Characteristics, Barriers, and Facilitators of Virtual Decision-Making Capacity Assessments During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Online Survey.

Background: With a growing older adult population, the number of persons with dementia is expected to rise. Consequently, the number of persons needing decision-making capacity assessments (DMCA) will increase. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted how we deliver patient care including DMCAs with a much more rapid shift to virtual assessments.

PEER simplified chronic pain guideline: Management of chronic low back, osteoarthritic, and neuropathic pain in primary care.

Objective: To develop a clinical practice guideline to support the management of chronic pain, including low back, osteoarthritic, and neuropathic pain in primary care.

Methods: The guideline was developed with an emphasis on best available evidence and shared decision-making principles. Ten health professionals (4 generalist family physicians, 1 pain management-focused family physician, 1 anesthesiologist, 1 physical therapist, 1 pharmacist, 1 nurse practitioner, and 1 psychologist), a patient representative, and a nonvoting pharmacist and guideline methodologist comprised the Guideline Committee.

PEER systematic review of randomized controlled trials: Management of chronic neuropathic pain in primary care.

Objective: To determine the proportion of patients with neuropathic pain who achieve a clinically meaningful improvement in their pain with the use of different pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and a gray literature search.

Study Selection: Randomized controlled trials that reported a responder analysis of adults with neuropathic pain-specifically diabetic neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, or trigeminal neuralgia-treated with any of the following 8 treatments: exercise, acupuncture, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), topical rubefacients, opioids, anticonvulsant medications, and topical lidocaine.

Family Physician's and Primary Care Team's Perspectives on Supporting Family Caregivers in Primary Care Networks.

Background: Research, practice, and policy have focused on educating family caregivers to sustain care but failed to equip healthcare providers to effectively support family caregivers. Family physicians are well-positioned to care for family caregivers.

Methods: We adopted an interpretive description design to explore family physicians and primary care team members' perceptions of their current and recommended practices for supporting family caregivers.

Developing a Decision-Making Capacity Assessment Clinical Pathway for Use in Primary Care: a Qualitative Exploratory Case Study.

Background: With an ageing population, the incidence of dementia will increase, as will the number of persons requiring decision-making capacity assessments. For over 10 years, we have trained family physicians in conducting decision-making capacity assessments. Physician feedback post-training, however, has highlighted the need to integrate the decision-making capacity assessment process into the primary care context.

PEER systematic review of randomized controlled trials: Management of chronic low back pain in primary care.

Objective: To determine the proportion of chronic low back pain patients who achieve a clinically meaningful response from different pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and gray literature search.

Study Selection: Published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that reported a responder analysis of adults with chronic low back pain treated with any of the following 15 interventions: oral or topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), exercise, acupuncture, spinal manipulation therapy, corticosteroid injections, acetaminophen, oral opioids, anticonvulsants, tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, cannabinoids, oral muscle relaxants, or topical rubefacients.

Physicians and Family Caregivers: Two Perspectives of Physicians' Roles in Long-Term Care.

Objectives: We explored the roles of attending physicians of long-term care (LTC) residents in supporting their family caregivers (FCGs).

Design: In this mixed-methods study, we conducted surveys and focus group interviews with physicians and FCGs.

Setting And Participants: There were 78 FCGs and 18 physicians in the survey, and 18 FCGs and 9 physicians in the focus groups.

Return on Investment of the Primary Health Care Integrated Geriatric Services Initiative Implementation.

Background: Since June 2017, the Primary Health Care Integrated Geriatric Services Initiative (PHC IGSI) has been implemented in Alberta, Canada to, among other aims, reduce costs of unplanned health service utilization while maximizing the utilization of available community resources to support people living with dementia living in communities.

Aim Of The Study: We performed an economic evaluation of this initiative to inform policy regarding sustainability, scale up and spread.

Methods: We used a cohort design together with a difference-in-difference approach and a propensity score matching technique to calculate impacts of the intervention on patient's health service utilization, including inpatient, outpatient and physician services, as well as prescription drugs.

PEER umbrella systematic review of systematic reviews: Management of osteoarthritis in primary care.

Objective: To determine how many patients with chronic osteoarthritis pain respond to various non-surgical treatments.

Data Sources: PubMed and the Cochrane Library.

Study Selection: Published systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that included meta-analysis of responder outcomes for at least 1 of the following interventions were included: acetaminophen, oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), topical NSAIDs, serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), tricyclic antidepressants, cannabinoids, counseling, exercise, platelet-rich plasma, viscosupplementation, glucosamine, chondroitin, intra-articular corticosteroids, rubefacients, or opioids.

Role of D-alanylation of Streptococcus gordonii lipoteichoic acid in innate and adaptive immunity.

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in using the oral commensal gram-positive bacterium Streptococcus gordonii as a live vaccine vector. The present study investigated the role of d-alanylation of lipoteichoic acid (LTA) in the interaction of S. gordonii with the host innate and adaptive immune responses.