A Modern Day Primer on Cytomegalovirus – On Demand 

Presented by Robert Fifer, PhD

Cytomegalovirus has been a known virus for almost 100 years. It is a ubiquitous virus affecting more than 80% of the world’s population. But knowledge of the virus’ impact on adults, children, and infants is lacking among ~85% of the general public. Physicians and non-physician healthcare providers have limited knowledge about the total impact of congenital CMV, its latent effects in adults (especially women of childbearing age), and the total risk to unborn children. There are also controversies regarding early detection of the virus and why some states do not screen and other states have only targeted screening. This presentation will discuss the broad characteristics of CMV, our current state of knowledge, congenital risks, avoidance of infection, and treatment for CMV related symptoms. This presentation is also part of an effort, yet in its infancy, to inform the health care community and the general public of the dangers associated with CMV toward the eventual goal of systems change for advocacy, early detection, early intervention, and prevention.

Robert C. Fifer, Ph.D. is currently an Associate Professor and Director of Audiology and Speech­Language Pathology at the Mailman Center for Child Development, Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in Speech-Language Pathology with a minor in Deaf Education. His M.A. degree is from Central Michigan University in Audiology. And his Ph.D. degree is from Baylor College of Medicine in Audiology and Bioacoustics. Dr. Fifer’s clinical and research interests focus on the areas of auditory evoked potentials, central auditory processing, early detection of hearing loss in children, and auditory anatomy and physiology. His non-clinical interests focus on health care economics. He is a Past-President of the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists, a former member of ASHA’s Health Care Economics Committee, and the former ASHA representative to the American Medical Association’s Health Care Professions Advisory Committee for the Relative Value Utilization Committee in addition to being ASHA’s representative to the AMA’s Practice Expense Advisory Committee from 2002 until 2014. From 2016 through 2018 he was a member of the ASHA Board of Directors as the Vice President for Audiology Practice. Additional responsibilities at the state level include serving as a consultant to the Florida Department of Health’s Children’s Medical Services, Florida Medicaid, and audiology representative to the Genetics and Newborn Screening Advisory Council, and audiology representative to the State EHDI Advisory Council. In 2016 he was part of an interdisciplinary team to study the long-term effects of the Zika virus. And in 2017, he became the project director for a HRSA grant to establish health care infrastructure and resource materials concerning the Zika virus for health care providers in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Agenda:

• Introduction (5 min)
• Presentation (75 min)
• Conclusions & Questions (10 min)

.15 ASHA CEUs

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the complete range of symptoms associated with congenital CMV infections
• Discuss a current best-practice model of baseline evaluations when a newborn infant is diagnosed with CMV
• Implement appropriate behaviors designed to minimize the spread of CMV between children and adults

Presenter Disclosures:

Dr. Robert Fifer, A Modern Day Primer on Cytomegalovirus, employed by University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Disclosures:

Financial – University of Miami; Salary.

Nonfinancial – No disclosures.

Cost:

Member cost $27.50
Non-member cost $35
Students may view at no cost – non-member students, please email admin@edaud.org for code.

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