Top 2020 studies relevant to primary care: From the PEER team.

Objective: To summarize high-quality studies for 10 topics from 2020 that have strong relevance to primary care practice.

Selecting The Evidence: Study selection involved routine literature surveillance by a group of primary health care professionals. This included screening abstracts of high-impact journals and EvidenceAlerts, as well as searching the American College of Physicians Journal Club.

Commentary: Time to Improve Access to Psychotherapies - A Family Medicine Perspective.

The COVID pandemic - despite the dire economic and personal toll on all Canadians - is helping us move forward. It bears light on the most vulnerable. Indeed, it has aggravated the mental health of those with such disorders as anxiety or depression and revealed the precarity of our mental well-being.

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.

Mainpro+ evaluation.

Problem Addressed: The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) department of the College of Family Physicians of Canada evaluated the Mainpro+ and CERT+ programs from June 2016 to May 2018 to determine users' awareness of the changes made to each program and to determine user engagement and satisfaction.

Objective Of Program: To assess changes in CPD program quality, the effects of changes on member understanding of credit reporting and engagement, data accuracy of credit reporting, and the perceptions of the CPD program certification process among providers.

Program Description: Surveys and interviews were conducted with stakeholders from both groups, and consultations occurred with a third-party consultant.

Caring for patients with lived experience of homelessness.

Objective: To guide family physicians working in a range of primary care clinical settings on how to provide care and support for patients who are vulnerably housed or experiencing homelessness.

Sources Of Information: The approach integrates recommendations from evidence-based clinical guidelines, the views of persons with lived experience of homelessness, the theoretical tenets of the Patient's Medical Home framework, and practical lessons learned from family physicians working in a variety of clinical practice settings.

Main Message: Family physicians can use simple and effective approaches to identify patients who are homeless or vulnerably housed; take initial steps to initiate access to housing, income assistance, case management, and treatment for substance use; and work collaboratively using trauma-informed and anti-oppressive approaches to better assist individuals with health and social needs.

Masks for prevention of viral respiratory infections among health care workers and the public: PEER umbrella systematic review.

Objective: To determine the effect of mask use on viral respiratory infection risk.

Data Sources: MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library.

Study Selection: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) included in at least 1 published systematic review comparing the use of masks with a control group, either in community or health care settings, on the risk of viral respiratory infections.

Breast Cancer Survivorship Tool: Facilitating breast cancer survivorship care for family physicians and patients.

Objective: To create an evidence-based national Breast Cancer Survivorship (BCS) Tool that facilitates appropriate care of breast cancer patients by primary care providers after patients have completed adjuvant therapy.

Sources Of Information: MEDLINE and PubMed were searched from 2002 to 2018 with the key words and National or provincial cancer care organization guidelines were also reviewed. Evidence was graded as level I, II, or III.

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.

Telemedicine in the driver's seat: new role for primary care access in Brazil and Canada: The Besrour Papers: a series on the state of family medicine in Canada and Brazil.

Objective: To contrast how Brazil's and Canada's different jurisdictional and judicial realities have led to different types of telemedicine and how further scale and improvement can be achieved.

Composition Of The Committee: A subgroup of the Besrour Centre of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Canadian telemedicine experts developed connections with colleagues in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and collaborated to undertake a between-country comparison of their respective telemedicine programs.

Methods: Following a literature review, the authors collectively reflected on their experiences in an attempt to explore the past and current state of telemedicine in Canada and Brazil.

Contrasting current challenges from the Brazilian and Canadian national health systems: The Besrour Papers: a series on the state of family medicine in Canada and Brazil.

Objective: To compare the national health systems of Canada and Brazil and how both countries have addressed similar challenges in their primary care sectors.

Composition Of The Committee: A subgroup of the Besrour Centre of the College of Family Physicians of Canada developed connections with colleagues in Brazil and collaborated to undertake a between-country comparison, comparing and contrasting various elements of both countries' efforts to strengthen primary care over the past few decades.

Methods: Following a literature review, the authors collectively reflected on their experiences in an attempt to explore the past and current state of family medicine in Canada and Brazil.

Framework for ethical international academic partnerships in family medicine: The Besrour Papers: a series on the state of family medicine in Canada and Brazil.

Objective: To develop an ethical framework for collaboration in international academic partnerships in family medicine.

Composition Of The Committee: A subgroup of the Besrour Centre of the College of Family Physicians of Canada including family medicine and bioethics experts began to collaborate in 2014 to undertake the development of an ethical framework and tools for the establishment of ethically sound international academic partnerships.

Methods: Following 2 consultative workshops and a wider consultation process with the Besrour Centre global community, the authors developed an ethical framework and tools for approval by the Besrour Centre leadership in November 2017.