If you’re looking for more information about the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, here are a few resources to check out:

Psychological Impact of COVID-19, Resilience & Self Care

• Psychology works for COVID-19. Psychologists giving back to front line service providers. – Canadian Psychological Association  listing of psychologists who have volunteered to provide psychological services to front line health care providers.
• ABC123 Psychological First Aid Tool
• Moral distress and COVID-19: how to recognize and cope with it podcast
• Psychological PPE during COVID -19 webinar
• This is a Marathon – Not A Sprint: Strategies to Address Wear & Tear in Helping Professionals during COVID-19

Government Agencies

• The CDC:2019 Novel Coronavirus
• Public Health Agency of Canada: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Outreach update Provides the status of COVID-19 in Canada and the current level of risk for Canadians.
• Government of Canada, Travel Advice
• Manitoba Health: coronavirus  Details the state of the coronavirus disease in Manitoba.
• World Health Organization (WHO) The WHO information page about COVID-19

Research Collections &  Reading Lists by Publisher

• Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service
• ECRI COVID-19 Resource Center
• LitCovid (NIH)
• WHO Global research on coronavirus disease
• Cochrane Library COVID -19 Special Collections ** starting March 23, 2020, the entire Cochrane Library will be available without subscription for a limited time.
• Working During a Pandemic – HR Resources newsletter 13(6) (Longwoods)
• New England Journal of Medicine Topic Page
• JAMA Network Topic Page
• Clarivate Analytics (publishers of Web of Science) Topic Page
• Wolters Kluwer Topic Page
• Karger Topic Page
• Taylor & Francis Topic Page
• Emerald Publishing Topic page

Additional resources that may be of interest:

• Manitoba COVID-19 Report

A weekly report by University of Manitoba medical residents and students to answer clinically relevant questions by summarizing the most recent evidence

• Dynamed (Point of Care Reference Tool) Topic Page

Dynamed is a point of care tool for clinicians, similar to UpToDate.

•   National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases podcast

To support public health knowledge translation during the current outbreak of 2019 Novel Coronavirus, NCCID is releasing a Q+A podcast series for public health professionals and health care practitioners in Canada.

• Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): For Beginners to Experts

Provides information for the public and health professionals, including links to significant sources of information on COVID-19.

• The Latest News (Canadian)

Read news coverage related to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus from across Canada.

It’s May! The weather is getting warmer and we’ve pulled together a list of resources to check out as we look forward to summer.

Bike safety

The Manitoba Cycling Association website features three videos that cover important safety information, such as how a helmet should fit and the keys to sudden stops and turns (Scroll to the bottom of the page to view the videos).

Gardening Safety

“Don’t let the dirt hurt!” from University of Arkansas Research and Extension illustrates several stretches to do before, during, and after gardening to reduce tightness and stiffness.

Gardening Safety is an infographic from the American Society for Surgery of the Hand that coves overall garden safety.

Ticks

The Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living website includes information about Tick-Bourne Diseases in Manitoba and in general.

Water Recreation

Canadian Red Cross Swimming, Boating and Water Safety Tips cover a variety of topics from recreational water toys to hypothermia and cold water.

Guidelines for Canadian Recreational Water Quality, Third Edition from Health Canada “[…] provides guidance on the factors that can interfere with the safety of recreational waters from a human health perspective”.

Sun Safety

HealthLinkBC patient information sheets about sun safety for children and heat related illness are available in English, Chinese, Farsi, French, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Melanoma and Other Skin Cancers: A guide for medical practitioners from SunSmart (Australia) summarizes Australian clinical practice guidance relating to Melanoma and Non-melanoma skin cancer.

Resource Library from Sun Safety at Work provides a variety of resources for workplace sun safety programs. Fact sheets, sample policies, legal requirements in different provinces, templates, and posters are available for various aspects of sun safety.

Seasonal Allergies

Treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis: An evidence-based focused 2017 guideline update aims to “[…]  highlight several quality improvement opportunities for clinicians in the care of AR and reduce unnecessary cost and variations in care.”

