A renowned expert faculty spoke to a diverse group of about 150 participants, including infectious disease specialists, internists, pediatricians, and family practitioners.

"Once again we are very pleased with the positive feedback from the participants," said NFID Senior Executive Director William J. Martone, MD. "It will provide us with many useful ideas upon which to build next year’s course."

The purpose of the course, which offered 18 CME credits, was to bring together the foremost infectious disease specialists to present clinical and epidemiologic information on current or emerging infectious disease problems. By relying on faculty expertise from the Emory School of Medicine and CDC as well as other institutions nationwide, the course focused on the epidemiology, recognition, treatment, and management of new and reemerging infectious diseases.

A series of interactive clinical case presentations was developed in response to feedback from last year’s course. This new feature allowed participants to apply information presented by the faculty. Utilizing audience response technology, participants were guided through a series of clinical scenarios, based upon actual infectious disease cases seen at Emory University School of Medicine, Grady Memorial Hospital, and the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Panels of faculty members analyzed the responses, providing a context in which to clarify important points from their presentations. The audience response system was provided by Merck U.S. Human Health.

Robert P. Gaynes, MD, chief, Nosocomial Infections Surveillance Activity, CDC, David Rimland, MD, professor of medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, David S. Stephens, MD, professor of medicine and director, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, and Dr. Martone were course co-chairs.

This program was supported, in part, by unrestricted educational grants from Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Astra USA, Inc., Bayer Corporation, Eli Lilly and Company, Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc., Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Merck U.S. Human Health, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., Roche Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, and Zeneca Pharmaceuticals.