BestBETs review highlights global reach and topic gaps

Veterinary evidence summaries are reaching a global audience, but the latest review of BestBETs for Vets suggests there’s still room to broaden the topics clinicians can use at the point of care. In a 10-year analysis published in Veterinary Record Open, researchers reviewed 96 critically appraised topics, or CATs, in the BestBETs for Vets database and found the strongest concentration in canine and reproduction topics, with users accessing the resource from more than 190 countries. The database, developed by the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine, crossed the 100-CAT mark in 2024, underscoring both sustained use and a relatively modest output from a small editorial team over a decade. (nottingham.ac.uk)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the findings are a practical snapshot of where evidence-based support is available, and where gaps remain. CATs are designed to give clinicians rapid, structured answers to focused clinical questions, and the Nottingham team says each BestBET is built around literature searches, standardized critical appraisal, and a “clinical bottom line” for practice use. Earlier work from the same evidence-based veterinary medicine group has argued that CATs are especially useful in clinical decision-making, education, and identifying research gaps, but also warned that narrow scope and infrequent updating can limit relevance over time. More broadly, CATs in other health fields have proliferated in specialized forms: a recent pharmacovigilance scoping review identified 18 causality assessment tools developed or updated between 2008 and 2023, most of them algorithm-based and some tailored to specific outcomes such as drug-induced liver injury or severe cutaneous adverse reactions, as well as settings like pediatrics, neonatal intensive care, and vaccines. That wider pattern reinforces the same point for veterinary medicine: rapid evidence tools are useful, but they become more valuable when they are regularly updated and adapted to specific clinical contexts. (nottingham.ac.uk)

What to watch: The next question is whether BestBETs for Vets expands beyond its current topic mix and publication pace now that the resource has passed 100 CATs and is actively soliciting user feedback. A key issue will be whether future development moves toward more targeted summaries for particular species, disciplines, or clinical scenarios, mirroring how CATs in other areas of medicine have become more context-specific over time. (nottingham.ac.uk)