How does EVSNET work with veterinary practices?
We collect electronic health data from a large portion of veterinary practices across the UK. Extracts are used by scientists to help improve the health of the nation's horse population.
Why take part in EVSNET?
EVSNET relies on the valuable contributions of veterinary practices across the UK. By sharing clinical data, your practice will be directly supporting research aimed at understanding the causes, patterns and risk factors of equine diseases. This information is essential for identifying emerging health threats, reducing disease risk, and improving clinical advice, treatment protocols and outcomes for horses. Together with researchers, universities, charities, and other organisations, your data will help drive evidence-based improvements in equine health and welfare.
Benchmarking and clinical data research provide a tangible benefit to UK veterinary practice. In recognition of this, the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme awards points to practices that contribute clinical data to EVSNET.
What do we collect?
We will automatically collect the following types of information each time you see a horse:
- Species, breed, age, sex, castration status and microchip number
- Weight and body condition score
- Vaccination history
- Clinical note free-text
- Items purchased, treatments given and drugs prescribed
- Insurance status
- Stables or owner postcode
- Unique anonymised identification numbers assigned to the client and horse.
How can horse owners opt out of EVSNET?
Owners can request for data to be removed from EVSNET retrospectively by completing our opt-out form. Veterinary practice staff can also complete this form on an owner’s behalf when requested. All requests to remove data will be actioned, unless data has been included in an active research dataset or already published, in which case the data will be used for no further research.