The number of new health technologies – medications, medical devices, procedures, and diagnostic tests – that become available each year in Canada is staggering. At the same time, new evidence on existing health technologies is constantly emerging. It is next to impossible for busy health care providers to stay abreast of all the new evidence and developments in diagnosing, treating, and managing their patients’ care.
That’s why having quick access to reliable evidence and information to use in practice is so important and why organizations such as #CADTH – the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health – are here to help. CADTH is an independent health technology assessment (HTA) agency offering synthesized and critically appraised evidence on drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, and procedures that is both reliable and timely. Our HTA work provides the evidence piece to the many decision-making puzzles faced by health care providers in their daily practice. Our evidence, together with a health care providers’ clinical experience, clinical judgment, and knowledge of their patients and the local context they live in can result in better outcomes for patients and the Canadian health care system.
And there are many ways that health care providers can access our evidence to use in clinical practice. Our website provides free access to all our reports, recommendations, and practice tools. And each month in Hospital News we feature evidence from one or a few of our recent reports in our Evidence Matters column.
But often busy clinicians have only a minute or two to spare. Is that enough time for you to find new evidence to use in clinical practice? CADTH and #CMAJ think it is – and it’s as simple as a true-or-false quiz.
On the homepage of CMAJ, a new, peer-reviewed true-or-false quiz based on a recent CADTH report is regularly featured. These quizzes bust clinical myths and provide evidence-based information on new or controversial topics. And they are very simple to use. After reading the short statement about a practice-relevant topic, you can vote on whether you believe the statement to be true or false. You can see how your answer compares with others who have voted – with the percentages of true and false votes. You can then “check your answer” and learn why the statement was true or false with a brief explanation. The original CADTH report on which the quiz is based is can always be accessed by the provided link.
Some popular topics for the quizzes have included: sexually transmitted infection testing in young women, self-monitoring of blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes, probiotics for the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, ASA and oral anticoagulants for stroke prevention, treatments for obstructive sleep apnea; and treatments for constipation.
Since CMAJ launched the true-or-false quizzes in March 2013, they have been accessed by thousands of health care providers. And depending on the topic, the percentage of correct answers can vary widely – from 85 per cent who correctly identified that all sexually active women under the age of 25 should be screened for chlamydia, to less than 30 per cent who correctly answered quiz questions on monitoring of blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes.
True or false? Is there fast, fun, and free #CME available to health care providers in Canada? The answer is true. Knowing the latest evidence can help with making important decisions in Canadian health care. Why not grab your smartphone, tablet, or laptop and take a few moments to test your knowledge with the CMAJ true-or-false quizzes from CADTH at www.cmaj.ca And if you have more than a minute or two, the archives of the CMAJ true-or-false quizzes are available at www.cmaj.ca/site/misc/poll_archives.xhtml, and offer over 30 quizzes from CADTH, as well as quizzes from Choosing Wisely Canada and the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (CTFPHC).
If you would like to learn more about CADTH and the evidence it has to offer to help guide health care decisions in Canada, please visit www.cadth.ca, follow us on Twitter: @CADTH_ACMTS, or talk to our Liaison Officer in your region: www.cadth.ca/contact-us/liaison-officers.