Pediatric Compassionate Care Conference 2017 will be held Friday, Jan. 13 at New Hanover Regional Medical Center. The theme is “When Words Mean Everything: Challenging Patient Interactions and the Art of Meaningful Conversation. Learn more and register here.


National Provider Call: Transitioning from Quality Programs to MIPS, Tuesday, Jan. 24, from 2-3 p.m. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will provide an overview on the transition to the Quality Payment Program, how current programs will be streamlined into the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, and key milestones for PQRS, EHR, VM, and MIPS programs. A question and answer portion will be held at the end of the webinar. Learn more and register here.


NCHICA, the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, is planning a one-day workshop on Feb. 15, 2017 to discuss the status of the Affordable Care Act, MACRA, NC Medicaid and Health Information Exchange. The workshop will be held at the Research Triangle Foundation in RTP. Look for more details next month!


MAHEC, working with the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, The Governor’s Institute on Substance Abuse and Project Lazarus: A Project of CCNC, is offering A Guide to Rational Opioid Prescribing for Chronic Pain, an online education course. The course is designed for all prescribing health care practitioners who are interested in an overview of the rational prescribing approaches for persons with chronic pain disorders. It will fulfill the North Carolina Medical Board’s requirement of at least one hour of continuing education designed specifically to address prescribing practices for chronic pain management. The course cost is $15 for the first 6 months. Offers 3 hours of AAFP, AMA/AAFP Equivalency, and CDE; www.mahec.net/opioid


NCTracks has Computer-Based Training (CBT) courses on a variety of topics available to providers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. Anyone who is a registered user with NCID access to the NCTracks secure Provider Portal can access and take a self-paced course. A list of courses available can be found here and under Quick Links on the NCTracks Provider Training page of the public Provider Portal.