Program Release Date: September 1, 2011

Accreditation has expired – August 31, 2012

Estimated Time to Complete: 1 Hour

This activity is jointly sponsored by Medical Education Resources and National Stroke Association.

A program designed to educate the professional spasticity management team on the latest evidence relating to accurate assessment of spasticity with appropriate treatment.

The Program
Stroke is a leading cause of long-term adult disability, affecting approximately 795,000 people in the U.S. each year. Recent statistics show that 33 percent of female and 27 percent of male stroke survivors struggle with moderate to severe disability. One of the most physically debilitating disabilities is spasticity, or uncontrolled muscle tightness often accompanied by pain and reduced function.

Spasticity affects up to 58 percent of stroke survivors and significantly impacts stroke survivor quality of life and caregiver burden. Post-stroke spasticity does not often set in until weeks, months or even years after a stroke. Spasticity in the hands and wrists is especially disruptive because it can interfere with dressing, washing and other daily living activities.

National Stroke Association designed the Post-Stroke Spasticity: An Update on Diagnosis and Treatment Research program to educate the professional spasticity management team on the latest evidence relating to accurate assessment of spasticity with appropriate treatment. Highlights include the promising improvements in functional capabilities, discomfort and pain associated with treatment of upper-limb spasticity.

Goals and Learning Objectives
The goal of Post-Stroke Spasticity: An Update on Diagnosis and Treatment Research is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of post-stroke spasticity by educating participants on the most current recommendations and clinical research.

Through participation in this initiative, participants should be able to:

• Discuss the functional impact of post-stroke spasticity
• Describe recent research in post-stroke spasticity
• List methods of assessing and diagnosing post-stroke spasticity
• Discuss the importance of setting patient-specific goals for post-stroke spasticity
• Identify current treatment and therapies for post-stroke spasticity

Target Audience
The program intends to educate the interdisciplinary stroke rehabilitation team, including but not limited to rehabilitation physicians and nurses, rehabilitation therapists including occupational and physical therapists, hospitalists, stroke coordinators, residents and medical students. The audience may also include other stroke team members such as neurologists and neurosurgeons.

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 Medical Education Resources (MER) and National Stroke Association. MER is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation
Medical Education Resources designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Accreditation
Medical Education Resources is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

This CE activity provides 1 contact hours of continuing nursing education.

Medical Education Resources is a provider of continuing nursing education by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider #CEP 12299, for 1 contact hour.

For questions regarding this activity, please contact Medical Education Resources at info@mer.org.

Program Materials

The enduring webinar is designed for individual viewing. The posttest and evaluation are electronic and can only be completed by an individual after watching the program. There are no fees for participating in and receiving credit for this activity.

During the period from September 2011 through August 2012, participants must (1) read the learning objectives and faculty disclosures; (2) study the educational activity; (3) complete the posttest by recording the best answer to each question; and (4) complete the evaluation form. If watching as a group, you must also (5) mail or fax the evaluation form and posttest to National Stroke Association. See below for instructions.

If you are watching the program as a group, please contact Valerie Siebert-Thomas at vsiebert-thomas@stroke.org to receive hard copies of the posttest and evaluation. Please note that, upon viewing, all materials must be returned to National Stroke Association within three business days of viewing date.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
MER ensures balance, independence, objectivity and scientific rigor in all our educational programs. In accordance with this policy, MER identifies conflicts of interest with its instructors, content managers and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of an activity. Conflicts are resolved by MER to ensure that all scientific research referred to, reported or used in a CME activity conforms to the generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection and analysis. MER is committed to providing its learners with high-quality CME activities that promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not the business interest of a commercial interest.

The faculty reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this CME activity:

The content managers reported the following financial relationships with commercial interests whose products or services may be mentioned in this CME activity:

System requirements:
PC-based attendees—Required: Windows^® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista or newer.

Macintosh^®-based attendees—Required: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger^®) or newer.

To view MER’s Privacy Policy: http://www.mer.org/privacy_policy

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The Post-Stroke Spasticity: An Update on Diagnosis and Treatment Research grand rounds program is brought to you by an educational grant from Allergan, Inc. and Medtronic, Inc.