Benchmarking veterinary librarians' participation in systematic reviews and scoping reviews.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to benchmark roles that veterinary librarians at universities and colleges play in systematic reviews (SRs) and scoping reviews that are conducted by faculty and students at their institutions, to benchmark the level of training that veterinary librarians have in conducting SRs, to identify barriers to their participation in SRs, and to identify other types of literature reviews that veterinary librarians participate in. METHODS: Sixty veterinary librarians in universities and colleges in Canada, the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand were surveyed online about their roles and training in conducting SRs, barriers to participation in SRs, and participation in other types of literature reviews. RESULTS: Veterinary librarians' highest participation was at an advising level in traditional librarian roles as question formulator, database selector, search strategy developer, and reference manager. Most respondents reported pretty good to extensive training in traditional roles and no or some training in less traditional roles. Sixty percent of respondents received few or no requests to participate in SRs, and only half of respondents had participated in SRs as a review team member. Sixty percent of respondents stated that their libraries had no policies regarding librarian roles and participation in SRs. CONCLUSIONS: The surveyed veterinary librarians participated in SRs to a lesser degree than human health sciences librarians, experienced low demand from veterinary faculty and students to participate in SRs, and participated as review team members at significantly lower rates than human health sciences librarians. The main barriers to participation in SRs were lack of library policies, insufficient training, and lack of time.

Are we adequately evaluating subsidized veterinary services? A scoping review.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) both recognize the importance of veterinary services in controlling zoonotic diseases, in preventing human injury, and in protecting the welfare of non-human animals. Furthermore, both organizations recommend regular evaluations of veterinary programs. Accordingly, we conducted a scoping review to collate the available peer-reviewed evaluations of subsidized small animal veterinary services in terms of the effects on animal and public health. We summarized the evaluation methods used, identified key journals in this disparate literature, and identified gaps in knowledge. CAB Abstracts, PubMed, and Scopus were searched, yielding 1441 records published between 2009 and 2016 for initial screening. After examining titles and keywords, abstracts, and finally full articles, we identified 32 relevant papers that evaluated 27 distinct programs. The global distribution was broad, with half of the papers evaluating programs in Africa or Asia, all of which were rabies vaccination programs targeting dogs. Three program evaluation categories were identified: zoonotic disease prevention (9 papers), animal welfare and control (9 papers), and One Health promotion (14 papers). Nearly three-quarters (72%) of the papers used more than one method for collecting data. The most common data sources were questionnaires (22 papers) and administrative records, such as medical charts (21 papers). The most common indicators used for animal health-related program assessments were the number of animals reached by the program (27 papers) and any changes in animal population demographics (22 papers). These indicators were found in all three types of program evaluations (i.e., zoonotic disease prevention, animal welfare/control, and One Health promotion). For public health-related program assessments, the most common indicators consisted of determining barriers to a veterinary program's success (13 papers), followed by costs of a program (11 papers), changes in perceived threats or nuisances (11 papers), and community knowledge of a zoonotic disease (11 papers). The small number of papers identified in this review, n = 32, underscores that comprehensive evaluations of subsidized veterinary services are uncommon in the peer-reviewed literature. Yet, when performed, such evaluations can help guide program delivery and future research. Given the high stakes and the high costs of subsidized veterinary services, greater efforts in program evaluation are warranted.

Compliance of systematic reviews in veterinary journals with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) literature search reporting guidelines.

OBJECTIVE: Complete, accurate reporting of systematic reviews facilitates assessment of how well reviews have been conducted. The primary objective of this study was to examine compliance of systematic reviews in veterinary journals with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines for literature search reporting and to examine the completeness, bias, and reproducibility of the searches in these reviews from what was reported. The second objective was to examine reporting of the credentials and contributions of those involved in the search process. METHODS: A sample of systematic reviews or meta-analyses published in veterinary journals between 2011 and 2015 was obtained by searching PubMed. Reporting in the full text of each review was checked against certain PRISMA checklist items. RESULTS: Over one-third of reviews (37%) did not search the CAB Abstracts database, and 9% of reviews searched only 1 database. Over two-thirds of reviews (65%) did not report any search for grey literature or stated that they excluded grey literature. The majority of reviews (95%) did not report a reproducible search strategy. CONCLUSIONS: Most reviews had significant deficiencies in reporting the search process that raise questions about how these searches were conducted and ultimately cast serious doubts on the validity and reliability of reviews based on a potentially biased and incomplete body of literature. These deficiencies also highlight the need for veterinary journal editors and publishers to be more rigorous in requiring adherence to PRISMA guidelines and to encourage veterinary researchers to include librarians or information specialists on systematic review teams to improve the quality and reporting of searches.

