Table 1

MEDLINE search strategy

PopulationCanadian context

  1. Critical care/ or Critical Illness/ or Intensive care units/ or ((intensive or critical or acute) adj2 (care* or therap*)).mp

  2. (ICU* or ITU* or GICU* or CCU*).mp

  3. ((critical* or severe or catastrophic* or acute*) adj2 (ill* or sick* or ail*)).mp

  4. ((critical* or severe or catastrophic* or acute*) adj2 (ill* or sick* or ail*)).mp

  5. Or/1–4

  1. Exp Canada/

  2. (canad* or alberta or british columbia or colombie britannique or saskatchewan or manitoba or ontario or quebec or new brunswick or nouveau brunswick or nova scotia or nouvelle ecosse or prince edward island or ile du prince edward or PEI or newfoundland or terre neuve or labrador or nun$v$t or territoires du nord ouest or northwest territories or nwt or yukon or ontario).mp.

  3. (edmonton or calgary or vancouver or victoria or prince george or kelowna or winnipeg or st* john?s or halifax or saint john or hamilton or waterloo or st catharines or sudbury or thunder bay or kingston or windsor or ottawa or toronto or mississauga or quebec city or montreal or trois?rivieres or sherbrooke or chicoutimi or moncton or saskatoon or western university).mp

  4. Or/6–8

  5. 5 and 9

  6. limit 10 to yr=“2012 -Current”