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Create customized treatment plans for the whole patient using the Comorbidities Manager on the BMJ Best Practice App
04/24/2023
profile-icon Amanda Andrews
Physicians, Guidelines, Searching, Mobile Apps, Clinical Research, Point-of-Care Tools

The results are in: Nova Scotia Health staff and physicians are making great use of the BMJ Best Practice Comorbidities point-of-care tool!

Did you know you can access the same content, including the Comorbidities Manager, on the BMJ Best Practice app

BMJ Best Practice, including the Comorbidities Manager, is available 24/7 to support health care providers with making informed clinical decisions.

In the first 12 months after launching the BMJ Comorbidities Manager add-on at Nova Scotia Health:

  • Use of the BMJ Best Practice database increased by 150%
  • Views of the treatment management section increased by an average of 73%
  • 40% of the top ten most-used topics fall within the Comorbidities section

The BMJ Comorbidities Manager allows health care providers to treat the whole patient using a patient’s comorbidities to inform a more tailored treatment plan. This tool is integrated into BMJ Best Practice and is the only clinical decision support tool of its kind (BMJ Best Practice, 2023).

Usage statistics show that at Nova Scotia Health, sessions on the app have increased by 40% since 2021. Having access to the Comorbidities Manager on the go means you have access to clinical decision support anytime, anywhere!

BMJ Best Practice App Benefits

  • The ability to tailor treatment plans with the Comorbidities Manager
  • Access more than 1,000 conditions summaries offline. Clinical decision support is available on your mobile device even when you are not connected to your network and do not have access to the Internet
  • Access over 200 interactive medical calculators
  • Automatic tracking of your activity for CME/CPD purposes

BMJ Best Practice, 2023

How to Get the App

Downloading the app is quick and easy. It only uses minimal storage on your device. You must have a personal account in order to use the app. To create an account:

  1. Access BMJ Best Practice via the library’s Databases A-Z page.
  2. Create a BMJ Best Practice personal account through the pop-up box – “Create your FREE personal account in one step”.
  3. Download and install the app from the App Store or from Google Play.
  4. Select "Log in" and enter your BMJ Best Practice personal account details to sign in.

Visit Library Services’ Mobile Apps & Resources guide for more information.

Using the Comorbidities Manager on the app

Let’s look at how you could use the Comorbidities Manager in the following clinical scenario:

An 80-year-old man presents at the emergency department with acute exacerbation of COPD. You learn from his family that he also has depression and diabetes. You need to quickly decide how to best treat his acute condition while considering his pre-existing conditions.

Search for ‘acute exacerbation of COPD’ by typing it into the search bar (1). On the app, predictive text is enabled when searching for conditions.

Under Management (2) select Treatment algorithm (3).

 

A pop-up box will appear to add your patient’s comorbidities. Check the boxes for both Diabetes and Depression (4) and select Show Treatment Algorithm (5).

 

Options that are affected or added because of the patient’s comorbidities will be indicated by the Comorbidities icon  (6). Click on each treatment option for further details (7).

NOTE Not all conditions will include the ability to add comorbidities.

 

For more information about using the BMJ Best Practice Comorbidities Manager on the app or the desktop version, book a consultation with a library team member, or email us at AskLibrary@nshealth.ca.

References

1. BMJ Publishing Group Limited. (2023). Comorbidities: Treat the whole patient. BMJ Best Practice. https://bestpractice.bmj.com/info/comorbidities.

2. BMJ Publishing Group Limited.(2023). Free access to our award-winning app for BMJ Best Practice users. BMJ Best Practice. https://bestpractice.bmj.com/info/us/download-the-app/

Amanda Andrews

Librarian Educator, Education & Training Lead
Cape Breton Regional Hospital, Eastern Zone

Patient Education Pamphlets updated or created in March 2023
04/11/2023
profile-icon Kendell Fitzgerald
Patient Education, Patient Pamphlets

Writing in plain language matters. In Canada, it’s reported that nine million people have limited literacy skills, with over half of Canadians reading below a high school level. This is just one of the reasons why it is important to offer additional support to patients and families with easy-to-read, straightforward patient pamphlets. For more information about creating or updating patient pamphlets, please visit the Content Creator Toolkit. Please contact Pamphlets@nshealth.ca with any questions. You can search for pamphlets by title, keyword, or four-digit pamphlet number in the pamphlets catalogue, or view the complete listing of active titles in our Print Code Index.

The following pamphlets were updated or created in March 2023: 

Cardiovascular System 
WG85-0013 Coronary Arteries (Main Arteries of the Heart)

Diagnostic Imaging 
WN85-0456 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) (En français: FF85-1960)

French Translations (en français)
FF85-2328 Greffe de tissus pour chirurgie buccale (English: WU85-2227)

Geriatrics 
WT85-0287 Geriatric Restorative Care Unit (3 East): Veterans Memorial Building (VMB), QEII

Gynecology & Reproductive Health
WP85-2005 Preventing Falls During Pregnancy: Yarmouth Regional Hospital

Hospitals
WX85-2327 NEW Making Health Care Decisions for Someone Else: Acting as a Substitute Decision-Maker (SDM)

WX85-2208 Talking about Your Goals of Care and Choosing a Level of Intervention

Nephrology
WQ85-1464 Sevelamer (Renagel®) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
WQ85-1466 Lanthanum (Fosrenol®) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
WQ85-1465 Cinacalcet (Sensipar®) for Secondary Hyperparathyroidism in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
WQ85-1636 Over-the-Counter Medications and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Nervous System
WL85-0713 Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Nutrition & Food
LC85-0628 Nutrition Guidelines for Kidney Disease

