The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (CTFPHC) is composed of 15 experts who develop recommendations for clinical preventive services delivered by Canadian primary care practitioners. The CTFPHC is responsible for prioritizing the topics that will be reviewed and works with the Prevention Guidelines Division of the Public Health Agency of Canada to define the analytic framework and scope of each topic. In the preparation of evidence reviews and the development of recommendations for each topic, the CTFPHC collaborates with the Evidence Review and Synthesis Centre and the Prevention Guidelines Division.
The CTFPHC also leads knowledge translation and dissemination activities to promote guideline reach and uptake.
Message From the Chair
Greetings! In this issue, I am pleased to share information about a number of ongoing activities to help clinicians understand and implement CTFPHC guidelines. The CTFPHC is interested in engaging Canadian primary care practitioners in several of these activities. We’re especially excited about our new free CME activities — see below for more information.
I am also happy to announce that the CTFPHC will attend two upcoming conferences: the Canadian Association of Advanced Practice Nurses (CAAPN/ACIIPA) Biennial Conference (September 2015) and Family Medicine Forum (November 2015). We look forward to connecting with practitioners at these events.
As always, we appreciate your interest in the CTFPHC and we encourage you to stay up to date on our work by visiting our website at www.canadiantaskforce.ca.
Sincerely,
Marcello Tonelli, MD SM
Chair, CTFPHC
Continuing Medical Education (CME) e-Modules
The CTFPHC develops online CME modules to accompany some of its guidelines. These modules allow practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of the guideline recommendations, the evidence underlying the recommendations, strategies for implementing the recommendations, and differences between the CTFPHC guideline and guidelines developed by other groups.
The CTFPHC will soon release a CME module on its cervical cancer guideline. Stay tuned for more information.
GRADE Update
Since 2011, the CTFPHC has developed its guidelines using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) method. This is an internationally recognized method for evaluating systematic review evidence to develop clinical practice guidelines.
As part of its Knowledge Translation activities, the CTFPHC is conducting a project to identify the best ways to organize and present guideline recommendations and content to primary care practitioners in Canada. The purpose of this work is to make the CTFPHC’s recommendations easier for practitioners to interpret and apply in clinical practice. See future issues of our newsletter for updates on this project.
For more information on how the CTFPHC applies the GRADE method in its guideline development work, visit our methods page.
Upcoming Conferences
Attending key conferences is an important component of the CTFPHC’s strategy for ensuring that practitioners have direct access to our clinical practice guidelines, decision aids, and other key resources. The CTFPHC is scheduled to attend the following conferences in 2015:
- Canadian Association of Advanced Practice Nurses
(CAAPN/ACIIPA) Biennial Conference
Winnipeg, Manitoba
September 23-25, 2015
The CAAPN/ACIIPA biennial conference is hosted by the CAAPN/ACIIPA for advanced practice nurses. The CTFPHC will be holding a half-day workshop on the implementation of the child and adult obesity guidelines.
- Family Medicine Forum
Toronto, Ontario
November 11-14, 2015
The FMF is Canada’s premiere family medicine conference, hosted annually by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). The CTFPHC will be hosting a booth to distribute guideline tools and resources, answer questions, and connect with primary care practitioners and other key professionals who use the CTFPHC guidelines.
Opportunities for Engagement
Critical Appraisals
Family physicians, are you interested in appraising clinical practice guidelines for quality and applicability in clinical practice – and in receiving CME credits for your time? The CTFPHC may have an opportunity of interest for you. Read more below.
The CTFPHC is currently recruiting family physicians across Canada to help them appraise clinical practice guidelines developed by other organizations. In addition to developing its own guidelines, the CTFPHC critically appraises guidelines created by other organizations. Appraising clinical practice guidelines is important for identifying the quality of existing guidelines and their utility for a particular context. It also helps to reduce the duplication of efforts by guideline development groups.
The CTFPHC critical appraisals process provides a dynamic capacity-building opportunity for family physicians who are interested in learning more about the guideline critical appraisal process. Participants will receive training on the AGREE-II tool, appraise real clinical practice guidelines, and earn Mainpro credits. If you are interested in appraising guidelines with the CTFPHC or know a colleague who may be interested, please visit the CTFPHC website www.canadiantaskforce.ca or email the project assistant, Sabrina Jassemi, at jassemisa@smh.ca for more information and an application form.
Patient Engagement in Guideline Development
The CTFPHC now engages patients to provide input at up to two stages of its guideline development process: (1) when outcomes are selected for inclusion in the systematic review protocol that informs the guideline and (2) when the guideline recommendations are developed.
The CTFPHC uses feedback provided by patients to guide the search for evidence on the harms and benefits of preventive health care interventions and to develop knowledge translation tools to accompany the guidelines. Over the past few months, the CTFPHC engaged patients in Stage 1 for its hepatitis C screening guideline and in Stage 2 for its lung cancer screening guideline. In late 2015 and 2016, the CTFPHC plans to engage patients in Stage 2 for its guidelines on hepatitis C screening, abdominal aortic aneurysm screening, and tobacco prevention and cessation in children and adolescents. If you have ideas about ways in which we can connect with patients, please contact the project assistant, Sabrina Jassemi, at jassemisa@smh.ca.
Usability Testing of Practitioner Tools and Decision Aids
The CTFPHC produces practitioner tools and decisions aids to support each of its guidelines. To ensure that the content, layout, navigation, and aesthetics of these tools are appropriate and useful for practice, we conduct usability testing with practitioners. If you are interested in reviewing and providing feedback on one of our upcoming guideline tools, please email Sabrina Jassemi, Research Assistant, at jassemisa@smh.ca for more information.
Note that we offer $100 compensation for a one-hour telephone interview.
Annual Evaluation
The CTFPHC conducts an annual evaluation of its work to measure the impact of dissemination activities and the uptake of clinical practice guidelines, Knowledge Translation tools, and Knowledge Translation resources (e.g., website and mobile app). We invite practitioners to take part in the evaluation by either completing an online survey or participating in a one-hour telephone interview ($100 compensation). Recruitment for the annual evaluation begins in January 2016. For more information on how to get involved, email us at info@canadiantaskforce.ca with the subject line “Annual Evaluation 2016”.
Topic Suggestions
Is there a preventive health topic that you would like to see the CTFPHC develop a clinical practice guideline for? Let us know what you are passionate about! We accept topic suggestions on a rolling basis and would love to hear from you. To submit a suggestion, please email us at info@canadiantaskforce.ca with the subject line “Topic Suggestions”.
Guidelines in Progress
Forthcoming guidelines developed by the CTFPHC will focus on the following topics:
- Screening for cognitive impairment
- Screening for lung cancer
- Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm
- Tobacco prevention and cessation in children and adolescents
- Screening for colorectal cancer
- Screening for developmental delay
- Screening for hepatitis C