Animal Owners
Welcome to the Antimicrobial Audit tool.
The VetTeamAMR audit tool is an online, electronic system that has been created to support veterinary practices to better understand their antimicrobial prescribing behaviours. Antibiotics are often prescribed to help treat bacterial infections. The more often bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the greater the chance that bacteria will build resistance to them, meaning the antibiotics no longer work to treat the infection. By taking a closer look at what antibiotics we are prescribing and why, we can improve our chances to keep antibiotics working for when they are really needed.
Why take part in the Antimicrobial Audit tool?
By taking part in this project, you are helping the One Health fight to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics.
Your veterinary practice is showing that they are committed to preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics and achieving the best possible outcomes for the animals that they treat. The audit will allow your veterinary practice to monitor their antibiotic prescribing, giving an overview of the quality of the treatment they give. It is only through the information that you and other owners share, that we will be able to build a picture of which approaches give the best outcomes and have the fewest complications.
Your participation will help us learn more about your animal's recovery and will contribute to building knowledge and safeguarding medicines that will help all animals requiring antibiotic treatment in the future.
How it works
Each user will need to register an account on our dedicated audit platform, where we will collect your consent to participate in this project.
Please note: To register you will require your animal's unique identifying number, known as their Animal ID, which your veterinary practice will be able to provide you with.
Once registered, you will be asked a series of questions about your animal’s general health, which will need to be completed before your veterinary consultation. Afterwards, you will receive regular emails asking about your animal's care and recovery.
These emails will include some short questionnaires where you can report any complications.
The Antimicrobial Audit tool is free to use for both owners and veterinary practices.
If you have any questions, please see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below or get in touch at [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The Antimicrobial Audit Tool relies on the involvement of both veterinary teams and animal owners to contribute their information to build an evidence-base around antimicrobial use and treatment outcomes. This page provides you with information about how the project is run and how we handle your data.
This page is also available in printable format. Download them here.
What is the RCVS Knowledge Antimicrobial Audit tool?
Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to animal and human health. It is essential that we all handle antimicrobials with care to preserve their effectiveness.
RCVS Knowledge runs a national audit using an online Antimicrobial Auditing Tool (the Tool). Veterinary teams and animal owners input data into the Tool. These data enable your veterinary practice to review and evaluate whether their antimicrobial prescribing behaviour is in line with recommended practice, and how it impacts you and your animal, to ensure that antimicrobials are used as much as necessary, and as little as possible.
What does it involve?
If your animal has a veterinary consultation, your veterinary practice may ask if you want to be involved with the audit. Once you have agreed to take part, you will receive an email asking you to register and fill in a short questionnaire about your animal.
When your animal has their consultation, your veterinary practice will submit information on any medications prescribed. Following the consultation, you will receive an email asking you how your animal is getting on. This is an opportunity to share with your vet how you and your animal have found the treatment plan. You may also be sent additional questionnaires a few weeks after your consultation or after any follow-up consultations to see how your animal is doing in the longer term.
How does this help my animal and vet?
We need to make sure that antimicrobials are used appropriately to ensure they remain effective to treat the animals and people that need them. Your veterinary practice is supportive of this mission which will have a positive impact on both human and animal health. Your questionnaire responses will support your vet to review the effects of their prescribing decisions. By taking part your vet will be able to see how your animal is doing after the consultation.
As well as helping to support your own vet, your participation will contribute towards the wider efforts from the veterinary community to tackle antimicrobial resistance and ensure that antimicrobials remain working for maintaining animal health and welfare.
If you have any concerns about how your animal is doing, you should still contact your own vet directly.
What does it cost?
It is free to use for both owners and veterinary teams.
Who runs the Antimicrobial Audit?
RCVS Knowledge are dedicated to advancing the quality of veterinary care for the benefit of animals, the public, and society. They are the charity partner of the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons).
