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Military Toxic Exposures: Understanding Burn Pits and Their Health Impacts
Activity description
Health care professionals (HCPs) play a crucial role in recognizing and addressing toxic exposures in veterans. Service members exposed to burn pits, widely used during military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations to dispose of waste, often experience long-term and complex health issues.
This live webcast will include additional resources and will equip HCPs with the necessary knowledge to identify, diagnose and manage conditions associated with toxic exposure, including respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular effects and increased cancer risks.
At the end of this activity, participants should be able to:
- Describe the nature of burn pits and their toxic exposures, including common materials burned and mechanisms of exposure.
- Identify common health conditions linked to burn pit exposure, including respiratory, cardiovascular and neurologic effects.
- Apply best practices for screening, diagnosing and managing veterans affected by burn pit exposure.
- Utilize available resources, such as the PACT Act, Veterans Administration (VA) specialty clinics and community referral pathways, to ensure veterans receive appropriate care.
- Incorporate recent policy changes and evidence-based recommendations into clinical practice.
Provided by
This activity is provided by Optum Health Education and Optum Serve.
Commercial support
There is no commercial support received for this activity.
Required hardware/software
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Presenter
Robert F. Miller, MD
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Vanderbilt University, School of Medicine
Scientific Advisory Board Member, Burn Pits 360
Nashville, TN
About the presenter
Dr. Miller received his undergraduate degree from Colorado College and his M.D from Vanderbilt University. He is board certified in Pulmonary Disease, Internal Medicine, and Critical Care Medicine. After fellowship, he spent 11 years in a Vanderbilt affiliated hospital and returned as full time faculty in 2001. Dr. Miller has an interest in general pulmonary and critical care medicine. He has identified a group of Ft. Campbell soldiers who developed small airways disease after serving in Iraq.
Dr. Miller serves as the Medical Director for the Shade Tree Clinic, a free clinic run by Vanderbilt medical students in an underserved area of Nashville. This clinic has generated a lot of interest and participation from both the medical center and the undergraduate campus.
Planners
Elizabeth Albert, MD
Clinical Planner
Optum Health Education
Robin Carter-Visscher, PhD
Deputy Medical Director, Veteran Services
Optum Serve
Sarah Chart, RN
Vice President
Optum Health Education
Rosie Torres
Co-Founder and Director
Burn Pits 360 Veteran Organization
Disclosures of relevant financial relationships
In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education's (ACCME) Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, Optum Health Education (OHE) requires all those in control of educational content to disclose their financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. Ineligible companies are defined by the ACCME as companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care products used by or on patients. Individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies and regardless of their view of the relevance of the relationship to the education. OHE ensures that the content is independent of commercial bias.
Dr. Robert Miller has no financial relationships to disclose.
The planners have no financial relationships to disclose.
Accreditation statement
In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Optum Health Education. Optum Health Education is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the health care team.
Credit designation statements
Nurses
The participant will be awarded up to 1.00 contact hour(s) of credit for attendance and completion of supplemental materials.
Nurse practitioners
The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME and ANCC.
Physicians
Optum Health Education designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
PAs
The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME.
Psychologists
Optum Health Education is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to offer continuing education for psychologists. Optum Health Education maintains responsibility for this program. 1.00 CE hour.
Social Workers
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Optum Health Education is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Optum Health Education maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive up to 1.00 live continuing education credit.
Attendance
A certificate of attendance will be provided to learners upon completion of activity requirements, enabling participants to register with licensing boards or associations that have not been preapproved for credits. To apply for credit types not listed above, participants should use the procedure established by the specific organization from which they wish to obtain credit.
Available Credit
- 1.00 AMA - Physicians
- 1.00 ANCC - Nurses
- 1.00 APA - Psychologists
- 1.00 Attendance - General Attendance
Registration instructions
- You must be logged into your optumhealtheducation.com account to register for this live webcast.
- To log in, click here or scroll to the Log in bar at the top of this page.
- If you DO NOT have an optumhealtheducation.com account, click Create account at the top of the page and enter your information. Click CREATE ACCOUNT.
- Once logged into your account, click Continue to complete registration.
Registrants will receive an email confirmation upon successful completion of registration. This confirmation will be sent to the email address associated with your optumhealtheducation.com account. If you do not receive an email within one hour after registering, please contact [email protected].
Activity date/time: This live webcast will be held on Thursday, May 29, 2025 from 1–2 p.m. ET (12–1 p.m. CT; 11 a.m.–12 p.m. MT; 10–11 a.m. PT).
Fees: There are no fees for participating in or receiving credit for this activity.
Questions: Email [email protected].