CMAJ Podcasts

Dr. Kirsten Patrick, deputy editor for CMAJ, interviews Dr. Corinne Hohl, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia and scientist at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation in Vancouver. Currently, Bill C-17 (Vanessa's Law) does not require health care providers to document serious adverse drug reactions, but mandates that health care institut...

Dr. Moneeza Walji, editorial fellow, interviews Dr. Amit Garg, nephrologist at London Health Sciences Centre and Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University. Dr. Garg and colleagues found that nitrofurantoin was less effective than other antibiotics for treatment of UTI in a large cohort of older women, regardless of the women’s estimated kidney function. Full article: https:...

Dr. Diane Kelsall, deputy editor, interviews Dr. Rob Whitley, Principal Investigator with the Douglas Institute in Montreal and Assistant Professor of psychiatry at McGill. In a commentary published in CMAJ, Whitley and colleagues discuss the steps needed to foster mental health “recovery”, which refers to the process whereby people with severe mental illness progress to live an autonomous, contri...

Dr. Diane Kelsall, deputy editor, interviews Dr. Jason Stull, veterinarian and Assistant Professor at Ohio State University. Dr. Stull has co-authored a review article published in CMAJ. The authors say that health care providers should counsel patients regarding safe pet ownership, particularly those who are pregnant or who have altered immunity, and families with exotic pets and very young child...

Dr. Moneeza Walji, editorial fellow, interviews Dr. Prabhat Jha, founding and current director of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto. In their commentary published in CMAJ, Dr. Jha and colleagues say that slowing tobacco sales in the next decade will depend on strengthening its implementation by increasing excise tax and improving anti-tobacco legislation. Published April 20, 2015, d...

Highlights from the April 21st issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. Diane Kelsall, deputy editor. In this issue: Canada can afford universal pharmacare, failure to address at-risk drinking, drinking water advisories, persistence of meningococcal immunity, heart failure and ejection fraction, pitted keratolysis. Full issue table of contents: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/187/7.tocTo request a transcript of...

Dr. Moneeza Walji, editorial fellow, interviews Dr. Angel Petropanagos, postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Some women who anticipate fertility decline due to the natural aging process may now choose to freeze their eggs to preserve their future fertility. Dr. Petropanagos discusses the benefits, risks, ethical concerns and societal implications of this practice to provide fami...

Highlights from the April 7th issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. John Fletcher, editor-in-chief. In this issue: reducing imaging for low-back pain, incidental findings of genetic mutations and whether or not Canadians want to know about them, fair pricing for old orphan drugs, childhood obesity guidelines, and more. Full issue table of contents: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/187/6.toc Comments or questi...

Dr. Diane Kelsall, deputy editor, interviews Dr. Xuyi Mimi Wang, fellow in geriatrics at McMaster University. In a review published in CMAJ, Dr. Wang and colleagues discuss the complex and common issue of elder abuse. Although evidence to support screening and any particular intervention is weak, physicians must be skilled in handling this important problem. Wang and colleagues discuss an advocacy...

Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, deputy editor for CMAJ, interviews Dr. Danielle Martin, family physician and VP of Medical Affairs and Health System Solutions at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Martin and colleagues say that implementing universal public coverage of prescription drugs in Canada would be estimated to reduce total spending by $7.2 billion while increasing government costs by on...

Dr. Diane Kelsall, deputy editor, interviews Dr. Patricia Parkin, pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children, professor with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. CMAJ recently published new recommendations from the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, where Dr. Parkin is chair of the child obesity working group. The Task Force recommends structured behavioural interventions...

Highlights from the March 17th issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. John Fletcher, editor-in-chief, and Dr. Domhnall MacAuley, associate editor. In this issue: how different duty schedules affect day-time sleepiness of residents, using the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) cognitive assessment tool for multicultural populations, who gets appropriate follow-up after visiting an emergen...

Interview with Paula Brauer, head of the adult obesity working group at the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. This latest guideline from the Task Force, published in CMAJ, focuses on the growing epidemic of obesity in adults, recommendations for prevention of weight gain and use of behavioural and pharmacologic interventions to manage overweight and obesity in adults in primary care....

