Press Releases

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness and Their Educational Partner Impact Education, LLC, Unveil a Free Comprehensive Online Resource and Continuing Education Activity for the Primary Care Community

November 11, 2010 02:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

PHILADELPHIA--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) and Continuing Medical Education expert, Impact Education, LLC (IE), have joined forces to offer primary care providers the valuable education needed to support improvement in outcomes for patients with celiac disease.

“The most important physician group for diagnosis of celiac disease is the primary care physician. Unless primary care physicians are aware of celiac disease, those opportunities for prompt diagnosis will be lost, possibly forever.”

The first of its kind, the activity for this population aptly reinforces the declaration made by Dr. Ciaran Kelly, Medical Director of the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and NFCA Scientific/Medical Advisory Board Member, during the Plenary Discussion at Digestive Disease Week 2010: "The most important physician group for diagnosis of celiac disease is the primary care physician. Unless primary care physicians are aware of celiac disease, those opportunities for prompt diagnosis will be lost, possibly forever."

Celiac disease is an autoimmune multi-system disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food. Roughly one out of every 133 Americans has celiac disease, but 95% remain undiagnosed. This means that almost 3 million Americans have celiac disease and only about 150,000 know they have it.

Although celiac disease is common, it is greatly under-diagnosed due to a lack of familiarity with modern diagnostic algorithms. Left undiagnosed and untreated, celiac disease can lead to further complications such as osteoporosis, infertility, other autoimmune disorders, and cancer.

Entitled “Celiac CME Central: Defining, Diagnosing, and Managing Celiac Disease,” this evidence-based, interactive program features a faculty of three celiac experts and can be found online at www.CeliacCMECentral.com. The activity defines celiac and the spectrum of gluten sensitivity, explains the gluten-free diet, features patient case studies, includes comprehensive resources available for immediate download, and offers an Ask the Expert section.

This web-based educational initiative enables ready access to key disease information, including dietary tools and support resources that care providers can use with their patients today. The enduring Celiac CME Central activity was developed using the combined competencies acquired by years of experience in celiac disease awareness-building and continuing medical education, and provides clinicians with fast and easy access to valuable educational resources that were developed with the assistance of the faculty experts.

Easily accessible from its website, this free program is designed to reach a vast audience of providers within the health care community. The on-demand format affords participants the flexibility to access the education based on their own schedule and return as frequently as needed to reinforce their learning. Interactive features of the multimedia activity include a programmed index page for user navigation of the full activity, automated testing and scoring, and online certificate processing.

Physician Continuing Medical Education

Accreditation Statement

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM), Impact Education, LLC, and the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). PIM is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This celiac disease CME activity is supported partially by educational grants from Alba Therapeutics and Quest Diagnostics. This initiative is partially supported by a grant to the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center from the Sidney E. Frank Foundation.

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) was formed as a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization to raise awareness of celiac disease among the general public and the healthcare community, and to facilitate research to better understand the causes, mechanisms, and treatment of celiac disease. For more information please visit www.CeliacCentral.org.

Impact Education, LLC, is an independent, full-service medical education company, delivering value-based continuing education to health care professionals. Further information can be found by visiting www.impactedu.net.

Contacts

National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
Whitney Ehret, Director of Communications, 215-325-1306, ext. 103
whitney@CeliacCentral.org
fax: 215-643-1707