Skip to Main Content
Contact Us
Contact the Vet Med Library
or call 225-578-9800.
Overview
This guide is intended to help students and clinicians develop clinical questions and then find and evaluate available research evidence.
As you scroll down the guide, use the arrows at the right to bring you back to the top.
Practicing evidence-based veterinary medicine requires that clinicians:
1. Develop good, relevant clinical questions.
2. Locate the best available research evidence to answer those clinical questions.
3. Evaluate and appraise the research evidence retrieved for quality, validity, and applicability to the clinical questions.
4. Integrate the best available research evidence with the clinician's own clinical expertise and the client's preferences and values.
Types of Clinical Questions
Begin a search for research evidence by determining what questions need to be answered that will lead to the best course of action for the current clinical case. The type of question you are answering will determine the type of resource you will consult to answer the question.
Clinical questions can be classified as either background or foreground questions.
Background questions seek general knowledge about conditions or diseases.
These questions are generally "who, what, when, why, how" questions.
Sample background question: What are the symptoms of congestive heart failure in cats?
Foreground questions seek specific knowledge to inform clinical decisions.
These questions generally deal with diagnosis, etiology, harm, prognosis, or therapy/intervention.
Sample foreground question: In cats at risk of developing diabetes mellitus, is long-term use of oral steroid therapy associated with developing the disease? *