The 23rd Annual Great Lakes Infectious Disease Conference will be held on March 16 and will give students, pharmacists and professors a chance to be informed by professional speakers.
The event is planned to last the entire day. In addition, the conference has options for in-person or virtual, which participants can select during registration.
Pharmacy practice professor Michael Klepser noted what students could learn from the conference.
“It costs over $7 billion dollars annually to treat individuals with infectious diseases,” Klepser said. “This places a significant toll on patients and the health care economics. We as ID [infectious diseases] practitioners strive to be good stewards of antibiotics and strive to promote appropriate use of antibiotics and vaccines.”
Klepser didn’t just make his case on how infectious diseases affect the country, but he also concisely explained the impacts infectious diseases have in the state of Michigan.
In addition to mentioning why it’s important to talk about infectious diseases, Klepser finds it important to tie the Great Lakes into the topic of infectious diseases as well.
“ID pharmacy practice in the Great Lakes involves a small number of close-knit, passionate pharmacists,” Klepser said. “Coming together at GLID provides us another opportunity to share our experiences amongst ourselves and with the attendees to strengthen ID practice in the state and surrounding areas.”
According to Klepser, the GLID attempts to expose attendees to infectious diseases topics ranging in scope from an overview of important advancements to in-depth and comprehensive presentations on emerging issues on infectious diseases. The “in-depth” and “emerging issues” areas occur since infectious diseases can be found everywhere, including the Great Lakes area.
Pharmacy practice assistant professor Benjamin Pontefract mentioned the most important aspects of talking about diseases, health and education when the conference takes place.
“Infectious disease is everywhere in the world of health care,” Pontefract said. “Having this presentation each year allows for the infectious disease experts to provide a condensed, laser-focused, discussion on these topics to pharmacists who see these disease states on a regular basis but may not fully understand all of the evidence behind the recommendations.”
On the topics of health and education, Pontefract finds it a necessity that front-line pharmacists are equipped with the knowledge they need to successfully treat patients with such infections by providing education provided by local experts in the field.
Pontefract also stated that one of the topics presented each year is the “Top Five Infectious Diseases” which mentions the top infectious disease of the previous year. COVID-19, with its new variants and continuous effect on society, has a great chance to go down as one of the top five infectious disease topics in 2023. That list will be mentioned in the conference at 12:45 p.m.
Despite living in a world that has been able to handle COVID-19 better with vaccinations, Pontefract stated the importance of the conference itself in a COVID-19 world.
“The profession of pharmacy is still seeing the effects of the pandemic,” Pontefract said. “Patients still become affected by COVID-19, and we need pharmacists now more than ever to educate healthcare professionals on the best way to use the newest antivirals that we have available.”
More information about this event can be found on the ferris.edu Campus Calendar. Contact WebTeam@nullFerris.edu for any questions or any help with registration.
S.E. E.S.
C.E. C.F.
C.E. R.S.