Summary

In the United States there are 15 million visits to primary care physicians for pharyngitis every year. Beyond dealing with the disease directly, there is also an economic impact as children miss school and parents may have to miss work. Even though Group A Streptococcus causes roughly 30% of the cases in children and 10% in adults, there is still pressure to treat everyone although many of the other cases are of viral etiology, which resolve without any medical intervention.

In this talk we discuss the current options available for diagnosing and treating pharyngitis caused by Group A Streptococcus.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the importance of pharyngitis as a disease state.
• Define the current options for testing for Group A Streptococcus.
• Discuss treatment options when patients are positive for Group A Streptococcus.

Andrew J. Schuman, MD, FAAP
Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic, Nashua
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

Dr. Schuman has been in pediatric practice for more than 40 years. He is in clinical practice at Dartmouth Hitchcock clinic in Nashua, New Hampshire and is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Contemporary Pediatrics and has written more than 200 articles for the publication that focus on medical technologies and practice improvement.  He has developed a medical technology review site called Medgizmos, developed to help primary care providers adopt devices and services that can improve diagnosis and expedite care.

Who Should Watch

Physicians, Point-of-Care Coordinators