Empowering Primary Care Through Evidence

PEER is a primary care led evidence based medicine team focused on providing relevant evidence to family physicians and primary care providers.

Evidence Pertaining to a Healthy Primary Care Workforce

PEER reports on the recent changes and summarizes evidence pertaining to the importance of the primary care workforce.

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Most Recent Tools for Practice

Tools for Practice #256 – Hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin for COVID-19

Is hydroxychloroquine (with or without azithromycin) effective in treating COVID-19?

Bottom Line: One nonrandomized study found that more hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin patients tested negative for virus at days 3 and 6 but clinical outcomes were not reported. One unblinded randomized trial showed no effect from hydroxychloroquine on viral or clinical outcomes. Without further evidence, hydroxychloroquine is not appropriate for patients with COVID-19 in primary care.  Read More

30 March 2020

Tools for Practice #255 – Exercise for osteoarthritis pain: how strong is the evidence?

Is exercise effective for pain management in hip/knee osteoarthritis?

Bottom Line: In adults with knee or hip osteoarthritis, exercise can lead to ~30% pain improvement for 47% of patients versus 21% with no exercise at 6-104 weeks, benefiting one additional person for every 4 treated. The type of exercise does not significantly affect the results, however most included trials utilized physiotherapy. Read More

16 March 2020

Tools for Practice #254 – Should family physicians add “physical activity” to their prescription pads?

Do simple physical activity prescriptions increase physical activity levels?

Bottom Line: Physical activity prescriptions, combined with patientspecific goals and monitoring, may increase physical activity levels by up to ~1200 steps/day at ~1 year, with an additional 1 person becoming active for every 10 prescribed activity compared to general advice alone. Read More

2 March 2020

Tools for Practice #253 – Pharmacologic management of alcohol use disorder: worth a shot?

Which Health Canada approved pharmacologic treatments are effective for alcohol use disorder?

Bottom Line: Both acamprosate and naltrexone demonstrate benefit for abstinence from alcohol when compared to placebo. For every 12 patients treated with acamprosate, and every 20 patients treated with naltrexone, one fewer patient will return to drinking compared to placebo after 12-52 weeks. If harm reduction is the goal, naltrexone can reduce return to heavy drinking for one out of every 13 patients. Read More

18 February 2020

Tools for Practice #252 – Electronic Cigarettes – Hoot that helps, hurts, or just hype?

Do electronic cigarettes help smokers quit smoking?

Bottom Line: Compared to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or placebo electronic cigarettes, two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) demonstrate that nicotine electronic cigarettes (NEC) aid in smoking cessation [number needed to treat (NNT)=13, 15]. Two other RCTs found no difference in cessation rates. Serious lung disease and deaths have been reported with electronic cigarettes (e-cigarette) use. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and vitamin E acetate containing e-cigarettes should be avoided. Read More

4 February 2020

PEER Values

When creating primary care education and programs, the PEER team focuses on minimizing bias, patient orientated outcomes, shared decision making, collaboration and most importantly simplicity.

Who is PEER?

Patients, Experience, Evidence and Research (PEER) was formed between a group of primary care providers who shared a common belief that evidence should be made accessible to all primary care providers.

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