BestBETs for Vets

EBVM-what is it really? Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine (EBVM) in a nutshell is about good clinical decision making and ensuring that what is decided for an animal or group of animals is as optimal as it can be for all stakeholders involved-part of a balanced, shared decision-making process. There are four important components in evidence-based decision making: the client, the vet professional, the animal/s, and the evidence. The first three are specific to the context of each case and without these viewpoints, circumstances or capabilities being considered, decisions made are more likely to not be enacted or potentially recommendations perceived not to 'work'. What about the 'evidence'? Traditionally the evidence in EBVM is represented by published research studies. This evidence differs, and does so primarily due to the type of research study design used, which influences the number and degree of biases typically found. However, 'evidence' can take other forms if the research-based evidence is not available, out of date or not appropriate to the context/case. In an ideal world, evidence would have been garnered from well designed, executed and reported research studies involving large numbers of animals that can provide us with definitive answers about the common questions we might have in practice (e.g. efficacy of a bovine respiratory disease vaccine in reducing incidence of pneumonia in dairy calves or which dairy fertility protocol results in the highest pregnancy rate in dairy cows treated with follicular cysts). Why can it be difficult to execute in practice? There are many factors that can have an influence on how easy this is to achieve in practice. The one that many vet professionals report is that it is difficult to keep up to date with Making evidence-based decisions