to determine

participant satisfaction and to monitor the ever-changing educational

needs of health care professionals. These evaluations also gather

baseline data for follow-up surveys that are conducted to assess whether

health care providers have adopted new clinical practices as a result

of participating in our activities.

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Pragmaton Office of Medical Education Privacy Policy

The Pragmaton Office of Medical

Education (POME) does not sell or offer any user data, including

registration or billing information to any third party for commercial

purposes. POME does, where required, provide the minimum subset of

information to those third parties that are responsible for

accreditation and issuance of certification of Continuing Education

tests submitted. You agree that POME has full permission to provide this

minimum subset of information to the third parties as required by

law.

To provide additional security in those cases where a credit

card number or other form of payment has been submitted, POME utilizes

this information once, but does not permanently store this information.

Therefore, it will be necessary for you to reenter billing information

during subsequent visits. Although this may create a minor

inconvenience, POME believes that security should be first and foremost

in the provision of its services and therefore will not store billing

information permanently in its records.

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