For the past four years, American Family Physician has published a summary review of the top 20 clinically relevant research articles of the preceding year, as selected by a survey of Canadian Medical Association members using a validated tool. Each of these summary articles draws on material from POEMs (patient-oriented evidence that matters) written by experts in primary care and evidence appraisal at Essential Evidence Plus. This year's compilation, authored by AFP deputy medical editor Mark Ebell and McGill University family physician Roland Grad, features the top 20 research studies published in 2014 judged to be most likely to change primary care practice.
On Wednesday, August 26th at 4 PM Eastern, @AFPJournal will hold its first #AFPTop20 Tweet Chat to take a deeper dive into the findings of some of these POEMs and their ramifications for family physicians. Contributing medical editor Jennifer Middleton (@singingpendrjen) and I (@kennylinafp) will serve as moderators, and we will be joined by Dr. Ebell (@markebell). To focus the discussion, we have selected three studies that we found to be the most challenging and/or potentially controversial. If you want to read the POEMs ahead of time (helpful, but definitely not essential), they are available at the links below:
Opioids for Chronic Back Pain: Short-Term Effectiveness, Long-Term Uncertain
Low-Carb Diet Better Than Low-Fat Diet to Reduce CV Risk Factors and Cause Weight Loss (or, listen to the podcast)
New Anticoagulants vs Warfarin in A Fib: No Clear Winner
For those who can't tune in to #AFPTop20 live, we plan to make the highlights available on Storify. Either way, please follow us at @AFPJournal and re-tweet this announcement (with the #AFPTop20 hashtag) far and wide!