Learning evidence-based veterinary medicine through development of a critically appraised topic.

Evidence-based veterinary medicine is a relatively new field of study. Increased knowledge of medicine coupled with the increased ability of computers and other electronic devices present overwhelming information. The critically appraised topic (CAT) is one method to gather and evaluate information related to a clinical question. CATs in informatics are short summaries of evidence, usually found through literature searches, in response to a specifically stated, clinically oriented problem or question. This article describes a study in which each first-year veterinary student developed a CAT as a class project. The results of this project indicate that students were able to successfully develop CATs and that this exercise helped them understand evidence-based veterinary medicine concepts. Though some modification in this project will be made in the future, overall it was a worthwhile effort and will remain as an activity in the course.