| WSAVA CE Programme events in 2010 WSAVA promotes Veterinary Dermatology Continuing Education in Latin America Vice President’s Sabbatical year - Prof Peter Irhke In October of 2009, I embarked on a one year sabbatical graciously granted me by the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine. My goal was to offer both basic and advanced education in schools of veterinary medicine and continuing education to national small animal practitioner groups in a non-traditional format. Instead of simply flying in and out giving lectures, my format was to ‘live and breathe’ veterinary dermatology in each country in a manner devised by my host schools and national veterinary groups to meet their needs and to maximize benefit. This was not to be a ‘one size fits all’ endeavor; the key was to be flexibility. WSAVA generously offered to arrange this sabbatical for me. I could not have done this without my WSAVA and my friend and colleague Dr. Luis Tello. Paraguay I began my journey in November in Asunción, Paraguay exuberantly hosted by AMVEPA, the Asociación de Médicos Veterinarios Especialistas en Pequeños Animales, Dr. Pedro Ferrer their president, and their highly active Executive Board and past officers. I have never met a more infectiously optimistic and happy veterinary group anywhere in the world. It is essential to them that work as well as play must be continuously fun and enjoyable! During my stay, I gave many lectures and informal presentations, participated in small discussion groups, and saw dogs and cats in clinics with groups of 10 to 25 veterinarians. This was an exhilarating format for exchanging ideas and learning! Day to day schedules varied markedly. In addition to educational activities arranged either in mornings, afternoons, or evenings, I was hosted during the evenings and weekends by AMVEPA board members. Local food and beer in Paraguay are excellent! Besides working with AMVEPA, I also spent time on the beautiful campus of the Universidad National de Asunción in Asunción hosted by Drs. Raphael Pintos and Roger Gonzalez Vatteone. They organized presentations, discussions and cases with their interns, residents, and graduate students plus joined in the other AMVEPA activities. During my second week in Paraguay, I drove to the much more rural far south with Dr. Vicente Penayo Nieva to the Universidad National De Asunción Sede Misiones, in Misiones. While there, I worked with both local practioners and University veterinarians in training programs. Misiones is a small school with a dedicated faculty looking towards the future. This was my 10th trip to South America, but my first trip to Paraguay. Paraguay is a startlingly beautiful landlocked sub-tropical developing country with a rich and vibrant history and culture. In their spring time, temperatures varied from 270 Celsius (800 Fahrenheit) to 470 Celsius (1160 Fahrenheit!) with high humidity. Rain can come rapidly and is tropical and torrential. Dressing comfortably is a challenge. Maintaining medical equipment is not easy when humidity is high and temperatures vary so widely. When air conditioners are turned off, heat and humidity rise rapidly. (Yes, mold can grow inside microscopes!) It is a country of remarkable contrasts; ancient and new, urban and rural, poor and wealthy. The veterinarians of Paraguay are a remarkable well-organized progressive group looking towards the future with a passion for veterinary medicine and for life. I have no doubt that I must return to visit these wonderful people and their beautiful country. Stay tuned - there will be more to come! WSAVA Continuing Edcuation Program Update 2010 The WSAVA CE programme last year hosted 5000 delegates in 32 countries and the work of the committee will be reported in detail later. I am grateful to the help given to me by Drs. Julian Wells, Roger Clarke, Lawson Cairns and Luis Tello in overseeing their various regional meetings. Our sponsors, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Intervet/Schering Plough Animal Health and Bayer Animal Health provide invaluable help in the planning stages and work with the Association representatives in setting up the local meetings. Our member associations, ASAVA, BSAVA, VOK, AFVAC and NSAVA have once again been extremely helpful and generous in providing expertise and funding which has continued to help our programme to expand.
