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The purpose of the What Is The Evidence? feature is to help readers develop a practical, evidence-based approach to practicing veterinary medicine. Readers are encouraged to submit reports of informative cases in which an evidence-based approach to diagnosis, treatment, prevention, or control of a disease or condition was used. Reports for this feature will be evaluated primarily on the basis of the quality of application of an evidence-based approach to case management and the usefulness of the findings for veterinary practitioners. Submissions considered for publication will be subject to peer review.
The text of the reports should be divided according to the following headings:
1. Problem (including clinical history, any restrictions on how to proceed [eg, financial limitations of owners, equipment limitations of clinic, or lack of comfort of clinician in trying certain surgical approaches] and desired outcome)
2. Formulation of Clinical Question (consideration of the problem to identify the specific information that is needed to address that problem)
3. Clinical Question (1-sentence, specific question that can guide a literature search)
4. Evidentiary Search Strategy (the manner in which an answer to the clinical question was sought [ie, specific key words and databases used for literature search]. Please notice that the search strategy must be sufficiently detailed to permit another reader to obtain the same results.)
5. Review of the Evidence (a critical examination of the information obtained from the literature search, particularly with respect to study design and the hierarchy of evidence [eg, clinical trials are superior to cross-sectional studies]. Including information obtained from abstracts rather than original reports is not advisable.)
6. Decision and Outcome (a brief summary of the decision made and its outcome)
7. References (maximum of 5 reports)
Tables and figures should not be necessary in most situations, but may be included if the author believes they will add to an understanding of the decision-making process. Because the feature is limited to 2 pages, the text should not exceed 1,400 words.
Authors should follow all general guidelines for manuscript preparation and submission as outlined in the Instructions for JAVMA Authors . For enquiries or assistance, please contact Dr. Sandra L. Lefebvre by telephone (800-248-2862, ext 6761) or e-mail (slefebvre@avma.org). The "What Is The Evidence?" feature is published in cooperation with the Evidence-Based Veterinary Medical Association.
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= AVMA/SAVMA Members Only
