Evidence based veterinary medicine
Good read:
http://ebvma.org/home/what-is-ebvm-why-does-it-matter/
Also some good articles in the blog tab.
I hesitate to put these thoughts out there, hoping this does not degenerate into a sort of barefoot vs shoes train wreck threads. I’ll purposely make it long so those not interested in thorough reading will avoid participating.
At first I was a bit dismayed that teaching basic scientific principles was even considered necessary by the veterinary community. They teach science in vet school- yes? But upon further reflection, I acknowledge that it is vital.
Equine science is young and under-funded. The empty spaces between good science often get filled by intuition, speculation and plain old quackery. My own work was to fill a space where knowledge was sorely needed, and the published veterinary literature was lacking, vague or just wrong. I did my very best to apply good science to my work and ask for critical review from established plants scientists behind the scenes and in peer reviewed veterinary journals (that are not capable of reviewing plant science).
Most people lack the scientific literacy to evaluate the validity of practices they may encounter concerning their own and their animal’s health care. We are grateful to relinquish responsibility for decision making to our local veterinary authority figure. Wishful thinking and anti-science are common in the world, and I have often pondered if these traits are more common in horse owners, or if it’s just that I have more contact with horsey folks. Alternative/Natural medicine is really popular these days, but please, there is only good medicine or bad medicine, appropriate or in-appropriate, useful, not useful and benign or flat out dangerous. Some people seek out and pay more for Alternatives, and its good business to provide goods and services that cater to this kind of client. I think sometimes the Alternative providers who provide magic bullets and throw around promises so easily make way more money than us boring, hard to understand scientists who always provide disclaimers and acknowledge that it may take some time to work out the best strategy based on empirical evidence provided by the horse being treated. But it’s not about conventional or alternative. Those are meaningless buzz words.
I used what are generally considered conventional and alternative methods during my horse keeping days in a remote place where there just wasn’t a really good horse vet. Some advice was beneficial, some nearly killed my horses. It doesn’t really matter if they are ‘traditional-conventional’ or ‘alternative’. What matters is how much time they spend seeking and learning and their ability to evaluate the validity of the information. Proper evaluation of empirical evidence has to fill in the empty gaps in literature based knowledge. Acknowledgement of confirmation bias and always playing devil’s advocate with yourself has to be part of that process. That’s why they call it ‘practice’.
One vet that I considered to be very good admitted to me that she should be spending a full day a week reviewing the literature, but she just doesn’t have the time or energy. Good vets are kept running. She had a big pile of unread journals.
I guess the point of this is that we can never succumb to the lure of blind faith to authority. Skepticism is healthy in all things. Always question what you think you know, because you or the authority who told you might be wrong. For further reading, look for books on epistemology in your local library, 120 Dewey system. Really fascinating subject.
