2026 Course Highlights

Brigham and Women's Hospital with words "Comprehensive Updates Across All Major Areas of Hospital Medicine"

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ADDICTION MEDICINE

  • Alcohol withdrawal: managing severe and refractory cases safely
  • Phenobarbital for alcohol withdrawal: ready for prime time?
  • Buprenorphine microdosing: smoother inductions for hospitalized patients
  • Long-acting buprenorphine starts in the hospital: practical workflows that work
  • Oral or injectable naltrexone: which patients benefit most from each approach?
  • Harm reduction on discharge: strategies to prevent post-hospital overdose
  • Treating pain in patients with substance use disorders without undertreating or overcorrecting
  • Can addiction treatment during hospitalization save lives and reduce readmissions?
  • Addiction consult services in the hospital: do they change outcomes?
  • Stimulant use disorder is everywhere. What can hospitalists actually do?
  • Xylazine, fentanyl, and the evolving overdose epidemic: what clinicians are missing
  • Beyond opioids: emerging substances and adulterants hospitalists need to recognize
  • Managing withdrawal in the era of polysubstance use 

 

CARDIOVASCULAR

  • Quadruple GDMT in heart failure: how fast should we really go?
  • Shorter, simpler, safer? The evolving world of DAPT de-escalation
  • Beta-blockers after MI: still standard of care or ready for retirement?
  • How low can you go? New transfusion thresholds in acute coronary syndromes
  • HFpEF enters the GLP-1 era
  • Finerenone joins the HFpEF lineup: practice-changing or overhyped?
  • Beating diuretic resistance: practical strategies for the volume-overloaded patient
  • Atrial fibrillation in 2026: does rhythm control finally win?
  • The subclinical AF dilemma: who needs anticoagulation?
  • Elevated troponin outside ACS: when to worry and when to walk away
  • SGLT2 inhibitors during acute illness: stop reflexively holding them?
  • GLP-1 agonists in hospitalized patients: continue, pause, or prescribe?
  • Troponin leaks, type 2 MI, and diagnostic gray zones: practical bedside decision-making
  • Syncope, arrhythmias, and near misses: recognizing the cardiac patient who cannot wait 

 

DERMATOLOGY

  • Cellulitis or something else? Avoiding the most common inpatient skin misdiagnoses
  • Swollen red leg showdown: cellulitis vs. venous stasis and other mimics
  • Skin and soft tissue infections: how short can antibiotic courses safely go?
  • Rash decisions: can’t-miss drug reactions in hospitalized patients
  • When the skin tells the story: cutaneous clues to systemic disease
  • Stevens-Johnson syndrome and TEN: recognizing life-threatening reactions early
  • The antibiotics most likely to trigger severe dermatologic reactions
  • “Can this wait until clinic?” Knowing when dermatology should see the patient now
  • Pressure injury, skin failure, or neglect? Navigating a common inpatient dilemma
  • Inpatient dermatology pearls every hospitalist should know 


DIAGNOSTICS

  • Coronary CTA vs. cath lab: are we entering a new era?
  • ECGs you cannot afford to miss
  • Chest X-ray misses that change management
  • Rapid-fire diagnostic unknowns: electrolytes, liver, and heme
  • Contrast or no contrast? Smarter imaging starts here
  • Incidentalomas everywhere: what needs follow-up?
  • Less testing, better care: the new diagnostic stewardship
  • POCUS in 2026: essential tool or overused toy?
  • A.I. reads the scan: should you trust it? 

 

ENDOCRINE

  • SGLT2 inhibitor complications: euglycemic DKA, UTIs, and perioperative risk
  • Difficult inpatient hyperglycemia cases: practical management strategies
  • New inpatient hyperglycemia management guidelines
  • Metformin in hospitalized patients: too risky or underused?
  • Adrenal insufficiency: whom to treat and how to taper steroids safely
  • A practical approach to adrenal incidentalomas
  • Pheochromocytoma: recognizing the zebra before it charges
  • GLP-1 agonists in hospitalized patients: aspiration risk, ileus, and perioperative management
  • Diabetes technology at the bedside: pumps, sensors, and closed-loop systems
  • Stress-dose steroids: who actually needs them?
  • Thyroid labs in acute illness: when not to overreact 


