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.

Team Processes in Canadian Primary Healthcare: A Realist Review.

To provide effective, comprehensive care to increasingly complex patients in Canadian communities, healthcare providers are shifting from solo providers of primary care to interprofessional, team-based primary healthcare services. Team-based care is considered one of the most effective means of caring for complex patients, including frail elders and individuals with chronic illness, mental health issues and addictions. Team-based care relies on effective team processes, the social or relational processes that enhance team collaboration and decision making.

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.

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.

Is attending birth dying out? Trends in obstetric care provision among primary care physicians in British Columbia.

Objective: To examine trends in and sociodemographic predictors of the provision of obstetric care within the primary care context among physicians in British Columbia (BC).

Design: Population-based, longitudinal cohort study using administrative data.

Setting: British Columbia.

Colorectal cancer screening for patients with a family history of colorectal cancer or adenomas.

Objective: To review and summarize the recently developed Canadian Association of Gastroenterology screening recommendations for patients with a family history of colorectal cancer (CRC) or adenoma from a family medicine perspective.

Quality Of Evidence: A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to synthesize knowledge regarding family history and CRC. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and EMBASE were searched with the following MeSH terms: and Known hereditary syndromes were excluded.

North End Community Health Centre in Halifax, NS: Relationship-based care goes beyond collaborative care to address patient needs.

Objective: To identify and describe features of relationship-based care that contribute to a successful collaborative model of primary care delivery.

Design: Focused institutional ethnography using a critical medical anthropology approach.

Setting: The North End Community Health Centre (NECHC) in downtown Halifax, NS.

Antibiotic prescribing for pediatric respiratory infections: What explains a large variation among physicians?

Objective: To explore whether there are observable physician characteristics associated with antibiotic prescribing for pediatric respiratory tract infections (RTIs).

Design: Population-based cohort study using a hierarchical generalized linear mixed-model analysis.

Setting: British Columbia.

Quality of warfarin management in primary care: Determining the stability of international normalized ratios using a nationally representative prospective cohort.

Objective: To determine the stability of warfarin anticoagulation using a nationally representative sample of Canadian primary care patients and providers.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Primary care practices associated with the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network.

Normal-weight central obesity: Unique hazard of the toxic waist.

Objective: To examine the mortality risk presented by normal-weight central obesity, to identify a clinical measure to aid in the identification of this phenotype, and to explore the means for mitigation of this risk.

Quality Of Evidence: Only prospective cohort studies (level II) comparing participants with central obesity at normal weight with those at higher levels of body mass index (BMI) were found. Good level I studies were available to demonstrate the effect of diet and exercise interventions on central obesity and mortality.

Training family physicians as researchers: Outcomes over 15 years for Canada's first clinician scholar program.

Objective: To examine characteristics at admission and subsequent academic achievements among the graduates of the first 15 years of the clinician scholar program (CSP), Canada's longest-running such program, housed at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Design: Cross-sectional study with data gathered from program files, personal correspondence, and public sources.

Setting: Vancouver.

Educating for Equity Care Framework: Addressing social barriers of Indigenous patients with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: To present a clinical framework for addressing critical social elements for Indigenous patients with type 2 diabetes.

Sources Of Information: The Educating for Equity (E4E) Care Framework was developed through a rigorous analysis of qualitative research that included the perspectives of Indigenous patients (n = 32), physicians (n = 28), and Indigenous health curriculum developers (n = 5) across Canada. A national advisory group of Indigenous health experts, educators, leaders, physicians, and community members provided feedback on integrating analysis from primary research into recommendations for physicians.

Family doctors providing primary care to patients with mental illness in a tertiary care facility.

Problem Addressed: Individuals with severe mental illness have an increased burden of physical comorbidities. Physical concerns of patients admitted to hospital for mental health reasons might be addressed by multiple specialists, leading to fragmented care and high costs to the system, when many of these concerns could be addressed by primary care.

Objective Of Program: The Family Doctor Outreach Clinic (FDOC) aims to provide rapid consultations for common concerns, to provide consultations for complex chronic disease and addictions, and to identify gaps in community care that contribute to patients' potential readmission to hospital.