Choosing Wisely Canada's emergency medicine recommendations: Time for a revision.

Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) is a national initiative designed to encourage patient-clinician discussions about the appropriate, evidence-based use of medical tests, procedures and treatments. The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians' (CAEP) Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) working group developed and released ten recommendations relevant to Emergency Medicine in June 2015 (items 1-5) and October 2016 (items 6-10). In November 2016, the CAEP CWC working group developed a process for updating the recommendations. This process involves: 1) Using GRADE to evaluate the quality of evidence, 2) reviewing relevant recommendations on an ad hoc basis as new evidence emerges, and 3) reviewing all recommendations every five years. While the full review of the CWC recommendations will be performed in 2020, a number of high-impact studies were published after our initial launch that prompted an ad hoc review of the relevant three of our ten recommendations prior to the full review in 2020. This paper describes the results of the CAEP CWC working group's ad hoc review of three of our ten recommendations in light of recent publications.

L'initiative nationale Choisir avec soin a été conçue pour favoriser les discussions entre patients et cliniciens sur l'utilisation appropriée et fondée sur des données probantes des examens médicaux, des interventions et des traitements. Le groupe de travail sur l'initiative, de l'Association canadienne des médecins d'urgence, a élaboré et diffusé dix recommandations relatives à la pratique de la médecine d'urgence, d'abord en juin 2015 (points 1-5), puis en octobre 2016 (points 6-10). En novembre 2016, le groupe de travail sur l'initiative s'est penché sur un processus de mise à jour des recommandations. Ce dernier comprend trois éléments : 1) l'application de l'instrument GRADE pour évaluer la qualité des données probantes; 2) une révision ponctuelle des recommandations pertinentes suivant la diffusion de nouvelles données; 3) un réexamen quinquennal de toutes les recommandations. La révision complète des recommandations présentées dans l'initiative est prévue en 2020; toutefois, un certain nombre d'études ayant une incidence importante ont déjà été publiées après le premier lancement des recommandations, ce qui a incité le groupe de travail à procéder à une révision ponctuelle de trois recommandations pertinentes sur les dix existantes, avant l'examen complet prévu en 2020. Il sera donc question, dans l'article, des résultats de la révision ponctuelle de ces trois recommandations, réalisée à la lumière des récentes publications, par le groupe de travail sur l'initiative.

Choosing Wisely Canada®: Five tests, procedures and treatments to question in Emergency Medicine.

OBJECTIVES: Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) is an initiative to encourage patient-physician discussions about the appropriate, evidence based use of medical tests, procedures and treatments. We present the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians' (CAEP) top five list of recommendations, and the process undertaken to generate them. METHODS: The CAEP Expert Working Group (EWG) generated a candidate list of 52 tests, procedures, and treatments in emergency medicine whose value to care was questioned. This list was distributed to CAEP committee chairs, revised, and then divided and randomly allocated to 107 Canadian emergency physicians (EWG nominated) who voted on each item based on: action-ability, effectiveness, safety, economic burden, and frequency of use. The EWG discussed the items with the highest votes, and generated the recommendations by consensus. RESULTS: The top five CAEP CWC recommendations are: 1) Don't order CT head scans in adults and children who have suffered minor head injuries (unless positive for a validated head injury clinical decision rule); 2) Don't prescribe antibiotics in adults with bronchitis/asthma and children with bronchiolitis; 3) Don't order lumbosacral spinal imaging in patients with non-traumatic low back pain who have no red flags/pathologic indicators; 4) Don't order neck radiographs in patients who have a negative examination using the Canadian C-spine rules; and 5) Don't prescribe antibiotics after incision and drainage of uncomplicated skin abscesses unless extensive cellulitis exists. CONCLUSIONS: The CWC recommendations for emergency medicine were selected using a mixed methods approach. This top 5 list was released at the CAEP Conference in June 2015 and should form the basis for future implementation efforts.

Canadian†Stroke†Best†Practice†Recommendations: Hyperacute Stroke Care Guidelines, Update 2015.

