Download Speaker Profiles and Programme

The Sceptical Vet: Eminence or Evidence?
Finding the best way forward for the
veterinary profession | An open
symposium
Speaker Profiles and Programme
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee and Registration
11.00 Welcome from the Chairman
Geoff Little MVB MRCVS
Geoff qualified from Trinity College, Dublin in 1973.
After a short spell in small animal practice and 5
years in mixed practice in Somerset, he returned to
Stockport in 1979 to take up a partnership in
Woodcroft Veterinary Group. Geoff retired from
the partnership in April 2000 to pursue other
interests within the profession, and then retired in
December 2005 after 20 years as a Director of
Centaur Services Ltd., one of the UK’s largest
veterinary wholesalers.
Geoff is currently a veterinary business advisor for
Anval Ltd., a UK advisory service on management
and finance for the veterinary profession and
Communications Training Associate with the
Veterinary Defence Society, the UK’s leading Veterinary Professional
Indemnity Insurance Provider.
Geoff’s other roles have included being the director of MyVet Network in
southern Ireland, a company that offers management advice to practices,
director of the Veterinary Benevolent Fund, spoken on, and published, many
articles on various aspects of Veterinary Practice Management both in the UK
and abroad, including the following congresses, BSAVA, WSAVA, VPMA,
BEVA, FECAVA and SPVS, Royal Canin VBF.
Geoff is the co-author of the Handbook of Veterinary Communications Skills
and of The BSAVA Manual of Small Animal Management & Development.
Geoff is also a former president of the Society of Practising Veterinary
Surgeons and Chairman of the Veterinary Angling Association.
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11.10 Session 1
Getting a handle on EVM: clarifying the basics and how and where
it applies to veterinary practice
Dr Sally Everitt BVSc PhD MRCVS
Sally qualified from the University of Bristol in
1981. She has spent most of her working life in
predominantly small animal practice but in 2011
joined BSAVA as Scientific Policy Officer.
Having become interested in the concept of
Evidence-based medicine through her work with the local Community Health
Council she became interested in how these ideas could be applied in the
veterinary field. Sally joined the SPVS Masters Group led by Bradley Viner
looking at Clinical Audit in the veterinary profession and returned to university
to study for a PhD looking at clinical decision making in veterinary practice at
The University of Nottingham.
Pam Mosedale BVetMed MRCVS
Pam qualified from the Royal Veterinary College.
She was a partner in a Veterinary Hospital for 17
years. She then took on the role of a Practice
Standards inspector from the start of the BSAVA
scheme, continuing her position under the RCVS
when they took over the scheme in 2005. She was
appointed as a Senior Inspector.
Pam’s helped practices with the clinical governance requirement in the RCVS
Practice Standards Scheme. Pam also advised regular clinical discussion
meetings, significant event reviews, communication of information learned at
CPD meetings and on drawing up practice protocols and guidelines following
team discussions. Now that there is a requirement for clinical governance to
form part of all vets and RVNs professional activities is in the Code of
Conduct, this has become even more relevant for the whole practice team.
Pam is the joint editor of the BSAVA Guide to the Use of Veterinary
Medicines. She has recently become an SQP assessor for AMTRA and is a
Veterinary Investigator for RCVS. Pam also does some small animal locum
work.
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11.40 Session 2: What has EBM done for the medicine field?
Professor Khalid Khan, Professor of Women's Health and Clinical
Epidemiology, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Khalid Khan is Professor of Women's Health and Clinical
Epidemiology at Barts and the London School of Medicine,
Queen Mary University of London. His expertise is in
clinical obstetrics-gynaecology, patient-oriented health
research and medical education. He has published over
250 peer reviewed journal articles and authored 20 books
and chapters. His research contribution is in systematic
reviews (meta-analyses), multicentre primary prospective
evaluations of treatments and tests, health technology assessment and
evaluation of educational methods. He is an Editor of Evidence-based
Medicine and BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
12.10 Session 3: The veterinary landscape and perspective
Dr Brennen McKenzie, President of Evidence Based Veterinary
Medicine Association
Dr. McKenzie is a 2001 graduate of the University of
Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine and is a
small animal general practitioner in private practice in
California. He is currently president of the Evidence-Based
Veterinary Medicine Association. Dr. McKenzie is also a
member of the American Society of Veterinary Journalists,
the author of the SkeptVet Blog, and a contributing author
for the Science-Based Medicine Blog. He writes and
speaks regularly on the subjects of evidence-based
veterinary medicine and complementary and alternative medicine.
“The principles and methods of evidence-based veterinary medicine are
powerful tools for improving patient care. Despite challenges and obstacles,
there are many ongoing EVM projects around the world already contributing to
the improvement of our knowledge and the welfare of our patients. With
sufficient commitment and enthusiasm, we can further integrate EVM into the
fabric of our profession, to the benefit of veterinarians and clients as well as
patients.”
1.15 – 2.00 Lunch
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.00
2.00 Session 4: Practical stories from the equine, small animal and
farm animal sectors (including Panel Q+A)
Dr Tim Mair BVSc PhD DEIM DipECEIM DESTS
MRCVS
Bell Equine Veterinary Clinic Kent
Tim Mair graduated from the University of Bristol in
1980. Following a spell in general practice he returned
to Bristol as a Horserace Betting Levy Board Research
Training Scholar to undertake research into equine
immunology and respiratory diseases. He obtained a
PhD in 1986 and then stayed at Bristol as a Wellcome
Trust Lecturer in equine medicine. He returned to equine practice in 1989,
joining Bell Equine Veterinary Clinic in 1993 and becoming a partner in 1995.
