Online tools for teaching evidence-based veterinary medicine

Evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) is of interest and relevance to veterinary practitioners. Consequently, veterinary schools take responsibility for teaching students how to appraise scientific articles and for equipping them with the skills needed to obtain and evaluate the best evidence and to apply this approach to their own cases. As part of our farm animal clinical rotation, we train students in qualitative and quantitative EBVM methods using an e-learning environment, online teaching materials, a wiki (a Web site that allows its users to edit its content via a Web browser), and face-to-face tutorials that support learning. Students working in small groups use a wiki to record details of the history, clinical presentation, diagnostic tests, herd data, and management plans for their chosen farm animal clinical cases. Using a standardized patient, intervention, comparison, and outcome (PICO) format, each group formulates a patient question based on either a proposed intervention or diagnostic procedure for the case and conducts an online scientific literature database search. The students appraise the articles retrieved using EBVM approaches and record the information in the wiki. The summation of this body of work, the group's critically appraised topic (CAT), includes the original PICO, a standardized table of the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention or diagnostic procedure, a summary statement in the form of a clinical bottom line, and their reflections upon the CAT. At the end of the rotation, students take part in a structured "CAT Club" where they present and discuss their findings with fellow students and clinicians.