India
The WSAVA India CE Program of 2009 was successfully organized by the Federation of Small Animal Practitioners Association of India (FSAPAI) and took place on 29th November 2009 with a total number of 171 veterinarians attending the CE program. The participants included veterinarians who are serving in the Indian Military, members of the Indo-Tibetan Border force, University staff, Industry veterinarians, and private practitioners; all thoroughly enjoyed the WSAVA CE program. Professor Michael Day’s lecture on Immunology and Pathology was very informative, providing basic practice techniques with very useful tips. A lively Q & A sessions then followed with overwhelming involvement of attendees.. More than 160 response forms have been collected and the report will be submitted to WSAVA Board. Namibia A WSAVA CE meeting was successfully hosted by the Veterinary Association of Namibia in Swakopmund, Namibia, South Africa on 21-23 October 2009. Professor Dan Smeak from Colorado State University and Dr. Pam Williams from Portland, Oregon, USA presented selected topics in Small Animal Surgery and Small Animal Emergency Medicine. The topics presented were both clinically relevant and very well received by the 60 veterinarians and 25 company representatives attending the CE program. Latin America The second phase of WSAVA CE for 2009 in Latin America, which took place during the month of October 2009, was a great success. Dr. Luis Tello coordinated the very first time WSAVA CE in Costa Rica and did an introduction about WSAVA CE Program and our Sponsors. There were 150 delegates enjoying the program. The CE subjects were Radiology and Ultrasound presented by our guest speaker, Dr Daniel Saez, and were well received. The audience was very thankful of WSAVA as we are one of the very few CE providers in the country. In Panama, it was the second WSAVA CE program held in that country and Dr Daniel Saez did a similar program. There were 80 practitioners participating and we received a lot of good comments from the audience about the program too. Dr Javier Green provided WSAVA CE lectures in Uruguay and Argentina. The CE subjects were Neurology and Neurosurgery. Excellent attendance in both countries and according to the organizers the speaker received excellent comments on the quality of his lectures. We had 95 delegates in Uruguay and more than 200 in Argentina. WSAVA Continuing Education Program update 2009 Continuing Education (CE) Committee – an update from Committee Chair and WSAVA President, Dr. David Wadsworth The WSAVA CE program continues to expand and give more top quality Continuing Professional Development to veterinary surgeons around the world. In 2008, a record number of over 5000 veterinarians attended over 30 meetings in 29 developing nations. New countries to be involved in the program included Panama and Morocco. The development of a program in Africa supervised by Dr. Lawson Cairns is an indication of our desire to help nations who are only just beginning to recognize small animal veterinary surgery as part of their daily work. We have been fortunate that AFVAC (French Small Animal Veterinary Association), NACAM (Norwegian Small Animal Veterinary Association), and BSAVA (British Small Animal Veterinary Association) have been prepared to donate funds and expertise to this cause. Our long term partners, Bayer Healthcare, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, and Intervet-SP recently met in Germany to discuss with WSAVA the plans for the future. The outcome was that while the program would continue in it’s present form, consideration would be given to developing a staged program for new participants. Starting with a fairly basic discussion on nutrition, parasite, and infectious disease control, the program would develop on an annual basis to dovetail exactly into the requirements of the average general practitioner within that country. The hope is that a pilot study could be started in an Asian country in 2009. Other innovations have been to encourage countries with small numbers of practicing veterinarians to attend CE meetings in neighbouring countries, Montenegro and Serbia, and to work with VPAT, Thailand who will invite delegates from neighbouring countries to the VPAT congress with a view to teaching them how to develop their own WSAVA CE programs. It is very pleasing to report that the initial recipients of WSAVA CE who have been involved in the program since the beginning have now developed to such a stage that they put on stand-alone CE meetings and WSAVA merely gives help in finding speakers and making a small donation in exchange for an advert in their program. It is especially pleasing to see that both the Czech Republic and Slovakia have waived the donation and place the advert free of charge. In this way they have changed from a recipient country to a sponsoring country, enabling their funds to be channeled to more needy associations. 2009 is going to be a very exciting year, the 50th Anniversary of WSAVA and hopefully WSAVA CE being staged in more countries than ever. CE on Africa – An update from Dr. Lawson Cairns The WSAVA and its member associations assisted in hosting a recent CE event in association with the Nairobi Small Animal Veterinary Association from February 13-15, 2009 at the Nairobi Race Track Club House. Sponsorship was also received from the Kenyan veterinary association as well as Bayer Animal Healthcare, Kruse, Pedigree Pet Foods, and Pfizer Animal Health. WSAVA was the main sponsor and supplied Prof Fred Reyers for 8 hours on topics such as Making a Diagnosis, Working Up a Weight Loss Case, Diagnosing Renal Disease, Blood Parasites, the Veterinarian and the World Wide Web, and Food Toxicosis (e.g., melamine) and this was followed by a Panel Discusion. Additionally, I provided a one-hour lecture on practice security and management. The meeting was attended by 40 veterinarians and both Prof Reyers and more specifically myself spent some time in explaining the role and function of WSAVA with encouragement to think about joining WSAVA. While the majority of attendees were engaged in large animal veterinary care, it is impossible to get a strictly Companion Animal audience; however, the provision of companion animal lectures is welcome and improving the level of knowledge regarding companion animal care. There seemed to be really good enthusiasm for the congress with a request that we become involved again next year.
