National Broadcast Series Focuses on PAH
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An upcoming series of educational virtual events for people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and their caregivers will offer insights and perspectives about how to manage life with PAH.
The National Broadcast Series will include three talks from August to October. Each of the one-hour talks is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. on a Saturday. The series is being presented by United Therapeutics and the PAH Initiative (which United sponsors).
The first talk, “Functional Class: One Piece of the PAH Puzzle,” will take place Aug. 14. In this talk, experts will discuss PAH functional class, which is an assessment of how much PAH symptoms affect a person’s day-to-day life. Functional class is an important
factor considered when healthcare providers are determining an individual’s prognosis and treatment plan. Experts also will examine the role of patients in determining their own functional class.
The second talk, “Choosing a Healthier PAH Lifestyle,” takes place Sept. 25. During this discussion, experts will share science about various lifestyle factors, including nutrition, exercise, and other elements, and their relevance to PAH. The focus of this talk is to better understand how daily lifestyle choices affect the body, thereby empowering patients to take positive steps regarding their own overall health.
The third and final talk, “Echo: Getting to the Heart of the Matter,” occurs  Oct. 9. The subject of this one is how noninvasive assessments made through echocardiography can be used to monitor PAH disease status. Such assessments allow healthcare providers to detect changes in heart health, sometimes even before noticeable shifts in symptoms. Finding these changes can allow for prompt changes in treatment to address the issue.
The three talks will feature a number of experts of PAH: Lana Melendres-Groves, MD, vice-chair of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine; Vijay Balasubramanian, MD, clinical professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco; Christina Eagan, a clinical nurse practitioner at the University of Florida Gainesville; and Anjali Vaidya, MD, co-director of the Pulmonary Hypertension, Right Heart Failure & CTEPH Program at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Full details about the National Broadcast Series events, along with online registration, are available at pahtoday.net.
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