The online Antimicrobial Audit tool is managed on a day-to-day basis by Amplitude Clinical Outcomes, a global leader in online health outcomes software.
Do I need to take part?
You do not need to take part, but we hope we have shown how your participation will help you to support your vet and the veterinary community in their fight against antimicrobial resistance.
If you would like to participate, we need your consent. Your decision to take part, or not, will not affect the treatment your animal receives in any way. You are free to withdraw your consent from the audit at any time, without any detriment to the care of your animal(s) either now or in the future. Once you withdraw your consent only anonymised data will remain.
How do you obtain my consent?
If you wish to participate in the audit, your vet or another member of the practice team will enrol you through your email address. You will receive an email which contains a link that takes you to the registration process, where you will provide your explicit consent electronically.
Alternatively, if your vet is participating in the audit, you can register directly at RCVS Knowledge Outcomes.
What personal data do you collect?
With your consent, we collect the following personal information and process it securely under Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulations and UK Data Protection Act 2018.
- Your email address
- Your name
- Personal security information, in the form of a question to secure your account.
Can anyone else access my data?
RCVS Knowledge can access your data to administer the audit and provide feedback to your veterinary surgeon. Amplitude can access your data to administer the audit. No other organisation will be able to access your identifiable personal information apart from your veterinary practice team members. The joint data controllers are RCVS Knowledge and your veterinary practice. The data processor is Amplitude Clinical Outcomes, our IT partner.
To view the levels of data security on the platform visit https://amplitude-clinical.com/information-governance-information/
What happens to my data?
We will use personal data solely to contact you to review the progress of your animal. The veterinary practice will use the data collected from questionnaires to analyse outcomes of treatment plans for animals that have had a consultation. This additional information will support them in reviewing antimicrobial prescribing outcomes. Submitted animal data will be anonymised to ensure you as an individual cannot be identified by third parties. Your veterinary practice team will have access to the data about your animal to evaluate the treatments they perform and assess clinical progress.
How long will you keep my data?
Your personal data will be stored for the length of time you wish to remain part of the audit. At your request, your personal data can be removed from the audit at any time. However, to ensure consistency in our results, we will keep all anonymised animal-related data indefinitely.
How long do I need to take part in this project?
It would be great to hear from you about your animal for the length of the recovery following the consultation. The more information your veterinary practice gets, the better conclusions they can make from it in terms of antimicrobial use. Veterinary team members do not usually have access to detailed information on patient outcomes. These detailed data from the owner-reported features of the audit will support veterinary teams and offer the opportunity to reflect on case outcomes in line with antimicrobial prescribing behaviour. Anonymized combined data will give us a national picture of which prescribing behaviours have the best outcomes.
If you no longer wish to complete questionnaires, you no longer own the animal, or sadly your animal passes away, please let us know, and we will stop contacting you. You can also do this directly from any follow-up emails we send you.
Can I withdraw my consent?
You can withdraw consent at any time without explanation. Results up to the period of withdrawal will be used in an anonymised format.
How can I find out more information?
Any Questions?
If you have any questions regarding the platform itself, including login and password details, your profile on the platform and any other technical questions, please contact Amplitude Clinical Outcomes:
[email protected] / 0333 014 6363 available Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm excluding Bank Holidays.
If you have any questions related to this audit, please contact:
We endeavour to respond to all queries within five working days.
Are you keen to take part but your veterinary practice hasn't yet signed up?
Tell them to get involved! RCVS Knowledge’s free Antimicrobial Audit Tool provides the opportunity to gather antimicrobial prescription information in an open, honest, and transparent way, and without any commercial bias. It relies on information reported by you, and by your veterinary surgeon.
If you decide to take part in the audit, your veterinary practice will register your email address and we will send you a series of questions about your dog. We will keep in touch with you before and after your animal's treatment and ask you to provide information about their recovery.
If you are not currently part of the audit, but would like to be, please speak to your veterinary practice.