Canadian Primary Care Today

Continuous Glucose Monitoring: A Practical Overview for Primary Care Providers in Canada

2025-11-14T20:58:43+00:00

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is transforming diabetes care, yet its use in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) remains underutilized in primary care. Given that most individuals with diabetes in Canada have T2DM and are managed primarily by primary care providers, the ability to interpret and apply CGM data is essential. This review provides an overview of CGM technology, key metrics, benefits and limitations, and offers practical tips for implementation in primary care.

Applications of Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health in Primary Care

2025-11-14T20:58:42+00:00

Key Points

• Given that alcohol is a leading preventable cause of death and social problems in Canada, it is important that primary care clinicians are empowered to provide the best advice to patients on alcohol use and health.

• For long-term health, when it comes to consuming alcohol, the core message primary care clinicians should communicate to patients is “less is better.”

• The health and safety risks associated with alcohol use are determined by the number of standard alcoholic drinks consumed per week and per occasion. A standard alcoholic drink contains approximately 13.5 grams of alcohol.

• To foster supportive conversations or potentially screen for and treat alcohol use disorder when necessary, it is crucial for primary care clinicians to take a non-judgmental, equitable approach to advising patients about alcohol and health.

• Anchor conversations about alcohol to the risk zones in Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health: consuming 1–2 standard drinks per week is low risk, 3–6 standard drinks per week is moderate risk, and seven or more standard drinks per week is increasingly high risk. For drinks per occasion, more than two standard drinks increases short-term health risks.

• Take into account special considerations about alcohol for young people under the legal drinking age, people who are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or breastfeeding, as well as older adults.

• Best practices for treating high-risk drinking and alcohol use disorder include prescribing anti-craving medications such as naltrexone and acamprosate, providing psychosocial counselling, and maintaining ongoing follow-up with patients.

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in Primary Care: The Promise of Being Smarter, Safer, and More Present

2025-11-14T20:58:42+00:00

Primary care clinicians (PCCs) are increasingly overwhelmed by the rising number of tasks, expanding patient rosters, and the ever‑growing volume of new data and studies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has captured the attention of many clinicians for both personal and professional use. The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) AI Working Group has highlighted the growing role of AI in family medicine. These applications are emerging across prevention, decision support, and efficiency. However, most remain largely insufficiently tested in or validated for clinical practice, making careful implementation essential to maximize benefits and minimize harm. In the U.S., AI is already helping to reduce clerical burdens by drafting letters, simplifying forms, or explaining results, yet clinicians are cautioned against its unsupervised use in direct clinical decision-making due to risks such as bias and hallucination.

This article focuses on exploring the evolving AI options available to PCCs. We aim to provide a practical framework for evaluating these tools, highlight key features worth considering, and suggest strategies for effective and safer implementation.

Adult Immunization in 2025

2025-11-14T20:58:41+00:00

Immunization represents one of the most significant achievements in medicine. Over the past 50 years, vaccines have prevented more deaths in Canada than any other public health intervention. Routine childhood immunization programs have dramatically reduced the incidence of highly transmissible infections, such as measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella. Furthermore, vaccination efforts have led to the global eradication of smallpox and the near elimination of poliomyelitis. However, declining vaccination coverage has facilitated the re‑emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases, as evidenced by the ongoing resurgence of measles outbreaks worldwide.

Vaccination is the most effective and durable intervention for the prevention of numerous infectious diseases. Immunization programs provide substantial benefits for patients and communities from potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. Early-life vaccination is essential for children to develop robust immunity. Furthermore, immunization remains a critical preventive measure in older adults who exhibit increased vulnerability to infection and a higher likelihood of severe outcomes, including complications, hospitalizations, and deaths. The objective of this review is to provide information on immunization across all age groups and at‑risk populations.

Approach to Inflammatory Arthritis for Primary Care Physicians

2025-11-14T20:58:39+00:00

Inflammatory arthritis is a common condition encountered in primary care clinics but its diagnosis can be challenging because of the many conditions that can present with similar clinical features. As the differential diagnosis is broad, clinicians need to consider the most common entities and adopt a structured approach to establish the most likely diagnosis to help with initiating appropriate investigations and treatment.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), observed in 0.9% of the population, and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) affecting 0.5–2%, are the most common types of inflammatory arthritis. Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) occurs at approximately half the frequency, with a prevalence of approximately 0.5% in the general population.