Why and How to Search for Evidence: articles
- Evidence in Exotic Animal Practice: A "How-To Guide" PM Gibbons and J Mayer, Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine Volume 18, Issue 3, July 2009, Pages 174–180From the introduction: "In short, it is rarely a true lack of evidence that precludes exotic animal veterinarians from practicing EBM; rather, it is a perceived lack of readily accessible, clinically applicable scientific evidence. The goal of this article is to help lower the barriers in obtaining, assessing, and applying the best-available evidence in clinical exotic animal practice." From the conclusion: "The expertise required to search, assess, and integrate new information rapidly improves with practice, and the evidence-based clinical practice learning becomes more rewarding over time."
- Examples of how to search: Clinical and research searching on the wild side: exploring the veterinary literatureEffective information retrieval of the zoological medicine literature demands searching multiple databases, conference proceedings, and organization websites using a wide variety of keywords and controlled vocabulary.
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."
Web search and evaluation tips
Search Tip: Use Advanced search in Google and limit to .edu or .gov or .org domains when searching the Web for this case to filter for higher quality information than what is found on .com sites.
Sample search: Click here for a sample search for keywords [ferret care] limited to .edu domains.
Always evaluate information whether from the Web or a scientific journal!
- Web evaluation guideABCs of Evaluating A Web Page or Site from Purdue Veterinary Library
SOAP in Exotic Animal Medicine article
More on How to SOAP
Books for Frieda the Ferret Case
Please reshelve books on book cart. Please share the books.
More books: List of Books for ABLE/Problem Based Learning Cases
The 5-Minute Veterinary Consult: Small Mammal, 2nd Ed. by E-book and Paper
Clinical Veterinary Advisor: Birds and Exotic Pets by E-book and Paper
Clinical Laboratory Animal Medicine: An Introduction, 4th Ed. by E-book and Paper
Muller and Kirk's Small Animal Dermatology by E-book and Paper
Ferrets for Dummies, 2nd Ed. by E-book and Paper
Exotic Small Mammal Care and Husbandry by E-book and Paper
Endocrinology by E-book and Paper- Cytology by E-book and Paper
BSAVA Manual of Rodents and Ferrets by Paper only
BSAVA Manual of Exotic Pets, 5th Ed. by Paper only
Behavior of Exotic Pets by Paper only
Dukes' Physiology of Domestic Animals, 13th Ed.E-book and Paper
Exotic Animal Formulary by E-book and Paper
Avian and Exotic Animal Hematology and Cytology by E-book and Paper- Exotic Small Mammal Care and Husbandry by E-book and Paper
Don't pay for access OR spend a lot of time trying to get access, AskUs!
Jeanine Williamson | jwilliamson@utk.edu | Veterinary Librarian (interim)
Jeffrey Hines | jhines@utk.edu | Evening Supervisor
Primary contacts for veterinary medicine @ Pendergrass Library