Highlights from the March 3rd issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. Kirsten Patrick, deputy editor, and Dr. Domhnall MacAuley, associate editor. In this issue: seasonal variation of nocturnal leg cramps, concerns over the use of quinine to treat leg cramps, quality indicators of pharmacotherapy, dangers of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole co-prescribed with spironolactone, IV immunoglobulin as therapy, hum...

Interview with Dr. Sheryl Spithoff, addiction medicine specialist and family physician at Women's College Hospital in Toronto who co-authored a commentary published in CMAJ. Spithoff and Dr. Suzanne Turner say the Canadian health care system provides inadequate access to effective treatment for at-risk drinking and alcohol use disorders. However, improved physician training, combined with str...

Interview with Dr. Dennis Ko, interventional cardiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto and senior scientist with the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences. Dr. Ko and colleagues found that patients discharged after an emergency department visit for chest pain were less likely to be seen within 30 days by a primary care physician or cardiologist if they had known cardiac or c...

Highlights from the February 17th issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. Kirsten Patrick, deputy editor, and Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, deputy editor. In this issue: adverse outcomes among patients co-prescribed clarithromycin and statins, cost-effectiveness of screening for hepatitis C, sofosbuvir to treat hepatitis C, unsanctioned travel restrictions related to Ebola, caring for Aboriginal patients, lung-p...

Interview with Dr. Raza Naqvi, assistant professor of geriatrics at Western University. In their systematic review and meta-analysis published in CMAJ, Dr. Naqvi and colleagues found that the RUDAS, a brief and freely available tool, compares well with standard tools assessing cognitive deficits. It was developed for particular use among patients whose first language is not English, which makes it...

Interview with Dr. Christopher Parshuram, critical care specialist with the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He is the lead author of a randomized trial published in CMAJ looking at patient safety, resident well-being and continuity of care for three resident duty schedules in the ICU. Work schedules incorporating shorter periods of continuous duty affected neither doctors' daytime slee...

Interview with Dr. Thomas Maniatis, internal medicine training program director and clinical ethicist at McGill. Dr. Maniatis is the author of a commentary published in CMAJ. He argues that resident duty-hour reform must be further evaluated in order to design systems that provide maximal benefit and minimal harms for all involved. Full article: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2015/02/09/cmaj.150...

Highlights from the February 3rd issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. John Fletcher, editor-in-chief, and Dr. Ken Flegel, senior editor. In this issue: HPV vaccination and its effects on sexual behaviour in adolescent girls, and discovery of a founder mutation for congenital sucrase-isolmaltase deficiency in an Inuit community, CHEP recommendations on sodium intake, cancer and pre-cancer of the anus, t...

Interview with Dr. Scott Garrison, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta, and lead author of the prospective cohort study. This time-series analysis used data from BC for new quinine prescriptions, as well as search data from Google Trends. The authors found that nocturnal leg cramps display striking seasonal variability, with incidence highest in su...

Audio interview with Dr. David Hogan, geriatric medicine specialist at the University of Calgary. Quinine sulfate is widely used off label to treat nocturnal leg cramps in Canada. Although modestly effective for this indication, the drug has many potential moderate and severe adverse effects. Full article: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2015/01/26/cmaj.150044. First published January 26, 2015, d...

Highlights from the January 6th issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. John Fletcher, editor-in-chief, and Dr. Moneeza Walji, editorial fellow. In this issue: diversity of ethnic groups and socioeconomic barriers in medical education, testing for group A streptococcal infection in children, harms from amoxicillin, world region-specific birth-weight curves, drug interactions in HIV-infected patients, sync...

Highlights from the December 9th issue of CMAJ, presented by Dr. John Fletcher, editor-in-chief, and Dr. Diane Kelsall, deputy editor. In this issue: what matters to patients and their families in end-of-life discussions, ibuprofen versus morphine for post-fracture pain in children, how to engage in deprescribing meds, adverse health effects of solitary confinement, head-tilt chin-lift in CPR, pap...