Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱
Palliative care/family doc in Nanaimo, BC. Clinical Associate Prof, UBC Medicine
Focus: the intersection of Palliative Care + sustainability. Was @lessismoremedicine.❤️quaternary prevention, preventing overdiagnosis, goal-concordant EBM, choosing wisely.
- www.cbc.ca/player/play/... A balanced piece on #chroniclyme from @cbcnews.ca The symptoms are real. The tests, diagnosis, and treatments… unfortunately are usually full of snake oil.
- “While you are on chemotherapy …” Myths: - Avoid large social gatherings - Wash clothes w body fluids STAT - Use a separate toilet - Avoid all EtOH - Avoid certain foods, coffee --> lack evidence, cause harm academic.oup.com/jnci/article... great article from @csoncol.bsky.social #oncology
- This is a huge challenge for patients. Proprietary parts for their means of mobility and very few vendors, lots of rules about who can fix them, etc and it means many simply can’t be mobile. That is not ok!
- As it turns out, escitalopram is just a marketing parachute for citalopram. Oops! /undoes escitalopram Rxs that could have just been cheaper and equalky safe/effectivr citalopram… 😬👀
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱🧵 TI Annual Course - REGISTER NOW! ti.ubc.ca/annual-cours... 1/ Featuring expert speakers including the TI's Dr. Jessica Otte @drotte.medsky.social "Drugs and edema: A not so ‘swell’ effect" #DrugEvidence25 #CME #MedEd #BetterPrescribing
- this makes no sense. Clearly investing in exercise and social programs for vulnerable elders would be a much better use of resources.
- Check it: - low cost ($49 for students/etc, $99 for MDs by Oct 31st) - virtual - we dissect the evidence so you don't have to - free of financial COIs (no industry funding), - full of practice changing pearls and no BS Please join us in your pyjamas from home Nov 28/29. #cme #ebm #familymed
- 🧵REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! 1/ Bringing #BestEvidence to Clinicians, our TI annual course, tackles common + new drug therapy issues from an evidence-based perspective & is designed to inform physicians, NPs, pharmacists, students, & residents Register now ti.ubc.ca/annual-cours... #DrugEvidence25
- another TI @drug-evidence.bsky.social + collaborators publication: It is possible to reduce the unnecessary over-use of TSH and related #thyroid tests!!! But it can be a challenge! (DM me to ask how I know!) qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/qhc/... #choosingwisely #overtesting
- One + of covid-era delays: learned Rx like rituximab for MS in lower/less frequent doses are still effective = lower cost & easier for patient! Opposite, nefarious: drug companies pushing higher doses of #cancer drugs than are needed, just for profit 🤮💰 #cancercapitalism #palliativecare #pallmed
- Bloomberg released an article highlighting efforts to reduce cancer drug doses while preserving outcomes & making treatments more affordable & accessible globally. Read more: tinyurl.com/93n5xxvk #CommonSenseOncology #CancerCare
- @cfpjournal.bsky.social ah! you do have a Bluesky account! Couldn't find it the other day, sorry about that, would have @'d you otherwise :)
- Our @drug-evidence.bsky.social team has worked so hard on Portraits www.ti.ubc.ca/portrait/ and we have RCT evidence that it improves prescribing patterns. How excited, grateful, & proud we feel to be recognized by @ubcmedicine.bsky.social for our innovation in #CME www.med.ubc.ca/news/faculty...
- Took a few years... but we got it done and in print thanks to @cfpc-cmfc.bsky.social's CFP. Tramadol (with or without acetaminophen) efficacy and harm: Systematic review and meta-analysis. www.cfp.ca/content/71/9... #tramadol #pain #palliativecare #opioids
- I also have questions!
- Mid-Island MLAs were questioned regarding when the Nanaimo hospital will get a new patient tower and cardiac catheterization lab, promises made by Premier David Eby during last year's election campaign. #Nanaimo nanaimonewsnow.com/2025/08/22/p...
