Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Pearls for Interpretation, Appraisal, and Application in Clinical Practice.

Systematic reviews (SR) are a category of literature review that presents a comprehensive synthesis and analysis of all available literature evidence addressing a specific clinical question. Meta-analysis (MA) is a quantitative technique that is applied to data collected through SR that provides an estimate of an effect across a larger population. By synthesizing data from a large number of sources SR and MA often provide insights that cannot be obtained from single studies and can aid in clinical decision-making.

Comparison of antibiotics included in national essential medicines lists of 138 countries using the WHO Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) classification: a cross-sectional study.

Background: The WHO Model List of Essential Medicines classified antibiotics into Access, Watch, and Reserve (AWaRe) categories for the treatment of 31 priority bacterial infections as a tool to facilitate antibiotic stewardship and optimal use. We compared the listing of antibiotics on national essential medicines lists (NEMLs) to those in the 2019 WHO Model List and the AWaRe classification database to determine the degree to which NEMLs are in alignment with the AWaRe classification framework recommended by WHO.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we obtained up-to-date (data after 2017) NEMLs from our Global Essential Medicines (GEM) database, WHO online resources, and individual countries' websites.

A comparison of national essential medicines lists in the Americas.

Objectives: To compare national essential medicines lists (NEMLs) from countries in the Region of the Americas and to identify potential opportunities for improving those lists.

Methods: In June of 2017, NEMLs from 31 countries in the Americas were abstracted from documents included in a World Health Organization (WHO) repository. The lists from the Americas were compared to each other and to NEMLs from outside of the Americas, as well as with the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, 20 edition ("WHO Model List") and the list of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Regional Revolving Fund for Strategic Public Health Supplies ("Strategic Fund").

Exploring the experiences of people in Ontario, Canada who have trouble affording medicines: a qualitative concept mapping study.

Objectives: The experiences of people who report cost-related medicine non-adherence are not well documented. We aimed to present experiences relating to accessing medicines reported by the participants in a randomised controlled trial of free medicine distribution.

Methods: The trial consisted of primary care patients from a large urban family practice and three rural family practices who reported cost-related medicine non-adherence.

Acute poisoning in pregnancy: a province-wide perspective from a poison center.

Poisoning in pregnancy can cause maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality, but few data detail such events. Herein, we describe poisoning exposures in pregnant women identified by a large Canadian Poison Centre. This retrospective study evaluated poisoning exposures in pregnant women aged 12-60 years, reported to the Ontario Poison Centre from 2010 to 2017.

Potent dialkyl substrate-product analogue inhibitors and inactivators of α-methylacyl-coenzyme A racemase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis by rational design.

Rational approaches for the design of enzyme inhibitors furnish powerful strategies for developing pharmaceutical agents and tools for probing biological mechanisms. A new strategy for the development of gem-disubstituted substrate-product analogues as inhibitors of racemases and epimerases is elaborated using α-methylacyl-coenzyme A racemase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtMCR) as a model enzyme. MtMCR catalyzes the epimerization at C2 of acyl-CoA substrates, a key step in the metabolism of branched-chain fatty acids.