James McCormack's research while affiliated with University of British Columbia - Vancouver and other places

... 25 As well as finding new processes and new people to set diagnostic thresholds, it may be timely to re-imagine these as thresholds for discussion with potential patients. 26 This may be particularly relevant where there is controversy and uncertainty around different diagnostic thresholds, and different people will have different perspectives on the appropriateness of a label or treatment-for example, with the condition currently described as mild hypertension, where evidence suggests treatment of people at low risk may do more harm than good. 27 A related reform, proposed for some psychiatric diagnosis, 8 time to investigate ways to make diagnoses more temporary, where appropriate, and less fixed in stone, and to explore methods for de-diagnosis, in the same way researchers and clinicians have developed methods for de-prescribing. ...

... The purpose of this set of systematic reviews was to assess the benefit and harms of the pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies used in the management of neuropathic pain, specifically diabetic neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia, and trigeminal neuralgia in adults. Similar to our systematic reviews of osteoarthritis 8 and chronic low back pain, 9 we included only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that reported a responder analysis-the proportion of patients who achieved a clinically meaningful improvement in pain. 10 This systematic review is the third in a series of reviews that will provide evidence for a guideline on the treatment of common chronic pain conditions in primary care. ...

... The efficacy of NSAIDs for OA-related pain has been demonstrated in several meta-analyses [63][64][65][66]. In one recent network meta-analysis of 76 trials of placebo, acetaminophen, and oral NSAIDs in 58,451 patients with OA of the knee or hip, for example, most NSAIDs examined improved both pain (effect sizes ranged from -0.05 to -0.63 across 19 arms) and function (effect sizes ranged from -0.03 to -0.53 across 18 arms) compared with placebo (effects sizes based on, or standardized to, a scale from 0 to 10) [63]. ...

... You endorsed as valid, an "investigation" that was known by you to be a fraud, a vaccine promotional stunt, that was so corrupt that it had to be retracted within a few days of global publication. 16 But let us focus on Beta-coronavirus, specifically its history versus SARS-CoV-2 . . . as you are aware, the former SARS outbreak dates to 2003. ...

... Despite the increased global use of medical cannabis to manage pain, systematic reviews and meta-analyses report low to substantial levels of evidence to support the use of cannabis and cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic pain (Russo 2007;Whiting et al. 2015;Allan et al. 2018; National Academies of Sciences 2017; Stockings et al. 2018;Mücke et al. 2018;Häuser et al. 2018;Johal et al. 2020;Safakish et al. 2020;Okusanya et al. 2020). Explanations as to why some describe the level of evidence is low may include limited availability of investigational products due to legal status, lack of standardization of cannabis products, lack of standardization of product administration, and overemphasis on pain scores to define efficacy. ...

... First, like osteoarthritis, FM is a very prevalent musculoskeletal condition. Currently, osteoarthritis is effectively managed at the primary care level [34,35]. Second, optimal patient management requires attention to the many symptom components, and an in-depth trusting conversation is essential to uncover psychological, cognitive and functional dimensions. ...

... It was particularly refreshing to see that this year's update highlighted strategies for shared decision-making (SDM) to optimize treatment success-an omission criticized in previous editions. 2 However, we felt the need to comment on the framing of pharmacists' role in SDM, which seems to focus on improving medication adherence. We believe this sentiment deserves some refining, as it is misleading for 2 reasons: 1) it falsely implies that improving adherence is a goal of SDM, and 2) it unfairly reduces pharmacists to the label of "adherence police. ...

... Some 560,000-600,000 patients are treated each year, with full recovery rates of 40-50% recorded, and some 67% of people making "reliable improvements" [12, 55,67,68]. These efficacy rates are better than most reported uses of antidepressants [69,70]. IAPT made 1.6 M referrals for talking therapies in 2019-1.09 ...

... Šeimos medicinos paslaugos kol kas labiau orientuotos į sveikatos problemų sprendimą, o ne į sveikatos stiprinimą ar išsaugojimą [11], todėl pirminės sveikatos priežiūros paslaugų teikėjai dar nėra pasirengę spręsti sudėtingų senėjančios visuomenės sveikatos problemų [12], o daugelis pasaulio šalių, siekdamos pagerinti paslaugų prieinamumą ir kokybę, įvairiais būdais stiprina pirminės sveikatos priežiūros grandį [13]. Lietuvoje suformuotas lėtinių neužkre-čiamųjų ligų valdymo ir integruotų sveikatos priežiūros paslaugų teikimo teisinis pagrindas. ...

... Let us scrutinize your hypocrisy, by way of contrast . . . 15 In stark contrast, in the current scenario, you have open hostility against low-cost treatments for COVID-19. You took the opposite tact; you derided the medical doctors involved; essentially condemned hydroxychloroquine treatments against SARS-CoV-2. ...