The Development of Actionable Nuggets
Actionable Nuggets were originally designed to assist family physicians to provide the latest evidence-based care to their patients with spinal cord injuries.
2008
Based on our research (conducted between 2000 and 2008) on the experiences of people with disabilities in primary care, we identified the top 20 health issues encountered by family physicians with patients with spinal cord injuries. With the help of a grant from the Rick Hansen Foundation, we created the first set of 20 hard-copy postcards.
2009
The first edition of Actionable Nuggets was pilot tested with a sample of family physicians in Ontario, Newfoundland, and Australia. The series of 20 postcards were mailed weekly over 20 weeks and evaluated for utility and knowledge translation.
2010
The College of Family Physicians of Canada approved Actionable Nuggets for 10 Mainpro M1 credits for continuing education.
2012
On the basis of positive evaluation results, the Canadian Medical Association approached us about disseminating Actionable Nuggets to all 50,000 of its members. With a second grant from the Rick Hansen Foundation, we created the 2nd edition of SCI Nuggets, and released them electronically in English and French, through the CMA continuing education portal.
2013
The Actionable Nuggets research team also shared knowledge about primary care of people with spinal cord injuries with the scientific and clinical communities at a number of conferences, and also through SCIRE – Spinal Cord Injury Research Evidence
2016
With funding from the Queen’s University Work-Study program, we were able to update the literature search, re-convene the Expert panel, and produce the 3rd edition of Actionable Nuggets for SCI.
2017
To improve dissemination further, we worked with the Rick Hansen Foundation and Spinal Cord Injury Ontario to try a new way of reaching out to family physicians. We sent postcards to members to bring with them to their next appointment with their family physician, alerting them to the availability of Actionable Nuggets on the website.
2018
With funding from the South-Eastern Academic Medical Organization, we have been able to keep up with our three-year cycle of updating the content of Actionable Nuggets.
2019
This funding has also allowed us to develop a mobile app, to allow family physicals to receive Actionable Nuggets “on the fly”. The app will release Nuggets weekly with mobile notifications and are available from October 2019.
Actionable Nuggets for Spinal Cord Injury 