A systematic review of clinical audit in companion animal veterinary medicine.

BACKGROUND: Clinical audit is a quality improvement process with the goal of continuously improving quality of patient care as assessed by explicit criteria. In human medicine clinical audit has become an integral and required component of the standard of care. In contrast, in veterinary medicine there appear to have been a limited number of clinical audits published, indicating that while clinical audit is recognised, its adoption in veterinary medicine is still in its infancy. A systematic review was designed to report and evaluate the veterinary literature on clinical audit in companion animal species (dog, cat, horse). A systematic search of English and French articles using Proquest Dissertations and Theses database (February 6, 2014), CAB Abstracts (March 21, 2014 and April 4, 2014), Scopus (March 21, 2014), Web of Science Citation index (March 21, 2014) and OVID Medline (March 21, 2014) was performed. Included articles were those either discussing clinical audit (such as review articles and editorials) or reporting parts of, or complete, audit cycles. RESULTS: The majority of articles describing clinical audit were reviews. From 89 articles identified, twenty-one articles were included and available for review. Twelve articles were reviews of clinical audit in veterinary medicine, five articles included at least one veterinary clinical audit, one thesis was identified, one report was of a veterinary clinical audit website and two articles reported incomplete clinical audits. There was no indication of an increase in the number of published clinical audits since the first report in 1998. However, there was evidence of article misclassification, with studies fulfilling the criteria of clinical audit not appropriately recognised. Quality of study design and reporting of findings varied considerably, with information missing on key components, including duration of study, changes in practice implemented between audits, development of explicit criteria and appropriate statistical analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Available evidence suggests the application and reporting of clinical audit in veterinary medicine is sporadic despite the potential to improve patient care, though the true incidence of clinical audit reporting is likely to be underestimated due to incorrect indexing. Reporting standards of clinical audits are highly variable, limiting evaluation, application and repeatability of published work.

Informing web-based communication curricula in veterinary education: a systematic review of web-based methods used for teaching and assessing clinical communication in medical education.

We determined the Web-based configurations that are applied to teach medical and veterinary communication skills, evaluated their effectiveness, and suggested future educational directions for Web-based communication teaching in veterinary education. We performed a systematic search of CAB Abstracts, MEDLINE, Scopus, and ERIC limited to articles published in English between 2000 and 2012. The review focused on medical or veterinary undergraduate to clinical- or residency-level students. We selected studies for which the study population was randomized to the Web-based learning (WBL) intervention with a post-test comparison with another WBL or non-WBL method and that reported at least one empirical outcome. Two independent reviewers completed relevancy screening, data extraction, and synthesis of results using Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick's framework. The search retrieved 1,583 articles, and 10 met the final inclusion criteria. We identified no published articles on Web based communication platforms in veterinary medicine; however, publications summarized from human medicine demonstrated that WBL provides a potentially reliable and valid approach for teaching and assessing communication skills. Student feedback on the use of virtual patients for teaching clinical communication skills has been positive,though evidence has suggested that practice with virtual patients prompted lower relation-building responses.Empirical outcomes indicate that WBL is a viable method for expanding the approach to teaching history taking and possibly to additional tasks of the veterinary medical interview.

A scoping analysis of peer-reviewed literature about linkages between aquaculture and determinants of human health.