- oh #academictwitter where you at?! When you get the abstract accepted but it says "you can do it as a poster" x 2 in my case. But... no..... I really need to TALK to youuuuuuuuu #academic #conference #palliative #ohwell
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱[Not loaded yet]
- 🎆It's here!!!!! 🎆 10+ TEN years in the making!!! Choosing Wisely BC! We are the LAST but not LEAST province/territory. healthqualitybc.ca/choosing-wis... I'm so so so happy! @healthqualitybc.ca @choosingwiselyca.bsky.social #lessismore #quaternaryprevention #choosingwisely
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱[Not loaded yet]
- a reasonably accessible explanation of overdiagnosis and why it matters in cancer screening: iai.tv/articles/50-...
- If it’s on purpose, that’s just good legacy planning 😉
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱This is how to have difficult conversations with vaccine sceptics
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱[Not loaded yet]
- Don't eat THIS. Opened up the mozzarella and it was the same shade of violet as PUBS (purple urine bag syndrome). Had to wonder: "What in the fresh !$%#^* got in there?!" No it isn't a UTI. It's pseudomonas fluorescens! www.pagepressjournals.org/ijfs/article... #medsky #purpleurine #purplecheese
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱[Not loaded yet]
- Well, it happened folks: I received a “mild update.” ‼️ And they also request that I submit my manuscript, even if it’s by accident. How should I proceed?! PS is this low rent AI or a maltreated ESL laborer generating these emails?! #scamjournals #academia #medacademia #predatorypublishing
- Autism remains both under and over diagnosed RFKJ remains one of a handful of current leaders who will no doubt make the health status worse for all autistic people and probably all Americans.
- This people, THIS!!! We've heard RFKJ spew on about increasing rates of childhood autism and how the cause MUST BE vaccines or toxins. But he failed to acknowledge or investigate the simplest answer: we expanded the definition of autism, leading to more diagnoses. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/o...
- Palliative care seeks neither to shorten or lengthen life but in a study of lung cancer patients on chemo, those randomized to palliative care lived 2.7 months longer on average, had better quality of life, and had fewer invasive/costly treatments near end of life pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20818875/
- I had to look up the 3.5% thing to understand this www.bbc.com/future/artic...
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱[Not loaded yet]
- Dr Mohamad Hamadeh identified unique tensions for Muslim #palliativecare pts #ALPM - truth telling is valued but so is protecting loved ones, especially elders from painful news as a kindness and sign of respect CONT'D
- - emotional reserve is a cultural norm but pts likely vocal about symptoms (= an ask for support) - pts may seek 'aggressive' measures but also accept stopping futile care - what happens is in Allah's hands but pts may want life-prolonging measures from clinicians, through which Allah can work
- cont'd - patients may wish to fast (eg during Ramadan) even though they are permitted medical exemption Other pearls: - death is a transition, not an end - alertness often prioritized as it allows prayer
- [open to feedback if I got these details wrong! trying to learn, in a mostly caucasian/culturally Christian community]
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱#PalliativeCare pals, I am planning my trip to speak at #EndWell2025. LA is a far from home, so I want to make the most of being there. To whom should I reach out? Who are our palliative pals over there? Advise me so I can learn from them & offer my support to them. Join us: bit.ly/EndWellTix
- Superb #ALPM2025 by @drjrubenstein.bsky.social about "PR" in #palliativecare TAKE AWAY: Palliative care doesn't need to change what we're called or what we do; we should help our non-pall peers understand our awesomeness Watch his Fire Department & other vids: www.jaredrubensteinmd.com/videos
- @shelaghor.bsky.social guess I can't DM you haha! In case you missed it, we did a handout on the PO vs IV antibiotics topic: www.ti.ubc.ca/wordpress/wp...
- bcmj.org/articles/ant... It's all in the title: Antibiotic treatment durations are not based on scientific reasoning; they stem from an artificially created number system #AMR @drug-evidence.bsky.social #antibiotics #lessismore @choosingwiselyca.bsky.social
- The more you know! Hart was a pioneering physician in so many ways. Countless lives were saved because of his work; I wonder what else he could have accomplished, were he surrounded by acceptance!?
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱[Not loaded yet]
- I have def said some of these things to caregivers 😳: learning now the importance to pair it with helpful action. Yes, some ppl need ‘permission’ to handover some of the tasks - a dear friend, nurse, OT, MD can support/empower (not “tell”) them to do so. www.familycaregiversbc.ca can help too!
- Reposted by Dr Jessica Otte, 🇨🇦 MD, CCFP, FCFP 🩺🌍🌱[Not loaded yet]