Food is important to everyone, and in March we celebrate Nutrition Month. Check out the following nutrition resources aimed at patients and health professionals.

1. Nutrition Fact Sheet Generator

The Factsheet Generator from Healthlink BC allows you to generate patient information sheets using evidence-based key messages and supporting messages about healthy weight, feeding babies & toddlers, sodium, and sugary drinks.

2. What’s the best diet? Healthy Eating 101 (recorded 2015)

A video from Dr. Mike Evans, St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto)

3. 8 steps to mindful eating. Harvard Women’s Health Watch. 2016.

A brief article about what mindful eating is and how to adopt the practice.

4. Canada’s Dietary Guidelines for Health Professionals and Policy Makers. 2019. Health Canada.

Information about Health Canada’s new dietary recommendations, aimed at health professionals and policy makers.

5. New guidelines for the introduction of peanuts to babies: What do they mean?

Recorded webinars from Food Allergy Canada for parents and health professionals.

6. Improving Cooking and Food Preparation Skills: A Profile of Promising Practices in Canada and Abroad. 2010. Health Canada.

“This report profiles case studies of 13 Canadian and two international promising or successful programs which aim to improve cooking and food preparation skills among children and/or families”

7. Integrated Nutrition Pathway for Acute Care (INPAC) Implementation Toolkit: Guidance on the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of improving hospital nutrition care. 2017.

“This toolkit provides an overview of the ‘what’ and ‘how’ for making changes to improve nutrition care practices in your hospital.”

8. Position of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior: The Importance of Including Environmental Sustainability in Dietary Guidance. Rose, Donald et al. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , 3 – 15.e1

“After a brief description of current environmental problems, the article discusses the challenges faced in meeting future food needs and the recent science behind assessing the environmental impacts of foods and diets. A subsequent section discusses sustainability and dietary guidance in [the United States and other countries] and some specific recommendations for dietary guidance and research”.

9. Critical Analysis of Popular Diets and Dietary Supplements. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Open Courseware. Course Number: 222.656.01

“The aim of the course is to acquire the knowledge to critically appraise a weight control diet or dietary supplement and choose the best plan for success, both in the short-term and the long run.”

10. Food and Nutrition Policy. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Open Courseware. Course Number: 222.657.01

“The purpose of this course is to familiarize and engage the student in the steps and dynamics of policy making processes that address nutrition problems and issues.”

February was heart month and we wanted to reflect on all the great heart resources that can be used throughout the year!

1. Canada’s Heart and Stroke 2019 Report, (Dis)connected: how unseen links are putting us at risk.

This new report reveals new research showing the complex links between heart conditions, stroke, and vascular cognitive impairment.  It reveals how “cognitive function is much more closely connected to heart function than previously understood.  The impact of these multiple conditions on the already overloaded health system, and on people’s lives, is profound.”

2. C-CHANGE, Canadian Guideline for the Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease in Primary Care, 2018 Update

The goal of the Canadian Cardiovascular Harmonized National Guidelines Endeavour (C-CHANGE) is for all Canadian health care practitioners to have easy access to a comprehensive and usable set of harmonized guidelines.

3. Cardiovascular System Clinical Guidelines

British Columbia Health has nine clinical practice guidelines for health professionals on topic such as primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, ambulatory ECG monitoring, atrial fibrillation, stroke, hypertension, and warfarin therapy.

4. Choosing Wisely Canada, Cardiology, Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question

We know you’re aware of Canada’s Choosing Wisely initiative, but it’s always a good time to review the recommendations.  Specific to Cardiology, Choosing Wisely Canada recommends:

1. Don’t perform stress cardiac imaging or advanced non-invasive imaging in the initial evaluation of patients without cardiac symptoms unless high-risk markers are present.
2. Don’t perform annual stress cardiac imaging or advanced non-invasive imaging as part of routine follow-up in asymptomatic patients.
3. Don’t perform stress cardiac imaging or advanced non-invasive imaging as a pre-operative assessment in patients scheduled to undergo low-risk non-cardiac surgery.
4. Don’t perform echocardiography as routine follow-up for mild, asymptomatic native valve disease in adult patients with no change in signs or symptoms.
5. Don’t order annual electrocardiograms (ECGs) for low-risk patients without symptoms.

