Business of Orthopedics

OBJECTIVE: To determine the items (question topics) for a subjective instrument to assess degenerative joint disease (DJD)-associated chronic pain in cats and determine the instrument design most appropriate for use by cat owners.
ANIMALS: 100 randomly selected client-owned cats from 6 months to 20 years old.

ABSTRACT

The proportion of UK veterinary surgeons who die by suicide as opposed to other causes is approximately four times that of the general population, and around twice that of other healthcare professionals. Recent research suggests that veterinary surgeons report high levels of psychological distress. This paper proposes a portfolio of evidence-based interventions, for both organisations and individuals, which have the potential to improve mental health and wellbeing in the veterinary profession.

Pigeon behavioural conditioning methods are similar to the processes that orthopaedic surgeons use to evaluate new surgical procedures. Alternatively, evidence-based orthopaedics is a tool for surgeons to evaluate procedures in a systematic, patient-centred way that is less instinctive than pigeon behaviour. The objective of this article is to describe evidence-based orthopaedics, and then propose changes to surgical culture with the aim of refining the interpretation of the current literature and improving the quality of future research.