The 2015 update of the Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations Hyperacute Stroke Care guideline highlights key elements involved in the initial assessment, stabilization, and treatment of patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA), ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and acute venous sinus thrombosis. The most notable change in this 5th edition is the addition of new recommendations for the use of endovascular therapy for patients with acute ischemic stroke and proximal intracranial arterial occlusion. This includes an overview of the infrastructure and resources required for stroke centers that will provide endovascular therapy as well as regional structures needed to ensure that all patients with acute ischemic stroke that are eligible for endovascular therapy will be able to access this newly approved therapy; recommendations for hyperacute brain and enhanced vascular imaging using computed tomography angiography and computed tomography perfusion; patient selection criteria based on the five trials of endovascular therapy published in early 2015, and performance metric targets for important time-points involved in endovascular therapy, including computed tomography-to-groin puncture and computed tomography-to-reperfusion times. Other updates in this guideline include recommendations for improved time efficiencies for all aspects of hyperacute stroke care with a movement toward a new median target door-to-needle time of 30 min, with the 90th percentile being 60 min. A stronger emphasis is placed on increasing public awareness of stroke with the recent launch of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada FAST signs of stroke campaign; reinforcing the public need to seek immediate medical attention by calling 911; further engagement of paramedics in the prehospital phase with prehospital notification to the receiving emergency department, as well as the stroke team, including neuroradiology; updates to the triage and same-day assessment of patients with transient ischemic attack; updates to blood pressure recommendations for the hyperacute phase of care for ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The goal of these recommendations and supporting materials is to improve efficiencies and minimize the absolute time lapse between stroke symptom onset and reperfusion therapy, which in turn leads to better outcomes and potentially shorter recovery times.

Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians position statement on acute ischemic stroke.

The CAEP Stroke Practice Committee was convened in the spring of 2013 to revisit the 2001 policy statement on the use of thrombolytic therapy in acute ischemic stroke. The terms of reference of the panel were developed to include national representation from urban academic centres as well as community and rural centres from all regions of the country. Membership was determined by attracting recognized stroke leaders from across the country who agreed to volunteer their time towards the development of revised guidance on the topic. The guideline panel elected to adopt the GRADE language to communicate guidance after review of existing systematic reviews and international clinical practice guidelines. Stroke neurologists from across Canada were engaged to work alongside panel members to develop guidance as a dyad-based consensus when possible. There was no unique systematic review performed to support this guidance, rather existing efficacy data was relied upon. After a series of teleconferences and face to face meetings, a draft guideline was developed and presented to the CAEP board in June of 2014. The panel noted the development of significant new evidence to inform a number of clinical questions related to acute stroke management. In general terms the recommendations issued by the CAEP Stroke Practice Committee are supportive of the use of thrombolytic therapy when treatment can be administered within 3 hours of symptom onset. The committee is also supportive of system-level changes including pre-hospital interventions, the transport of patients to dedicated stroke centers when possible and tele-health measures to support thrombolytic therapy in a timely window. Of note, after careful deliberation, the panel elected to issue a conditional recommendation against the use of thrombolytic therapy in the 3­4.5 hour window. The view of the committee was that as a result of a narrow risk benefit balance, one that is considerably narrower than the same considerations under 3 hours, a significant number of informed patients and families would opt against the risk of early intracranial hemorrhage and the possibility of increased 90-day mortality that is not seen for more timely treatment. Furthermore, the frequently impaired nature of patients suffering an acute stroke and the difficulties in asking families to make life and death decisions in a highly time-sensitive context led the panel to restrict a strong endorsement of thrombolytic to the 3 hour outermost limit. The committee noted as well that Health Canada has not approved a thrombolytic agent beyond a three hour window in acute ischemic stroke.

Regional assessment of herbicide sorption and degradation in two sampling years.

Sorption and degradation of the herbicide 2,4-D [2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid] were determined for 123 surface soils (0 to 15 cm) collected in 2002 and in 2004 between 49 degrees to 60 degrees north longitude and 110 degrees to 120 degrees west latitude in Alberta, Canada. The soils were characterized by soil organic carbon content (SOC), pH, electrical conductivity, soil texture, cation exchange capacity, carbonate content, and total soil microbial activity. The 2,4-D sorption coefficients, Kd and Koc, were highly variable with coefficients of variation of 89 and 59%, respectively, at the provincial scale. Both Kd and Koc were well described by regression models with SOC and soil pH as variables, regardless of scale. Surprisingly, variations in 2,4-D mineralization were much smaller than variations in sorption. Variability in total 2,4-D mineralization was particularly low, with a coefficient of variation of only 7% at the provincial scale. Average 2,4-D half-lives in ecoregions ranged from 1.7 to 3.5 d, much lower than the field dissipation half-life of 10 d reported for 2,4-D in general pesticide property databases. Regression models describing degradation parameters were generally poor or not significant because 2,4-D mineralization was only weakly associated with measured 2,4-D sorption parameters and soil properties. As such, regional variations in herbicide sorption coefficients should be measured or calculated based on soil properties, to assign distinct pesticide fate model input parameters when estimating 2,4-D off-site transport at the provincial scale. Spatial variations in herbicide degradation appear less important for Alberta as 2,4-D half-lives were similar in soils across the province. The rapid mineralization of 2,4-D is noteworthy because 2,4-D is widely used in Alberta and perhaps adaptation of soil microbial communities allowed for accelerated degradation regardless of soil properties or the extent of 2,4-D sorption by soil.