Ophthalmology
WW85-2326 NEW Urgent Eye Clinic (Red Eye Clinic)

Palliative Care
WD85-2024 Talking to Children about Death and Grief: Information for Parents and Caregivers (En français: FF85-2146)

Surgery
WO85-1395 Planning for Your Hospital Stay After Surgery - Halifax Infirmary (HI), Victoria General Hospital (VG), Dartmouth General Hospital (DGH) (En français: FF85-1118)
WO85-1992 Before and After Surgery - Aberdeen Hospital

Kendell Fitzgerald

Librarian Educator
Central Zone

Dynamic Health April Round-up: Usage Statistics and Top Skills + Content Sections vs. Skills + Immunization Awareness Month + Rosacea
04/03/2023
Library Staff
Nursing, Physicians, Recreation Therapy, Clinical Practice & Policy , Point-of-Care Tools, Paramedicine, Occupational Therapy, Dynamic Health

Since the launch of Dynamic Health in February the collaborative team from Interprofessional Practice and Learning (IPPL), Policy, and Library Services have reviewed and aligned almost 500 skills with the help of health care team members. We also delivered two training sessions to front-line superusers. We would like to thank all those who attended and/or viewed the recordings of these sessions. Your engagement is appreciated and noted! We are seeing great usage statistics for the first month with over 15,000 topic views.

The top 5 Skills viewed since launch are:

  1. Inserting a Nasogastric Tube in an Adult Patient
  2. Treating Adults with Pressure Injuries
  3. Managing Chest Tubes in Adults
  4. Changing a Suprapubic Catheter
  5. Preventing Pressure Injuries in Adult

Learn more about Dynamic Health in our support subject guide or engage with the team about any questions or opportunities by emailing DynamicHealth@nshealth.ca! Find a skill you think needs a review, edit, or note? Fill out our Suggestions for Skills form.

Topic Sections vs. Skills

To understand our usage statistics for Dynamic Health, it’s important to understand what a Topic Section is. A Topic Section is content categorized with a specific purpose in Dynamic Health. Diseases & Conditions, Signs & Symptoms, Tests & Labs, Care Interventions, Skills, Drug Guide, and Patient Handouts are all different and unique Topic Section categories.

Let’s take a closer look by searching for guidance about assessing confusion. Enter the term “confusion” in the main search box, click the  icon (1) and review the results. Note that two results are highlighted in light green and listed first (2). These results are flagged as most relevant to the search. Each result also has a Topic Section category at the top (3). The most relevant results in light green are from the Signs & Symptoms Topic Section category. Note that other results down the list are retrieved from other Topic Sections – Nursing Skills, Care Interventions, etc.(4). Topic Section categories are also listed to the left of your results where you can apply them to your search as filters to narrow down to only Signs & Symptoms and Nursing Skills (5).

NOTE We've been asked about editing or adding a note to content in a Topic Section other than what you’ll find under the Skills category. We can only add local notes, hide content, and create custom content within the Skills Topic Section.

Content in Diseases & Conditions, Signs & Symptoms, Tests & Labs, Care Interventions, Drug Guide, and Patient Handouts, while not customizable locally, go through the same evidence-based, regular review by Ebsco’s Dynamic Health editorial team. This trusted, continually updated content across Topic Sections should always be used in combination with local practice, professional knowledge, and patient preferences.

Evidence as an Adjunct to Local Practice, Professional Knowledge

Dynamic Health’s synthesized content across Topic Sections and rigorous editorial process make it an evidence-based, point-of-care knowledge resource. While practicing evidence-based health care is important, the way you might end up using a guidance resource like Dynamic Health won’t always look the same. Let’s take Dynamic Health’s content and apply it to the 5As of Evidence-based Health Care.

Evidence-based Health Care (or Practice or Medicine) asks health care providers to:

  • Assess the patient
  • Ask a clear, clinical question
  • Acquire evidence to answer the question
  • Appraise the quality of the evidence
  • Apply the evidence to patient care

Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2019

Knowledge resources like Dynamic Health assist with Asking, Acquiring and Appraising by monitoring primary sources as they emerge and critically evaluating them. Findings are synthesized and made available for specific health care audiences, in Dynamic Health’s case, for Nursing and Allied Health professionals. The goal is saving time so the health care provider can focus on Assessing the patient and Applying the evidence, alongside local guidance and expertise.

Health Promotion in April and Dynamic Health Topics

April 2023 marks promotion of:

In recognition of these health promotion events, we encourage you to engage with the curated list of Dynamic Health content below.

If you spot any content under Skills/Procedures below that doesn’t have a Workplace Note, consider being a reviewer! Fill out our Suggestions for Skills form with your notes and we’ll get in touch!

Rosacea Awareness Month

National Immunization Awareness Week

Dynamic Health Project Team

Amanda Revels
Professional Practice Leader
Interprofessional Practice & Learning, Western Zone

Leah MacDonald
Professional Practice Leader
Interprofessional Practice & Learning, COVID-19 Response

Katie McLean
Librarian Educator
Interprofessional Practice & Learning, Library Services

Margaret Meier
Policy Lead
Policy Office

Ann Slaunwhite
Library Technician
Interprofessional Practice & Learning, Library Services

 

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