EBM continuing education conferences

[malernee]

On May 18 – 19, 2004, the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine

will be hosting an educational symposium entitled Looking Toward the Future: Using

EBM and Outcome Assessment in Veterinary Medicine.

The aim of the symposium is two-fold: 1) to serve as an introduction to the concepts of

evidence-based practice and outcomes assessment and how these concepts are taught, and

2) to start a dialogue among private practitioners, educators, and industry representatives

on how we can work together, using these concepts, to identify best clinical approaches

in veterinary medical practice. By focusing on these two goals, we are attempting to

break down some of the barriers between clinical practice and academic veterinary

medicine by gathering and evaluating the evidence, collecting and analyzing outcomes,

and thus identifying best clinical practices for common clinical cases.

The program will feature speakers from both human and veterinary medicine who have

experience with teaching evidence-based concepts and using these concepts in practice.

Some of the speakers scheduled to present at this symposium include:

• Dan Mayer, MD – Professor of Emergency Medicine at Albany Medical College and

author of the book Essential Evidence-Based Medicine

• Dr. Mark Holmes, PhD, MA, VetMB, MRCVS – Senior lecturer in preventive

medicine at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the Handbook of

Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine.

• Dr. Philip Roudebush, DVM, DACVIM – Veterinary Fellow, Hill’s Science &

Technology Center

• Dr. Hugh Lewis, BVMS, MRCVS, DACVP – Senior Vice-President of Practice

Development, Banfield The Pet Hospital

A panel discussion and brainstorming session will follow the presentations on the last day

of the symposium. Some of this discussion will focus on how we, as academic

institutions, can work together and with private practitioners to establish best clinical

practices. One way this could be done is by collecting and analyzing clinical outcomes.

As UVIS users, we all share a common database management program (as well as

common problems and difficulties of getting this database up and running). One of the

initial reasons that our college purchased UVIS was to help us better collect data, both

clinical and diagnostic, about our patients. But collecting data is not enough: we want to

use and analyze the information not only for that patient, but also to help establish best

practice protocols. By doing this, we can improve the quality of medicine and care for

our patients and benefit the veterinary profession.

During the brainstorming session, we would like to start discussions with other UVIS

schools to engage in developing a common database to assist in the establishing best

clinical approaches. This effort has the potential to greatly strengthen our clinical

research, teaching, and professional outreach programs. We hope that you and others at

your institutions will join us for this and engage in these discussions. We feel that quality

veterinary medicine depends on our profession establishing best clinical practices through

a system of continuous improvement. This can only be accomplished by including the

best minds in veterinary medicine and requires breaking down the barrier between

clinical practice and academic practice.

I have enclosed a brochure and registration information regarding the symposium. Please

distribute this throughout your college and to those that you think might be interested.

Please give me a call at (662) 325-2283 or email me at srobertson@cvm.msstate.edu if you

have any questions. We look forward to your participation.