There is also some enthusiasm that we run a separate conference in Mombasa but the attendance may not be sufficient to justify this and I would not have a reliable contact such as John Sercombe available in that city, but I will investigate further perhaps to tag a course on at the end of a future Nairobi course. I would like to include a thanks to John and Patsy Sercombe my contacts in Nairobi without whom the WSAVA involvement would have been impossible. Future CE Courses Planned for 2009 in South AfricaOn May 10th 2009 there was a further one-day session at Malelane farm, which is owned by Intervet-SP Animal Health, with invitations for both the Mozambique and the Swazi veterinarians. Dr. David Miller, a regular and excellent speaker for the WSAVA, addressed the veterinarians in attendance on practical and simple procedures they can use in their day-today practices. Animal Aid for Africa plan to run a congress in Maputu for the Mozambique veterinarians and I have arranged, on behalf of WSAVA, to assist in sending a speaker to this congress. WSAVA has also agreed to help with expenses for the Namibian Veterinary Associations congress usually held in October in Swakompund. They have invited Prof Dan Smeak to address them on surgery. I have been trying to establish contacts in Zambia and Malawi but so far I have no definite plans to run CE in those countries but I will continue to try. WSAVA Continuing Education and Member Association Updates Iran Dr Seyed javid Aldavood, Associate Professor, Small Animal Department
Veterinary School, University of Tehran The 5th WSAVA CE was held in Hamedi Hall, at the Veterinary Faculty of University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran on November 21, 2008. More than 500 delegates attended the lectures, most of whom were under and post-graduate students. Additionally, the lectures were also provided online and a number of veterinarians from throughout Iran attended this way. Dr. Ray Butcher gave four lectures on Veterinary Practice Management followed by an interactive question and answer session. The Lectures were:
1. An introduction to assessing performance and business planning
2. The Team Concept
3. Image and communicating with the client
4. Promoting your clinic Sri Lanka: Dr. Niranjala de Silva We had a very successful and invaluable training program from January 5th to 15th at Peradeniya. Each day, Dr. Graeme Allan spent 2 hours teaching veterinary imaging to the students, delivering an entire semesters program during his stay, as well as providing ultrasound guidance into clinical cases. On January 13th we had the practitioners training day with integrate dimaging lectures and a live ultrasound demonstration. The participants were very happy as they benefitted a lot. Everybody (students, clinicians and practitioners ) wanted Dr. Allan to come back to teach them. Hope we may be able to find a way to get him back. During his stay, Dr. Allan also toured the elephant orphanage.
Dr. Allan commented that he “would love to return one day to build on what I left behind, as well as to help them develop their practical imaging a bit further. I'd also like to help the elephant orphanage vets start using their elephant radiology facility.” Cuba: Dr. Jesús Moreno Lazo MSc
Presidente de la Asociación Consejo Cientifico Veterinario de Cuba
On October 31 and November 1, 2008 in Pinar del Rio City and then again on November 3, 2008 in Havana City, WSAVA-sponsored CE was given by Dr. Babette on the topic of veterinary dermatology. Registration was 500 delegates and the lectures were rated as excellent by the Cuban Small Animal Association’s Arbitration Committee, based on their high scientific content and mastery while delivering them.
Despite the devastating hurricane in Pinar del Rio, which affected many of our members, there was tremendous attendance even including associate members who lost their houses. This should give WSAVA members an idea of the great prestige the WSAVA has within our members as well as the level of cooperation between our two associations. The Scientific Veterinary Council of Cuba deeply appreciates the support of WSAVA to our Association, which has been recognized publicly in a Solemn Rally commemorating the 100 years of the Veterinary Association in Cuba awarding WSAVA the Acknowledgment of Distinguished Guest. The Cuban CE course was arranged in cooperation with NSAVA (Norwegian Small Animal Veterinary Association), with NSAVA financially supporting the travel expenses and honorarium of the lecturer, Dr. Babette Taugbol. WSAVA CE: Sri Lanka - reported by Dr. Roger ClarkeThe WSAVA has been hosting WSAVA CE programmes for practitioners in Sri Lanka for some time, but the usual programme was limited to 1 or 2 day visits and there was obviously a need for assistance on a broader scale in this very poor country. Dr. Roger Clarke, who chairs the WSAVA CE programme in Asia, gave the first programme of CE that extended beyond the reach of the normal WSAVA programme. He donated approximately 2 weeks of his time free of charge to teaching final year veterinary students at the University of Peradinaya in Kandy. His airfare was paid by the Commonwealth Veterinary Association and he was assisted locally by the Sri Lanka Veterinary association. While in Sri Lanka, Dr. Clarke also lectured practitioners. This was such a success that he looked for ways to continue this teaching programme. In 2008 Dr. Dave Watson, formerly of the University of Sydney Veterinary School, volunteered to go to Sri