Epidemiology of Emergency Medical Search and Rescue in the North Shore Mountains of Vancouver, Canada, from 1995 to 2020.

Introduction: Little is known about the epidemiology of emergency medical search and rescue incidents globally. The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiology of emergency medical search and rescue incidents in the North Shore Mountains of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Methods: This was a retrospective review and descriptive analysis of search and rescue incident reports created by North Shore Rescue over a 25 y period from 1995 to 2019, inclusive.

Crystal methamphetamine use in British Columbia, Canada: A cross-sectional study of people who access harm reduction services.

Introduction: Increased use of crystal methamphetamine ("crystal meth") has been observed across North America and international jurisdictions, including a notable increase in the presence of methamphetamines in illicit drug toxicity deaths in British Columbia (BC), Canada. We used data from a cross-sectional survey and urine toxicology screening to report the prevalence, correlates, and validity of self-reported crystal meth use among clients of harm reduction sites in BC.

Materials And Methods: Survey data were collected from 1,107 participants across 25 communities in BC, through the 2018 and 2019 Harm Reduction Client Survey.

Evaluation and pilot implementation of essential interventions for the management of hypertension and prevention of cardiovascular diseases in primary health care in the Republic of Tajikistan.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of implementing and evaluating essential interventions for the management of hypertension and prevention of cardiovascular disease in primary healthcare in Tajikistan.

Methods: The study protocol was published a priori. A pragmatic, sequential, mixed methods explanatory design was piloted.

Capacity building of health care professionals to perform interprofessional management of non-communicable diseases in primary care - experiences from Ukraine.

Background: Non-communicable diseases are leading causes of death and disability across the world. Countries with the highest non-communicable disease (NCD) burden in the WHO European Region are often those that have some of the greatest health system challenges for achieving good outcomes in prevention and care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an interprofessional capacity building intervention carried out in Ukraine to improve the management non-communicable diseases in primary health care.

Implementing a package of noncommunicable disease interventions in the Republic of Moldova: two-year follow-up data.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a growing challenge in the Republic of Moldova. A previously reported pilot cluster randomized controlled trial aimed to determine the feasibility of implementing and evaluating essential interventions for NCDs (e.g.

Evaluation and pilot implementation of essential interventions for the management of hypertension and prevention of cardiovascular diseases in primary health care in the Republic of Tajikistan.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide and are a major burden in Tajikistan. The health system of Tajikistan is still shaped by the country's Soviet legacy and the pace of reform has been slow, with high patient out-of-pocket expenditure. The aim of this study is to determine the feasibility of implementing and evaluating essential interventions for the management of hypertension and prevention of cardiovascular disease in primary health care in Tajikistan.

Implementing Package of Essential Non-communicable Disease Interventions in the Republic of Moldova-a feasibility study.

Background: The aim of this study is to determine the feasibility of implementing and evaluating the World Health Organization Package of Essential Non-communicable Disease Interventions (WHO PEN) approach in primary healthcare in the Republic of Moldova.

Methods: According to our published a priori methods, 20 primary care clinics were randomized to 10 intervention and 10 control clinics. The intervention consisted of implementation of adapted WHO PEN guidelines and structured training for health workers; the control clinics continued with usual care.

Implementing essential interventions for cardiovascular disease risk management in primary healthcare: lessons from Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Globally, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, including in the WHO European region. Within this region, the Member States with the greatest cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden are also some of the lowest resourced. As the need for technical support for the implementation of essential CVD/NCD interventions in primary healthcare (PHC) in these regions grew urgent, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has been directly supporting national governments in the development, assessment, scale-up and quality improvement of large scale PHC interventions for CVD.

Protocol for the evaluation of a pilot implementation of essential interventions for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in primary healthcare in the Republic of Moldova.

Introduction: Nearly 90% of all deaths in the Republic of Moldova are caused by non-communicable diseases, the majority of which (55%) are caused by cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In addition to reducing premature mortality from CVD, it is estimated that strengthening primary healthcare could cut the number of hypertension-related hospital admissions and diabetes-related hospitalisations in half. The aim of this evaluation is to determine the feasibility of implementing and evaluating essential interventions for the prevention of CVD in primary healthcare in the Republic of Moldova, with a view towards national scale-up.

Medications that reduce emergency hospital admissions: an overview of systematic reviews and prioritisation of treatments.

Background: Rates of emergency hospitalisations are increasing in many countries, leading to disruption in the quality of care and increases in cost. Therefore, identifying strategies to reduce emergency admission rates is a key priority. There have been large-scale evidence reviews to address this issue; however, there have been no reviews of medication therapies, which have the potential to reduce the use of emergency health-care services.

Benefits and Harms in Pivotal Trials of Oral Centrally Acting Antiobesity Medicines: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the benefits and harms of oral centrally acting antiobesity medicinal products in pivotal trials.

Methods: The European Medicines Agency and Federal Drug Administration websites, PubMed, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched to identify pivotal trials used to gain marketing authorizations.

Cardiovascular disease risk and prevention amongst Syrian refugees: mixed methods study of Médecins Sans Frontières programme in Jordan.

Background: The growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) presented new challenges for medical humanitarian aid and little was known about primary health care approaches for these diseases in humanitarian response. We aimed to evaluate Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF's) use of total CVD risk based prevention strategies amongst Syrian refugees in northern Jordan to identify opportunities to improve total CVD risk based guidance for humanitarian settings.

Methods: We evaluated CVD risk assessment and management in two outpatient NCD clinics in the Irbid governorate of Jordan using a mixed methods design with qualitative and quantitative strands of equal priority, integrated during data collection and interpretation.

whoishRisk - an R package to calculate WHO/ISH cardiovascular risk scores for all epidemiological subregions of the world.

The World Health Organisation and International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH) cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment charts have been implemented in many low- and middle-income countries as part of the WHO Package of Essential Non-Communicable Disease (PEN) Interventions for Primary Health Care in Low-Resource settings. Evaluation of the WHO/ISH cardiovascular risk charts and their use is a key priority and since they only existed in paper or PDF formats, we developed an R implementation of the charts for all epidemiological subregions of the world. The main strengths of this implementation are that it is built in a free, open-source, coding language with simple syntax, can be downloaded from github as a package ("whoishRisk"), and can be used with a standard computer.

Global cardiovascular risk assessment in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in adults: systematic review of systematic reviews.

Objective: To identify, critically appraise and summarise existing systematic reviews on the impact of global cardiovascular risk assessment in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults.

Design: Systematic review of systematic reviews published between January 2005 and October 2016 in The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE or CINAHL databases, and post hoc analysis of primary trials.

Participants, Interventions, Outcomes: Systematic reviews of interventions involving global cardiovascular risk assessment relative to no formal risk assessment in adults with no history of CVD.

Factors Associated with Sequelae of Campylobacter and Non-typhoidal Salmonella Infections: A Systematic Review.

Despite the significant global burden of gastroenteritis and resulting sequelae, there is limited evidence on risk factors for sequelae development. We updated and extended previous systematic reviews by assessing the role of antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and symptom severity in the development of sequelae following campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis. We searched four databases, including PubMed, from 1 January 2011 to 29 April 2016.