MER Primary Care Conferences Internal Medicine for Primary Care: Derm ID Ortho Pain Sep 28 – Oct 01, 2026

This MER primary care course reviews dermatology, infectious diseases, orthopedics and pain management through common outpatient problems. Sessions cover skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal infections; antimicrobial stewardship; chronic pain and opioid monitoring; inflammatory skin disorders; and benign or malignant skin lesions. Musculoskeletal teaching focuses on examination and assessment of the shoulder, hand, wrist, knee, ankle and foot.

The original conference was held September 28–October 1, 2026 in Crete, Greece. Its learning objectives and 16-presentation daily agenda are retained below for primary care clinicians, internists and other outpatient practitioners. The agenda describes the original teaching program and does not establish a separate file count or include live-event participation.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the original educational activity, participants should be better prepared to:

1. Review the epidemiology and microbiology of skin and soft tissue infections.
2. Identify common pathogens responsible for respiratory tract infections.
3. Assess the severity of diarrhea and determine when treatment is appropriate.
4. Understand the goals and strategies of antimicrobial stewardship.
5. Recognize challenges in treating chronic pain.
6. Evaluate pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain management options.
7. Differentiate common headache and migraine disorders.
8. Develop safer opioid prescribing and monitoring strategies.
9. Differentiate atopic, irritant contact, allergic contact, and nummular dermatitis.
10. Evaluate papulosquamous skin diseases and their management.
11. Distinguish benign from malignant skin tumors.
12. Recognize premalignant and malignant skin lesions and understand appropriate office procedures.
13. Diagnose and manage common shoulder injuries.
14. Evaluate wrist, hand, and finger disorders.
15. Review knee anatomy, physical examination, and common injuries.
16. Recognize acute and chronic foot and ankle injuries and pain syndromes.

Topics

Monday, September 28, 2026

• Infectious Diseases: Skin & Soft Tissue Infections (Presentation on important skin and soft-tissue infections and their prompt recognition, emphasizing evaluation and management strategies)
• Infectious Diseases: Respiratory Tract Infections (Discussion highlighting critical points regarding the diagnosis and management of pneumonia and bronchitis – with a focus on the impact of multidrug resistant pathogens)
• Infectious Diseases: Gastrointestinal Infections & Clostridioides Difficile (Presentation on important enteric pathogens and their recognition, diagnosis and management; special emphasis on Clostridioides difficile colitis and related updates from the ID and infection control literature)
• Pain: Chronic Pain Management Options for Primary Care (Treatment of common chronic pain conditions including chronic low back pain and neuropathic pain)
• Pain: Office Procedures for Pain (Behavioral and lifestyle modifications; medications overview; interventional therapies; opioids and cannabinoids overview)

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

• Pain: Headaches & Migraines (Basic headache mechanisms; headache history: characteristics, precipitating factors, medical conditions; migraine: common tension, classic, treatment, complicated, cluster, sinus; trigeminal neuralgia; Giant Cell Arteritis; brain tumor; subarachnoid hemorrhage; emergency room treatment)
• Pain: Opioid Pharmacologic Options in Chronic Pain Management (Overall safety and efficacy; selecting and monitoring patients; pain contracts; regulatory issues; urine drug testing)
• Infectious Diseases: Antimicrobial Stewardship and Multidrug Resistance (Definition of an antimicrobial stewardship program [ASP]; concepts of the antimicrobial stewardship program; four goals of antimicrobial stewardship; most recent additions to the antimicrobial armamentarium)
• Dermatology: Dermatitis (Overview of the causes and forms of skin irritants; contact, atopic, irritant, nummular, seborrheic and exfoliative; treatment of blistering, oozing, crusting and flaking; diagnostic principles and management strategies)
• Dermatology: Papulosquamous Diseases (Diagnostic principles of skin lesions consisting of red or purple papules; psoriasis, lichen planus, pityriasis rosea, lupus erythematosus; discussion of how to tell one scaly rash from another)

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

• Dermatology: Benign Skin Tumors (Proper diagnosis and treatment of common benign tumors; biopsies and histopathologic examination; nevi, seborrheic keratosis, keloids, hemangiomas and miscellaneous tumors; when to refer)
• Dermatology: Premalignant and Malignant Skin Tumors (Recognition of precursors of malignancies; excisional and punch biopsies; actinic keratosis, Bowen’s disease, squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, melanoma and other selected tumors; risk reduction education)
• Orthopedics: The Shoulder: Anatomy, Common Injuries, and Exam Techniques (Rotator cuff syndrome; impingement, frozen shoulder; subacromial bursitis; bicipital tendonitis; A-C joint disease)
• Orthopedics: Wrist, Hand, and Fingers (Carpal tunnel, CMC arthritis thumb, ganglion cyst, trigger finger, de Quervain’s disease)

Thursday, October 1, 2026

• Orthopedics: The Knee: Anatomy, Common Injuries, and Exam Techniques (ACL, meniscus, MRI; common sports injuries; osteoarthritis and hyaluronan; bursitis: prepatellar, pes anserine; Baker’s cyst; joint injection/X-ray interpretation; pediatrics)
• Orthopedics: Ankle and Foot (This presentation will address a series of common acute and chronic injuries and pain syndromes to the foot and ankle as they would present in the primary care setting. The focus will be on developing a working differential diagnosis based on the historical mechanism of injury and exam findings)