Introducing QUIT-the Quality and Uncertainty Indicator Triage tool: 10 questions to help veterinary professionals more confidently triage treatment study reports.

Abstract

Veterinarians are expected to make treatment and intervention recommendations that are specific to client needs, based on clinical expertise, and made in consideration of the best available research evidence. Consideration of research evidence requires not just keeping up with new studies but also critically appraising and assessing their relevance within the larger context of the body of evidence. Ideally, a veterinarian could access robust and transparent reviews such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses, but few are available in veterinary medicine. Therefore, veterinarians seek other sources of information including individual research papers. This process is time-intensive, and veterinarians face barriers of access, skill and time as obstacles to keeping up. Recognizing time as the greatest barrier, the Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine Association (EBVMA) Board, in collaboration with invited colleagues, developed QUIT-the Quality and Uncertainty Indicator Triage tool. The QUIT tool is comprised of 10 binary questions designed to help the reader flag concerns potentially affecting the reliability of treatment studies. As flags accumulate, the reader can more confidently quit reading and set the study aside. The QUIT tool is intended as a guide for ruling out studies and is not to be used for ruling in studies for inclusion in decision making; questions are inadequate to fully assess study validity. This is a subtle but important distinction. The QUIT tool and all supporting materials are freely available on the EBVMA website. Lastly, QUIT is a prototype and we invite your feedback by submitting a completed feedback form to info@ebvma.org.