Developing searching and critical appraisal skills for AVMA Competency 9: Evidence-based practice
Searching effectively for and critically appraising evidence applicable to clinical and diagnostic cases are the two core skills to be proficient in AVMA Competency 9.
The purpose of this guide is to assist veterinary students in learning these two skills.
- UTCVM ABLE Competency AssessmentCriteria for AVMA Competency 9 are listed on page 3
Two overview articles
Two articles to read about how to find and evaluate evidence using PICO
- Top 5 Steps to Practice Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine Sebastian Arlt, Dr.med.vet, DECAR, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany Preventive Medicine | December 2018|You'll need a free Clinician's Brief account to access this article
ASK: Asking an answerable clinical question
1/ Take the RCVS ASK tutorial http://www.ebvmlearning.org/ask/
2/ A less detailed overview about how to use PICO than the RCVS tutorial (Source: Colorado State).
Below is work sheet with a veterinary example and blank worksheet to help you format and document your PICO to prepare for searching.
ACQUIRE: where to search for veterinary clinical information
Suggested list of databases / information services to search to acquire evidence to answer clinical questions that arise in practice.
Tips:
- Develop a list of databases to search based on your practice focus, access to databases, and experience searching for evidence.
- If your go-to database has a subscription fee, include that in your employment contract negotiations.
- VetCompanion-- point-of-care clinical information service with graded evidence305 topics in Dogs and Cats only
Free to students with registration or
UTK Libraries has a subscription so all have access - VIN-- Veterinary Information Network VINcyclopedia of Diseases Expert opionion point-of-care serviceCheck out the VINcyclopedia of Diseases (formerly VIN Associate) for expert opinion on 800 canine diseases and 600 feline diseases, also exotic diseases and swine are included. Links to client handouts in Veterinary Partner.
Journal Abstracts: access to the veterinary journal literature that report research results. If the research was well-designed, evidence will be higher quality. Always evaluate any information you find relevant to the case.
Message boards are crowdsourced data, not particularly strong evidence but can be useful depending on topic.
Also provides access to conference proceedings which can be valuable depending on topic! - Vetlexicon from VetStream -- expert opinion point-of-care service in vetmedDogs, cats, horses, cows, exotics, rabbits
More species and topics plus 1000 client handouts. - CONSULTANT from Cornell5,200 diseases of 8 species (AVIAN IS THE ONLY EXOTIC SPECIES COVERED). Dr. Pete White filters for quality prior to adding citations to CONSULTANT.
- CABI: CAB Abstracts
This link opens in a new window
If the evidence exists for your clinical question, it is most likely to be indexed by CAB. For high-stakes searches, CAB ABSTRACTS must be searched. Searcher must spend the time to filter for quality.
- VetSREVVetSRev, the database of systematic reviews in veterinary medicine and science from U. Nottingham. See Below for "Getting Started Guide"
- Best Bets for VetsA BET is a simple review of the current best evidence available to answer very common and specific clinical questions.
- Google Scholar--"the catch-all"The most efficient way to use of Google Scholar is the "Cited By" feature which will tell you if an article as been cited and by whom. Do search Google Scholar, but clients can also search it, so vet students need to learn to use the professional databases listed above as part of professional skill set.
- UpToDate--point-of-care resource for human medicine--VetCompanion and VetStream are the veterinary equivalentsHuman only. Can be used for small animal medicine. "access to over 10,000 topics in over 22 specialties. Click on a specialty to view the list of topics."
Books
Handbook of Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine by E-book and Paper
How to Read a Paper by ISBN: 9781119484745Publication Date: 20191 Paper copy, e-book on order 7/2019