Lanka on a pro bono basis and he taught the students and practitioners the secrets of problem-oriented veterinary medicine. The ASAVA took over part of the financial assistance for the programme and has contributed to the accommodation costs of Dr. Watson while he was away. The WSAVA CE programme paid the airfare as part of the WSAVA CE commitment. In 2009, Dr Graeme Allan will be going, again on a pro bono basis to assist the veterinary school to use its new ultrasound equipment and to teach diagnostic imaging to the students and the staff as well as the practitioners who may utilise this service. The involvement of the ASAVA in this way is very much appreciated by the WSAVA, and we join the ranks of other national veterinary associations in sponsoring our less affluent colleagues throughout the world. The ASAVA has benefited enormously in its membership of the WSAVA, both in the exchange of knowledge and the opportunity to hold the largest veterinary congress Australia has seen in 2007. WSAVA CE: Panama - reported by Dr. Luis TelloWith a population of 3.3 million people, Panama was the second fastest growing economy in Latin America in 2008. The country has one veterinary college, located in facilities that used to house the American Panama Canal Administration offices and is in need of both structural and equipment upgrades/repair. However, with a reinvigorated leadership and growing membership, AMVEPA has become more active on behalf of its members in 2008, particularly in the delivery of CE. As part of its Global CE Programme, WSAVA hosted its first meeting for small animal veterinarians in Panama City, Panama on the topic of Emergency Veterinary Medicine. Lectures were given by Drs. Luis Tello (WSAVA Vice President) and Adriana Lopez (LAVECCS Secretary) with approximately 80 delegates attending. Thanks again to our CE sponsors Bayer Animal Health, Hill�s Pet Nutrition, and Intervet/Schering Plough Animal Health. Continuing Education (CE) in Africa Dr. Lawson Cairns Mozambique
On October 30, 2008, approximately 80 veterinarians attended a Continuing Education session on Aspects of Dermatology presented by Dr. Lawson Cairns and held at the Jose Josano Convention Center in Malelane, Mozambique as part of the Mozambique Veterinary Conference. While most in attendance were primarily state veterinarians focused on food-producing animals, the lecture was very well-received and helped provide a refresher for companion animal dermatological diseases. This was followed by a clinical lab held at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital facilities and encompassed practical, hands-on experience with splinting and bandaging, and the performance of a prostatic wash, cellophane skin test, and ear swab, including staining and analysis. While the veterinary school has not been fully operational since the War Of Independence, work is being done by Dr. Jose Cardosa and others to address this. Namibia
The Naimibian Veterinary Association co-hosted WSAVA-sponsored lectures by Dr. Remo Lobetti on Small Animal Internal Medicine and held on October 23, 2008 in Swakopmund, Namibia. Continuing Education in Mumbai Dr. Brian RombergThis CE program was held on November 15 at the Club, in Mumbai and was opened by the Secretary of PPAM, Dr Makarand Chousalkar. He thanked both the WSAVA for their ongoing support of CE in India and the sponsors, which included Bayer Animal Health, Hills Pet Nutrition, and Intervet Schering Plough Animal Health.. He then presented the representative from each of the sponsoring companies with a gift from PPAM in appreciation of their assistance.
Dr. Romberg was accorded the opportunity to introduce the WSAVA to the delegates by means of a slide presentation, through which he discussed the WSAVA vision and mission statements and explained the advantages of being a WSAVA member for both the Federation and the individual member. He encouraged all in attendance to visit the WSAVA website and to attend the WSAVA World Congress. On registration the 148 delegates received a folder which included a copy of the proceedings, writing material, a certificate of attendance, and a feedback form as to their preferred topics for the 2009 CE program. Each sponsor had a full page color advert in the proceedings.
Dr. David Miller from the Ridgemall Specialist Veterinary Referral Center in Johannesburg, South Africa was the lecturer and his lectures were well received, with delegates responding enthusiastically by asking numerous questions at the end of each topic and during the breaks. The commercial exhibition was held in an adjoining room and the venue was superb, as was the catering.
This was the 7th WSAVA CE symposium organized by PPAM under the able leadership of Dr Umesh Karkare. Future symposia will be organized under the banner of the Federation of Small Animal Practitioners Association of India. WSAVA Continuing Education updates Taiwan - Approximately 200 veterinarians attended Dr Caiafa's lectures at the meeting which was sponsored by WSAVA and hosted by the Taipei Veterinary Medical Association, a member of WSAVA. The lectures were followed by a workshop at which Dr Caiafa was assisted by Mr Lehman Bloom from an Australian company, iM3, that makes and sells dental equipment to the veterinary profession all over the world. Dr Caiafa is a veterinary surgeon who is also a qualified graduate human dentist having completed a dental degree (dux of his graduating year) at the University of Melbourne after he completed his veterinary degree. |