5. Million Hearts

Million Hearts 2022 is an initiative in the United States to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in five years.  This initiative features many resources for providers, as well as for patients.

6. Social Media Hasthags

Throughout #HeartMonth there were many trending hashtags across social media, some featured general heart health, such as #HeartMonth, #HeartandStroke and #HeartDisease, while others focused on specific heart health days, such as #ValveDiseaseDay (February 22) and #WearRedCanada (February 13).  Women’s heart health had specific hashtags including #HerHeartMatters and #FightTheLadyKiller.

These are great to follow in real time, but are also informative to follow retrospectively to identify new resources and infographics, and as you plan your heart health intitiatives.

Resources for Patients

We know that healthcare providers are always looking for evidence based, high quality, easy to access resources to recommend to patients – and to use themselves!

7. Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation, Get Healthy

With sections on healthy eating, healthy weight, reducing stress, staying active, recipes, and more – these resources aren’t just to ensure a healthy heart, but can be recommended for any patients looking to embrace a more healthful lifestyle.

8. Make the Call, Don’t Miss a Beat

Health providers know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women. This American campaign empowers women and their families to learn the seven most common signs of a heart attack and to call 911 as soon as symptoms arise.

Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation also has lost of easy to understand images and resources on heart disease and signs of a heart attack, as well as resources specific to women and heart disease.

9. Participation: Everything gets better when you get active!

With an emphasis on living better, not just weight loss, this resource has engaging graphics and easy to read resources on motivation, goal setting, obstacle, sleeping better, forming good habit, and much more.

10. Heart Matters Magazine

A publication of the British Heart Foundation, this magazine features heart healthy information on wellbeing, activity, nutrition, and research.

Happy New Year everyone! Health and wellness tends to be a big topic every January, so we’ve put together a list of 10 health and wellness apps that caught our eye. Read the detailed descriptions in the Apple App Store (for iOS devices) or Google Play store (for Android devices) to determine if these apps might be of interest to you.

November is diabetes month, so we’ve pulled together a list of 10 resources related to diabetes for you to check out!

1. Multilingual Diabetes Fact Sheets for Patients

The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care website has a variety of patient information handouts written in English, French, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Cree, Hindi, Ojibway, Ojicree, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.

2. The Long Story Short: Optimizing choice and Use of Insulin Needles

This patient information infographic from RXfiles features best practices for insulin injection.

3. National Aboriginal Diabetes Association

The National Aboriginal Diabetes Association website includes information about diabetes, and services and programs of particular interest to indigenous people who have diabetes.

4. Ramadan and Diabetes

Diabetes Canada provides recommendations for health professionals regarding diabetes management during Ramadan fasting.

5. UK Diabetes Diet Questionnaire (UKDQ)

The UK Diabetes and Diet Questionnaire (UKDDQ) is a validated tool to help assess patients’ food consumption and meal patterns. It takes roughly 10 minutes to complete and can be self-scored. The UKDDQ is copyright to the University of Bristol, licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution NonCommercial No Derivatives Licence.

6. Webinar – Engaging the Disengaged Patient. NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 2015.

Webinar description: Chronically problematic self-management is one of the major contributors to poor metabolic outcomes in diabetes. Patients are often unable or unwilling to take medications regularly, follow a diabetes-friendly style of eating, exercise regularly, check blood glucose levels as prescribed and/or return for regular appointments. This is rarely due to a lack of motivation; indeed, almost everyone would prefer to live a long and healthy life. Given the limited time available for clinical consultations, what can the busy health care professional do to help patients address difficult obstacles such as diabetes distress, depression, and behavior change? During this webinar, William Polonsky, PhD, CDE, President and Founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute, shares research findings concerning poor motivation in diabetes care, describes techniques for assessing key contributors to patient disengagement, and presents practical methods for overcoming patient disengagement in diabetes clinical practice.