GASTROINTESTINAL

  • Hepatorenal syndrome in 2026: diagnosis, terlipressin, and beyond
  • Covert hepatic encephalopathy: the cirrhosis complication you are probably missing
  • New guidelines for spontaneous bacterial peritonitis treatment and prophylaxis
  • Managing bleeding and thrombosis in cirrhosis
  • Smarter triage for GI bleeds: new risk scores in practice
  • Updates in upper and lower GI bleed management
  • Upper GI bleed: does earlier endoscopy improve outcomes?
  • Restarting anticoagulation after GI bleeding: how soon is too soon?
  • Fluid resuscitation in acute pancreatitis: less is more
  • Necrotizing pancreatitis: timing is everything
  • Urgent and nonurgent indications for ERCP
  • Preventing post-ERCP pancreatitis: what actually works?
  • GLP-1 agonists and endoscopy risk: real concern or overreaction?
  • MASLD/MASH: what hospitalists need to know
  • Acute alcoholic hepatitis: updates in steroids, prognostication, and transplant eligibility
  • The crashing cirrhotic patient: practical inpatient management pearls

 

GERIATRICS

  • Delirium prevention: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
  • Beyond sitters and restraints: practical nonpharmacologic delirium strategies
  • Haloperidol and QTc monitoring: are we over checking?
  • Risk-stratified use of antipsychotics for delirium
  • Frailty: the inpatient risk factor hiding in plain sight
  • Deprescribing at discharge: what medications should not come home?
  • Hospitalization-associated disability: prevention starts on day one
  • Managing dementia-related behaviors without restraints or oversedation s

 

HEMATOLOGY

  • Clotting, bleeding, and everything in between: practical inpatient hematology
  • Hypercoagulable workups: who needs one?
  • Thrombocytopenia on the wards: avoiding the common diagnostic traps
  • Inpatient anemia made practical: when to work up, transfuse, or wait
  • Unprovoked VTE: is lifelong anticoagulation always the answer?
  • “Provoked” vs. “unprovoked” VTE:  time to rethink the terminology?
  • Low-risk PE: who can safely avoid admission?
  • Cancer-associated thrombosis: is low-dose apixaban ready for prime time?
  • DOAC showdown: does one agent truly come out on top?
  • DOACs in obesity and CKD: what does the latest evidence support?
  • Myelodysplastic syndrome hiding in plain sight
  • Iron deficiency without anemia: clinically meaningful or over diagnosed?
  • Thrombotic microangiopathies: recognizing the hematologic emergency early
  • Anticoagulation in thrombocytopenia: how low is too low?
  • Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia in 2026: avoiding overdiagnosis and undertreatment
  • Hospital-acquired anemia: can we prevent the drop?
  • New guidelines for management of upper extremity DVT

 

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

  • Antibiotic selection: practical inpatient approach
  • When to consult ID for bacteremia
  • IV-to-PO transitions: evidence-based strategies
  • MSSA bacteremia: new data
  • HIV screening and PrEP from the inpatient setting
  • MRSA pneumonia: who needs coverage?
  • CRP-guided decisions in community acquired pneumonia
  • C. difficile: prevention, transmission, and treatment updates
  • Fecal microbiota therapy: expanding role
  • ESBL infections: risk and management
  • IDSA diabetic foot infection updates
  • Oral step-down therapy for bacteremia: how far can we go?
  • Rapid diagnostics (PCR panels): do they improve outcomes or just costs?
  • Antimicrobial stewardship in the era of resistance: what actually works

 

NEUROLOGY

  • Stroke imaging: choosing the right modality
  • Blood pressure targets in acute stroke
  • Thrombolysis: expanding windows and new agents
  • Thrombectomy: patient selection updates
  • Anticoagulation after stroke: timing and safety
  • Syncope: diagnostic and risk stratification tools
  • Delirium vs. neurologic emergency: avoiding missed diagnoses
  • Post-stroke anticoagulation timing: emerging trial data
  • Factor XI inhibitors: new agents for secondary stroke prevention 

 

PALLIATIVE CARE

  • Which hospitalized patients benefit most from palliative care?
  • Patient-centered strategies for serious illness conversations
  • Best practices for leading family meetings
  • Primary palliative care skills every hospitalist should master
  • Managing non-pain symptoms at the end of life
  • Goals-of-care discussions in the ICU: what actually works? 