For many of the world's poor, aquatic products are critical for food security and health. Because the global population is increasing as wild aquatic stocks are declining, aquaculture is an increasingly important source of aquatic products. We undertook a scoping review of the English-language peer-reviewed literature to evaluate how the research community has examined the impacts of aquaculture on four key determinants of human health: poverty, food security, food production sustainability, and gender equality. The review returned 156 primary research articles. Most research (75%) was focused in Asia, with limited research from Africa (10%) and South America (2%). Most research (80%) focused on freshwater finfish and shrimp production. We used qualitative content analysis of records which revealed 11 themes: famer income; the common environment; shared resources; integrated farming/ polyculture; employment; extensive vs. intensive production; local vs. distant ownership; food security; income equity; gender equality; and input costs. We used quantitative content analysis of records and full-text publications about freshwater finfish and shrimp aquaculture to record the frequency with which themes were represented and the positive or negative impacts of aquaculture associated with each theme. Scatter plots showed that no theme was identified in more than half of all articles and publications for both production types. Farmer income was a theme that was identified commonly and was positively impacted by both shrimp and fresh water finfish aquaculture. Polyculture, employment, and local ownership were identified less often as themes, but were also associated with positive impacts. The common environment and shared resources were more common themes in shrimp aquaculture than freshwater finfish aquaculture research, while polyculture and local ownership were more common themes in freshwater finfish aquaculture than shrimp aquaculture. Gender equality, employment, and food security were themes found in a lower percentage of records than full-text publications for both production types.

Use of observed wild bird activity on poultry farms and a literature review to target species as high priority for avian influenza testing in 2 regions of Canada.

The risk of avian influenza outbreaks in poultry is partially dependent on the probability of contact between domestic poultry and wild birds shedding avian influenza (AI) virus. The major objective of this study was to document wild bird activity on poultry farms to determine which wild bird species should be targeted for AI surveillance in Canada. We collected data in 2 major poultry producing regions of Canada, southwestern Ontario and the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, on the relative abundance of various wild bird species found on poultry farms and on how these species utilized habitat around poultry farms. We reviewed the published literature to determine what was known about AI pathobiology in the species we observed. From these results we created a list of 10 wild bird species that are a priority for further study. These species are the European starling, barn swallow, rock dove, American crow, northwestern crow, American robin, dark-eyed junco, song sparrow, horned lark, and common grackle. Abundance of these and other species varied between provinces and seasons.

The information infrastructure that supports evidence-based veterinary medicine: a comparison with human medicine.

In human medicine, the information infrastructure that supports the knowledge translation processes of exchange, synthesis, dissemination, and application of the best clinical intervention research has developed significantly in the past 15 years, facilitating the uptake of research evidence by clinicians as well as the practice of evidence-based medicine. Seven of the key elements of this improved information infrastructure are clinical trial registries, research reporting standards, systematic reviews, organizations that support the production of systematic reviews, the indexing of clinical intervention research in MEDLINE, clinical search filters for MEDLINE, and point-of-care decision support information resources. The objective of this paper is to describe why these elements are important for evidence-based medicine, the key developments and issues related to these seven information infrastructure elements in human medicine, how these 7 elements compare with the corresponding infrastructure elements in veterinary medicine, and how all of these factors affect the translation of clinical intervention research into clinical practice. A focused search of the Ovid MEDLINE database was conducted for English language journal literature published between 2000 and 2010. Two bibliographies were consulted and selected national and international Web sites were searched using Google. The literature reviewed indicates that the information infrastructure supporting evidence-based veterinary medicine practice in all of the 7 elements reviewed is significantly underdeveloped in relation to the corresponding information infrastructure in human medicine. This lack of development creates barriers to the timely translation of veterinary medicine research into clinical practice and also to the conduct of both primary clinical intervention research and synthesis research.

Portrayals of canine obesity in English-language newspapers and in leading veterinary journals, 2000-2009: implications for animal welfare organizations and veterinarians as public educators.

In industrialized societies, more than 1 in 3 dogs and people currently qualify as overweight or obese. Experts in public health expect both these figures to rise. Although clinical treatment remains important, so are public perceptions and social norms. This article presents a thematic analysis of English-language mass media coverage on canine obesity from 2000 through 2009 and compares these results with a thematic analysis of articles on canine obesity in leading veterinary journals during the same time period. Drawing on Giddens's theory of structuration, this study identified articles that emphasized individual agency, environmental structure, or both as contributors to canine obesity. Comparisons with weight-related health problems in human populations were virtually absent from the veterinary sample. Although such comparisons were almost always present in the media sample, quotations from veterinarians and other spokespeople for the welfare of nonhuman animals emphasized the agency of individual caregivers (owners) over structural influences. Now that weight gain and obesity have been established as a pressing animal welfare problem, these results suggest a need for research and for interventions, such as media advocacy, that emphasize intersections between animal-owner agency, socioenvironmental determinants, and connections between animal welfare and human health.