7. Behavioral Diabetes Institute

The Behavioral Diabetes Institute is a non-profit organization that focuses on addressing the social, emotional, and psychological barriers to living a long and healthy life with diabetes. Their site includes a variety of resources for health professionals, patients and their families. Examples of free professional resources include assessment scales for measuring patients’ diabetes distress, video presentations about effectively communicating with patients, and a video CME series entitled “Critical Psychosocial Issues in Diabetes”.

8.  Best Practice Recommendations for the Prevention and Management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers. 2018. Canadian Association of Wound Care.

This paper outlines the Wound Prevention and Management Cycle, which can be used for developing a customized patient plan for the prevention and management of wounds.

9. Chronic Kidney Disease Nutrition Management Training Program. NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

The National Kidney Disease Education Program “has developed Chronic Kidney Disease Nutrition Management, a series of five training modules that use engaging activities and case studies to prepare registered dietitians (RDs) for counseling patients who have chronic kidney disease (CKD). Each module focuses on a specific area of nutrition management for kidney disease patients, including background information on CKD, slowing the progression of CKD, CKD complications, the CKD “diet,” and the transition from CKD to kidney failure. The modules also demonstrate how NKDEP’s free resources can be used to counsel patients with CKD.”

10.  Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) Evidence Bundle: Evidence on Diabetes Management

CADTH offers a variety of information products relating to diabetes management including: in-depth systematic reviews, recommendation reports, and implementation tools geared to translating research into action.

October is a month of many special events, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Health Literacy Month, Occupational Therapy Month, Canadian Library Month, plus many more weeks and days.  It was hard to choose just one to focus on!

1. Canadian Patient Safety Week

Canadian Patient Safety Week #AskListenTalk runs October 29 to November 2, 2018.  This year’s focus is on medication safety, with the theme Not All Meds Get Along, prompting patients and healthcare professionals to seek medication reviews for at-risk populations.

A plethora of free resources are available, including a podcast series, documentaries and videos, communications toolkit, quizzes, and more.

2. Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety – Canadian Patient Safety Week

The Manitoba Institute for Patient Safety features Manitoba-specific resources, with a focus on It’s Safe To Ask which encourages patients and healthcare providers to ask and discuss three key questions.

3. Twitter for Health Care Professionals

Are you unsure what all the phrases with # are for?  This easy-to-use guide provides an overview of using Twitter in healthcare and outlines an 8-step guide to get you started and so you can follow Canadian Patient Safety Week activities #AskListenTalk!

4. 5 Questions to Ask about Your Medications

These five questions can help patients and caregivers start a conversation about medications to improve communications with their health care provider.

5. Clear: A Call for Less Antipsychotics in Residential Care

This BC Patient Safety and Quality Council initiative supports long-term care homes to reduce the number of their residents who are prescribed antipsychotic medications.

6. Abbreviations

The Health Quality Council of Alberta created this toolkit to stop the use of abbreviations in healthcare.  Abbreviations are unsafe because they are not universally understood, but their use is currently widespread in healthcare.

7. Hospital Harm Improvement Resource

The Canadian Institute for Health Information analyzed its data on preventable harm that occurs in Canadian acute care hospitals.  The Canadian Patient Safety Institute then created evidence-based interventions to reduce those harmful incidents.

8. Canadian Deprescribing Network: Deprescribing Algorithms

Decisions around deprescribing can be very difficult.  Researchers from the Bruyère Research Institute and the Ontario Pharmacy Research Collaboration developed evidence-based guidelines for deprescribing.  Each guideline is summarized in an easy-to-use algorithm and information brochure. These algorithms can help health care professionals safely stop or reduce medications for specific drug classes.

9. The Opioid Crisis: City-Based Solutions

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities Big-City Mayors’ Caucus created comprehensive recommendations for coordinated, Canada-wide action by all levels of government.  This includes action on all four pillars of Canada’s drug strategy: harm reduction, treatment, prevention and enforcement.

10. “Caption This” Comic Challenge

To finish on a fun and light note, as part of Canadian Patient Safety Week, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute is holding a contest to create the best caption for the Not All Meds Get Along image.  The only rule is that it must be clean and family friendly.  The deadline to enter is noon MT on November 2, 2018.  Good luck!

