AABP member Dr. David Smith joins us in this episode to discuss basic principles of epidemiology. Dr. Smith defines epidemiology as studying population and group dynamics to understand health and disease. We begin by discussing the evidence pyramid to discuss the types of evidence and how to evaluate each level for incorporating results into practice. We also review basic epidemiologic terms such as sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, confidence interval, p-value and treatment effect or effect size. Listen to his recommendations for how practicing veterinarians can determine if an effect they are seeing is due to a specific intervention or disease process. Dr. Smith also makes recommendations for veterinarians that do not have a large sample size and how to apply evidence-based decisions to your treatment and prevention protocols. We also discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and how epidemiology is applied to testing and control measures. Join us for this refresher course on epidemiology that can be applied by every veterinarian!