You know that your veterinarian trained when he or she was getting a degree, but what happens after that? How does your vet learn what is new in medicine for your cat? Continuing education is required for vets in most states, though the hours vary from state to state. One of the ways that vets get their continuing education is by going to veterinary conferences and attending seminars, such as the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) conference that just wrapped up in Orlando yesterday.
At the NAVC conference, the 16,000 attending vets had the chance to take classes about a dizzying range of topics, from risk assessment and treatment of feline cardiac patients to the role of anxiety in feline house soiling. There are plenty of courses about other animals, too, from dogs to chinchillas to dolphins to horses. If your vet was one of the 16,000 who attended, they are returning with lots of information they can put to use right away.
Veterinary Products
Like most conferences, NAVC has an accompanying expo. It featured the vast array of products you would imagine, like pharmaceuticals, prescription foods, and medical supplies. It also featured some unexpected things like big trucks converted to create mobile veterinary practices.
Among the thousands of products featured at the expo were not one but two new FeLV/FIV rapid tests, Witness from Zoestis and the Abaxis VetScan. Neither of them require refrigeration, unlike the commonly used SNAP tests, so these could prove to be useful, especially with veterinarians who do outreach work for rescue organizations in locations without ready refrigeration.
Watson for Veterinarians
It’s literally impossible for your vet to read every study published in every journal. But a computer can sift through that information, if it’s programmed intelligently. Do you remember IBM Watson, the computer who won on Jeopardy? IBM has teamed up with the new NAVC/AAHA joint VetFolio site to make Watson’s skill at answering questions work for veterinarians as well as game show audiences.
LifeLearn Sofie is an intelligent treatment support tool that uses Watson’s cognitive computing to assess and interpret vast amounts of data and perform research on demand. When a veterinarian asks it a question in natural language, Sofie will provide focused, evidence-based treatment options. With a tool like this, vets have a lot more resources at their fingertips than they can keep in their heads, just by asking a question. That’s an innovative way to use technology to help meet your cat’s health care needs.
Why This Matters to You
Your vet relies on the latest in knowledge and techniques to help make the best treatment decisions and have the best outcomes for your cat. Continuing education helps your vet be ready to provide better treatment options for your cat and more peace of mind for you.
With so many choices, I wonder how the vets decide which areas to pick for continuing education? It must be hard!
Great post! There’s so much out there for VETs to learn about.
The Florida Furkids
We always see the same vet at the practice Mum takes us to as she likes to know that she will be aware of any problems we have had.
A friend of mine told me that at those conferences, the public can attend some of the seminars, so the next time they have a conference here, I will go to some. 🙂
I think it’s great that there are new FIV/FeLV tests!
We hope our regular vet gets continuing education. We know our vet behaviorist was at this conference. 🙂
Very interesting post, thanks!
We hope our vet is continuing his education, though our clinic focuses more on large animals than small. He does have a nice, new thick text book on cat health issues, which he consulted regarding Nicki’s asthma. That was encouraging, it sure was. :-/ (Sorry. Our human shouldn’t be that way, he’s been very patient and willing to help as best he can.)
so interesting – we love that vets can plus into a learning source for more information. and mom was excited to hear about test that don’t need to be refridgerated….
Our cat specialist vet keeps up on all things cat! Love her and her staff and other cat specialist vets.
Excellent posting!!!
My former Vet went. And he subscribed to the VIN..Veterinary Information Network I think it is where paid Vet subscribers can pose questions or provide answers. I don’t have any knowledge about this one we have now.
xxoo <3
From stuff I’ve overheard my doctor tellin’ my peeps, I know she continues to train. I’ve heard her mention goin’ to conferences in PEI and readin’ books, too. She’s a very responsible doctor, for sure.
Purrs,
Nissy
Training is lifelong, no matter your job ! Purrs
Thanks! It nice to know more about the vet people…
Noodle and crew
It’s very important that vet’s learn new things !
But as Summer say’s it can’t be easy to keep up with all new things.
Interesting! I heard good things from a few attendees and would have loved to attend.
Vets … pffftttt!
Will all Vets have access to this? It sounds great if it isn’t something expensive for the Vets. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
I bet our vet, well the head vet anymeow, went down fur sure. Dad belongs to International Cat Care which is a GB org that posts articles from theISFM, International Society of Feline Medicine. Since Dad is a RN they gave him access. Probably will give it to your pawrents too if they are interested let me know by using the Contact Us on the Right side of our bloggie. There are really good seminars every month and you can see the past ones on line.
Purrs
Timmy
how wonderful that you got to blog about it. thank you for sharing