Public record of meeting, 26 October 2020

 

Meeting of 26 October, 2020–27 October, 2020

PDF Version

Virtual Meeting

 

PRESENT

Task Force Members

  • Brett Thombs (Chair)
  • Ainsley Moore (Vice-Chair)
  • Brenda Wilson
  • Scott Klarenbach
  • Guylène Thériault
  • Eddy Lang
  • John LeBlanc
  • John Riva
  • Navindra Persaud
  • Heather Colquhoun
  • Ahmed Abou-Setta
  • Roland Grad
  • Christina Korownyk
  • Donna Reynolds
  • Henry Siu

 

Task Force Administrators

  • Daniela Cortinovis
  • Julia Nordlund

 

PHAC

  • Elizabeth Rolland-Harris
  • Heather Limburg
  • Allana Leblanc
  • Melissa Subnath
  • Laure Tessier
  • Gregory Traversy
  • Marc Avey
  • Kate Morissette
  • Kristen Simkus
  • Yina Shan

JGH

  • Daniela Cortinovis
  • Julia Nordlund

ERSC

  • Julian Little
  • David Moher
  • Jennifer Pillay
  • Lisa Hartling
  • Andrew Beck
  • Melissa Brouwers
  • Michelle Gate
  • Allison Gates
  • Nicole Shaver

 

Interns

  • Amanda Tzenov
  • Pascale Breault
  • Anthony Train
  • Richard Henry

 

Task Force Alumni

  • Stéphane Groulx

 

Knowledge Translation

  • Sharon Straus
  • Robyn Beckett
  • Dave Flaherty
  • Kyle Silveira
  • Arthana Chandraraj
  • Clara Narcisse-Merveille
  • Christine Fahim

 

Communications

  • Kim Barnhardt
  • Chelsee Cure

 

Clinical Experts (Guests)

  • Bill Leslie
  • Greg Kline

 

Regrets: Rachel Rodin (PHAC)

 

MINUTES

Day 1

1. Welcome and Introductions

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Task Force held its October 2020 meeting online via videoconference. Dr. Thombs opened the meeting by introducing the new Task Force member Dr. Henry Siu, and the new Task Force interns: Dr. Pascale Breault, Dr. Anthony Train and Dr. Richard Henry. Dr. Thombs also introduced new staff members for the Ottawa Evidence Review and Synthesis Centre and for the Science Team at the Public Health Agency of Canada: Ms. Nicole Shaver (Ottawa ERSC), Ms. Dria Bennett (Ottawa ERSC), Ms. Kristen Simkus (Science Team) and Ms. Yina Shan (Science Team).

Dr. Thombs provided some brief updates on Task Force activities. Since the June 2020 virtual meeting, the Esophageal Adenocarcinoma screening guideline was published in CMAJ in July 2020 and received a perfect rating from ECRI (Emergency Care Research Institute, score = 60/60). The Chlamydia and Gonorrhea screening guideline was submitted to CMAJ in August 2020.

Dr. Thombs provided some brief guidelines on the proceedings of this virtual meeting and informed the group of slight alterations to the meeting agenda. Dr. Thombs also congratulated Dr. Riva for recently completing his PhD and for publishing his thesis in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

 

2. KT Update

Ms. Beckett, Mr. Silveira and Ms. Merveille from the Knowledge Translation (KT) team provided updates on recent KT activities and initiatives. This update included information on recently published and upcoming guidelines, new and upcoming KT tools, dissemination activities, Task Force projects involving KT and the Task Force Public Advisors Network (TF-PAN) initiative.

 

3. Pregnancy and Postpartum Depression

Dr. Lang presented updates on the depression (pregnancy/ postpartum) guideline and sought feedback from the Task Force on the key message to the public to be included in this guideline.

 

4. Prostate Cancer

Dr. Grad and Dr. Leblanc provided updates on the work done by the Prostate Cancer Working Group and sought Task Force approval of the final Key Questions and outcomes.

 

5. Topics Working Group Update

Dr. Moore presented the update from the Topics Working Group including a review of the prioritized guideline topics and a review of the guideline update process. The Task Force also discussed the timeline for the colorectal cancer guideline update.

 

6. Communication Update

Ms. Barnhardt and Ms. Curé presented an update on the recent work of the Communications team and their ongoing initiatives.

 

Day Two
7. Fragility Fractures

Ms. Pillay and Ms. Gates presented on the recent work done by the Alberta Evidence Review Synthesis Centre (ERSC) for the Fragility Fractures guideline. They provided a recap of the findings from the completed Key Questions 1- 4. They also presented the GRADE assessments for Key Question 3b (harms of pharmacological treatments).

 

8. Review of Task Force Policies and Procedures

Dr. Rolland-Harris presented brief review of Task Force policies and procedures.

 

9. Guideline Updates

The guideline Working Group Chairs provided brief updates for each guideline.

 

10. PODC Meeting

Dr. Lang presented on the 2021 Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference to be held in Calgary, AB (dates TBC). Task Force members discussed opportunities to present Task Force work at this conference, as well as other collaboration opportunities.

 

11. Next Steps and Adjournment

Dr. Thombs thanked everyone for attending and for their hard work. He announced that the next Task Force meeting will take place online again, on February 8-9, 2021. The Task Force Office will be distributing a survey to the Task Force to select meeting dates in 2021/2022. The October 2020 virtual meeting was adjourned.