 

PERIOPERATIVE MEDICINE

  • AHA perioperative guidelines: what hospitalists need to know
  • GLP-1 agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors in the perioperative setting
  • Updates on perioperative aspirin, statins, beta-blockers, and ACE inhibitors
  • To hold or not to hold? The latest evidence in perioperative medication management
  • Frailty as a predictor of perioperative risk
  • Reducing pulmonary complications after surgery
  • Perioperative anticoagulation: who needs bridging?
  • Prehabilitation before surgery: does it improve outcomes?
  • Postoperative troponin elevations: what should hospitalists do?
  • Perioperative management of patients on chronic opioids and buprenorphine 

 

PREGNANCY

  • HELLP me: managing medical complications in pregnant and postpartum patients
  • Best practices for hypertension management during and after pregnancy
  • Risks, benefits, and contraindications to radiologic studies in pregnancy
  • Periprocedural management of pregnant patients
  • Treatment guidelines for UTI in pregnancy
  • Postpartum hypertension and cardiomyopathy: when should hospitalists worry?
  • Pulmonary embolism in pregnancy: evolving diagnostic and treatment strategies
  • Managing severe infection and sepsis in pregnant patients 

 

PSYCHIATRY

  • Practical approaches to personality disorders in the hospital
  • Inpatient management of psychiatric medications
  • Diagnostic yield of neuroimaging in common psychiatric presentations
  • Capacity assessment: can this patient make their own decisions?
  • Agitation in the medically ill patient: safest evidence-based approaches
  • Catatonia in hospitalized patients: often missed, highly treatable
  • Avoiding medication interactions between psychiatric and medical therapies 

 

PULMONARY/CRITICAL CARE

  • COPD exacerbations: steroids and antibiotics
  • Oxygen strategies: high-flow vs. noninvasive ventilation
  • Sepsis management: current best practices
  • Steroids in sepsis: who benefits?
  • ICU sedation: propofol vs. dexmedetomidine
  • Fluid stewardship in sepsis: less is more?
  • Noninvasive ventilation in hypercapnia: who truly benefits

 

RENAL

  • CKD progression: GLP-1, SGLT2i, and finerenone
  • AKI: diagnostic and management updates
  • Dialysis access and inpatient considerations
  • Electrolyte management pearls
  • Contrast nephropathy: myth vs. reality
  • Acute-on-chronic kidney injury: prognostication and management
  • Potassium binders: expanded inpatient use

 

RHEUMATOLOGY

  • Preventing gout flares after starting urate-lowering therapy
  • See the halo, skip the biopsy: diagnosing giant cell arteritis with ultrasound
  • When should hospitalists call rheumatology?
  • Dual therapy for lupus nephritis: steroids plus immunomodulators for active disease
  • Crystal arthritis in hospitalized patients: septic joint or gout flare?
  • Immune checkpoint inhibitor rheumatic toxicities: what hospitalists need to recognize
  • ANCA-associated vasculitis: recognizing rapidly progressive disease early
  • Macrophage activation syndrome and HLH: can’t-miss inflammatory emergencies 

 

BEST PRACTICES

  • Pain management in hospitalized patients
  • Patient-directed discharges
  • Discharge timing: does before noon matter?
  • Social determinants of health and the hospitalist
  • PRN antihypertensives: time to retire a common hospital practice?
  • Hospital-acquired infections are not equal across communities
  • Reducing administrative burden and burnout in hospital medicine
  • Improving diagnostic excellence and reducing cognitive bias at the bedside
  • Reducing low-value care: what to stop doing now
  • Capacity and high-risk discharges: medico-legal updates
  • Incidentalomas: when to work up vs. defer
  • Boarding and throughput: evidence-based operational strategies 

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