The Evidence Speaks Series is a recurring feature highlighting the latest in Advancing Health research. This series features summaries of select publications and is designed to keep media and the research community up to date with the Centre’s current research results in the health outcomes field.
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A person-centred, holistic approach can help improve gaps in care for people with concurrent disorders
Identifying challenges in concurrent mental health and substance use disorder care: Qualitative findings from an e-Delphi study in British Columbia, Canada. Cheung I, Carter M, Dogherty E, Goodyear T, Russolillo A. BMC Heal Serv Res. 2026.
Concurrent disorders refer to the co-occurrence of mental illness and substance use disorders. They affect approximately 45 per cent of people with mental health and substance use challenges. BC has the highest prevalence of these cases in Canada. Concurrent disorders often lead to worse health and social outcomes, such as poverty, homelessness, criminal justice involvement, and early death. Our current health care model is fragmented and siloed, with barriers to treatment, like care gaps and increased costs. But treating concurrent disorders requires crossing traditional health care boundaries. A study by researchers, including Advancing Health scientist Dr. Angela Russolillo, aimed to better understand the experiences of those with concurrent disorders and the perspectives of their care providers. Between November 2022 and May 2023, 13 health care providers and people with recent care experiences filled out questionnaires, which helped the team identify four key themes: i) barriers to access, ii) lack of integration of mental health and substance use care, iii) need for trauma-informed, person-centred care, and iv) incorporating voices of people with lived experience and caregivers. These findings reveal gaps in the current care model. Additionally, the study recommends person-centred, holistic care models that include caregivers and family members, and interventions that can help reduce stigma and discrimination in care. Future research should include more exploration of how those most affected are essential to informing healthcare policies.
Exercise Snacking: How short minute-long activity bursts help type 2 diabetics manage blood sugar after meals
Exercise snacks performed in real-world settings reduce postprandial hyperglycemia and glycaemic variability in individuals living with type 2 diabetes: a randomized crossover study. Babir F, Marcotte-Chénard A, Sandilands A, D’Amico A, Falkenhain K, Mulkewich N, Islam H, Richards D, Madden K, Singer J, Riddell M, Gibala M, Jonathan P, Little. Diabetologia. 2026
Diabetes is a condition where the body cannot properly regulate its blood sugar. Exercise has been found to be a natural, healthy way to help diabetics manage blood sugar levels, but it can be time-consuming and inaccessible. “Exercise snacks” are an emerging way to make exercise more accessible to those with busy schedules. This technique encourages people to take small, periodic breaks for short, high-intensity exercise throughout their days.
A research team including Advancing Health scientist Dr. Joel Singer wanted to see if “Exercise Snacks” could help reduce the big swings in blood sugar that type 2 diabetics experience after meals. They enrolled 31 patients with well-controlled type 2 diabetes from Hamilton and Vancouver. Participants had a Continuous Glucose Monitor inserted under the skin. For two days, they were given a set diet that mimicked their usual meals. Within 30–60 minutes of eating, participants were asked to do one minute of intensive bodyweight exercises (such as squats, lunges, or planks), for a total of four times per day. During the study, participants were asked to do no other exercise. These total of four minutes of “Exercise Snacks” spread throughout the day were found to lead to a small, yet statistically significant improvement in participants’ blood sugar levels compared to those who did no exercise at all. Since “Exercise Snacks” like this have such a small time-requirement, they may be helpful for people who cannot easily fit physical activity into their schedules. Further research is needed to see if these improvements would remain over the long-term.
Combined use of two imaging techniques can be used to determine cause of heart attacks that occur without obvious blockage to arteries
Multi-modality Imaging to Determine Underlying Causes of MINOCA in Women and Men. Reynolds H, Maehara A, Heydari B, Smilowitz N, Sedlak T, Sandoval Y, Hashim H, Bainey K, Fahed A, Echeverri N, Matsumura M, Ahmed M, Saw J, Chong A, Sharma A, Hausvater A, Xia Y, Tremmel J, Liu S, Mehta P, Har B, Bangalore S, Attubato M, Lay L, Holden A, Yu C, Hochman J, HARP Research Group. Circulation. 2026
Heart attacks, also called myocardial infarctions, are a dangerous health event caused by a blockage of the flow of blood into the heart. Generally, this is caused by something such as plaque blocking the arteries. However, sometimes there is no obvious blockage. Called ‘myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries’ (MINOCA), this type of heart attack is challenging because the blockage cannot be seen coronary angiogram, the usual way of detecting heart attacks. Researchers, including Advancing Health scientist Dr. Tara Seldak, wanted to learn if other types of imaging could be used to diagnose MINOCA cases. They studied 389 patients diagnosed with MINOCA from over 28 sites across Canada, the US, and the UK. Eighty-six per cent of participants had high-quality ultrasound images of their blood vessels taken using optical coherence tomography (OCT), with a further 85 percent of this group also receiving cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). Together, these diagnostic methods were able to confirm that 59 percent of patients had MINOCA, while 20 per cent had a different diagnosis that only mimicked heart attack symptoms in some way. No cause was found in the remaining 21 per cent of participants. While men are far more likely to have heart attacks overall, MINOCAs are three times more common in women. The authors hoped this research would suggest reasons for this discrepancy, but no sex differences in the imaging results were seen. Overall, however, these findings support using a combination of OCT and CMR imaging in cases of suspected MINOCA to guide diagnosis and treatment.
