How to gather information from veterinary practise? The “Idialoog System” for assessing the use of Guides with information on natural products

Objective was to assess the use by veterinarians of the Guides for farmers to keep their animals healthy with natural products. These booklets are published by the Dutch government to help in reducing the use of antibiotics in livestock by veterinarians. A questionnaire according to the iDiaLo og methodology, was distributed among all approved veterinarians that take part in a quality assurance program for a specific species. This Idialoog methodology is a proven research technique that allows for a high response and delivers relevant information on the primary question for the target group. Additional information on use of natural products and the role of the veterinarian was collected. All responses (answers and opinions) are anonymised and grouped. The participants receive this as feedback via email (figure 1). Within iDiaLoog, all participants are equal and can participate at any time that suits them best. Because of its near-real-time feedback properties it is attractive for participants to join and thus ensuring a high response rate. iDiaLoog is a simple, effective and efficient manner to gather and share relevant and actual information about specific topics. This provides practitioners with insight of their peer group.

Fig. 1: example of results of the questionnaire