In anticipation of the legalization of cannabis in Canada next month, we’ve pulled together 10 useful resources to check out.

1 Cannabis in Canada – Get the Facts

Health Canada’s general website about cannabis in Canada addresses a variety of health and legal aspects of cannabis.

2  Marijuana pediatric exposure prevention guidance. Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment.

Evidence-based clinical resources documents for Colorado health care providers to talk with parents of children and youth (ages 0-20) and to talk directly to adolescents (ages 9-20) about marijuana use and exposure. 

3  “Parents: Help your teen understand what’s fact and fiction about marijuana”

This poster from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction addresses some common myths about cannabis use.

4 Cannabis in Canada: Implications for nursing in a changing legal and health-care landscape

This webinar was presented as part of the Canadian Nurses Association Progress in Practice Webinar Series, 2017.

5 Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test -Revised (CUDIT-R).

This assessment scale is in the public domain and is free to use with appropriate citation:

Adamson SJ, Kay-Lambkin FJ, Baker AL, Lewin TJ, Thornton L, Kelly BJ, and Sellman JD. (2010). An Improved Brief Measure of Cannabis Misuse: The Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test – Revised (CUDIT-R). Drug and Alcohol Dependence 110:137-143.

6  Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) Evidence Bundle for Medical Cannabis.

Browse CADTH evidence on Medical Cannabis relating to Pain Treatment, Safety, and Cannabis use for specific conditions and populations.

7  Cannabinoid Drug Comparison Chart RX Files. June 2017.

 This useful drug comparison chart from the RX Files Academic Detailing Program is packed with information about cannabinoids for medicinal use.

8 Cannabis for Medical Purposes Evidence Guide: Information for Pharmacists and Other Health Care Professionals. Canadian Pharmacists Association. 2018.

This evidence guide was prepared to provide pharmacists and other health care providers with a curated summary of the best available evidence of the use of medical cannabis and cannabinoids for a variety of indications, including pain, multiple sclerosis (MS), chemotherapy-induced nausea/vomiting (CINV), and epilepsy.

9 Clearing the Haze: The Impacts of Marijuana in the Workplace. Human Resources Professionals Association. Toronto, Ontario. [no date].

The HRPA has developed this white paper to help employers and the government understand the challenges ahead. This paper explores four key areas: 1. Safety in the workplace 2. Employers’ duty to accommodate users of medical cannabis 3. Drug plans 4. Drug testing.

10 Growing at Home: Health and Safety Concerns for Personal Cannabis Cultivation. National Collaborative Centre for Environmental Health, 2018.

This evidence review identifies health and safety concerns that may be relevant to personal cultivation after cannabis legalization.

There’s a lot of information out there about cannabis! The MHIKNET literature search service is available to staff of Manitoba Health, Seniors and Active Living, staff of participating Health Regions, and fee-for-service physicians in Manitoba. If you need a customized literature search conducted on this or any other topic, fill out our MHIKNET literature search request form to make a request.

At the June inter-professional Continuing Professional Development program, MHIKNET Library Services is displaying books from the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library on Endocrinology.  Titles include:

• Ahmad, S.I. (2012). Diabetes an old disease, a new insight. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Camacho, P. (2011). A color handbook of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. London: Manson Pub.
• Graham, K. (2012). Diabetes meals for good health: Includes complete meal plans and 100 recipes. Toronto: R. Rose.
• Gretcher, B. (2015). The first year – Type 2 diabetes: An essential guide for the newly diagnosed. Boston, MA: Da Capo Lifelong Books.
• Heidelbaugh, J.J. (2014). Type II diabetes mellitus: a multidisciplinary approach. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Elsevier.
• Macut, D. (2013). Polycystic ovary syndrome: novel insights into causes and therapy. New York: Karger.

Contact us to borrow these (or other) books at mhiknet@umanitoba.ca or 1-877-789-3804.

In addition, MHIKNET has compiled a list of independent learning resources on Endocrinology. This list includes links to available articles, guidelines, and web resources.