His main interests are equine internal medicine, soft tissue surgery and MRI.
He has Diplomas from the RCVS in Equine Internal Medicine and Equine Soft
Tissue Surgery, and is a founding Diplomate of the European College of
Equine Internal Medicine. He became an Associate of the European College
of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging in 2011. He has been editor of Equine
Veterinary Education since 1996. He has published over 150 articles in peerreviewed journals, as well as many non-peer-reviewed articles and book
chapters. He has co-authored or co-edited a number of textbooks on equine
medicine and surgery.
Dr Aiden Foster PhD DipACVD MRCVS
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories
Agency (AHVLA)
Dr Aiden Foster qualified from Bristol in 1987 after
reading biology at the University of Nottingham. He
worked in mixed general practice for several years
where he developed an interest in dermatology.
After studying for a PhD at the University of Bristol
he completed a residency in veterinary dermatology
and became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology.
From 1997 to 2004 he was a lecturer then senior lecturer in veterinary
dermatology at the University of Bristol. He served on the board of the
European Society of Veterinary Dermatology for 10 years including as
president. He is an honorary associate professor in veterinary dermatology at
the Nottingham vet school. He has been with the AHVLA since 2004 and is
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based at the Shrewsbury regional laboratory. His particular interests include
large animal dermatology, publishing and miscellaneous farmed species
including camelids and deer. He has been editor-in-chief of the WileyBlackwell journal Veterinary Dermatology since 2006; he sits on the editorial
boards of In Practice and the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. He is a
co-author of a Cochrane style analysis of RCTs in canine atopic dermatitis.
“Much is made of the high value evidence that resides within reviews of
randomised controlled trials in human medicine. While it is relatively early
days for veterinary reviews of RCTs, as more of them emerge veterinary
clinicians and authors need to be aware of their roles and responsibilities
when reading and preparing these large documents. Good quality
reviews can inform new research and help vets and owners to make
informed decisions about treatment choices for their pet.”
Dr Wendela Wapenaar MRCVS
Clinical Lecturer in Farm Animal Medicine and
Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine
and Science, University of Nottingham
Wendela Wapenaar graduated as a farm animal
veterinarian in Utrecht, The Netherlands. After a few
months working in mixed practice in The Netherlands
she moved to the Waikato in New Zealand to focus
on dairy cattle work. After 2 years thoroughly
enjoying New Zealand, a new challenge appeared
and she moved to Prince Edward Island on the
Canadian East Coast where she completed a
residency in Ruminant Farm Animal Medicine. At the
same university she completed her PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology. Her
research topic was the epidemiology of Neospora caninum in dairy cattle and
wildlife on Prince Edward Island. After almost 4 years in Canada, she moved
to the UK, where she worked briefly in farm animal practice before starting at
the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science in Nottingham as Clinical
Lecturer in Farm Animal Medicine and Epidemiology. She is a Diplomate of
the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners (Dairy Specialty) and now
divides her time between research and teaching. Evidence based medicine
and the effective transfer of knowledge gained from research to stakeholders
within the farm animal sector are areas of interest, particularly when related to
bovine reproduction, biosecurity and infectious disease control.
3.00 – 3.30 Tea / Coffee Break
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3.30 Session 5:
Making a practical start - How practice vets can get involved
Dr Rachel Dean BVMS PhD DSAM(fel)
MRCVS Director, Centre for Evidence-based
Veterinary Medicine
Rachel graduated from the University of Glasgow in
1996 and spent 6 years in general practice before
spending a year travelling the world and working in
Australia. She was the Fort Dodge feline fellow at
the Feline Centre at the University of Bristol from
2002-2005. Rachel holds the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ diploma
in Feline Medicine and is a recognised RCVS specialist in this field. She
completed a PhD entitled ‘Epidemiology of Feline Injection Site Sarcomas in
the United Kingdom’ in 2010. Rachel is currently a Clinical Associate
Professor in Feline Medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine and
Science at The University of Nottingham where she directs the Centre for
Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine. She is studying for a Master in
Evidence-based Healthcare at the University of Oxford.
“It is great to the RCVS Trust is highlighting the topic of Evidence-based
Veterinary Medicine at their symposia. The staff at the Centre for Evidencebased Veterinary Medicine are very pleased to be involved with the day and
hope it will highlight the fact that everyone in the profession has a role to
play in finding practical ways to incorporate evidence-based principles into
every day practice.”
Dr Douglas Grindlay BSc MA PhD MCLIP
Veterinary Information Specialist, Centre for
Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine
Dr Douglas Grindlay has been Veterinary
Information Specialist for the Centre for Evidencebased Veterinary Medicine at the University of
Nottingham since April 2011. His role is to develop
methods for effectively searching databases for the best evidence in
veterinary medicine, and to contribute to methods of critical appraisal and
systematic review for the veterinary profession. He also helps with the
teaching of evidence-based medicine to final year vet students. Douglas
previously ran the Skin Disorders Specialist Library website (later renamed
NHS Evidence - skin disorders) for the National Library for Health
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and then NICE, while based in the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology at
the University of Nottingham. As part of this work Douglas produced a
monthly evidence-based e-mail alert for NHS dermatology staff, carried out
the searches for Annual Evidence Updates on major skin diseases, and
compiled the skin disorders module of DUETs, the Database of Uncertainties
about the Effects of Treatments. Douglas has an MA in Information and
Library Studies from Loughborough University and a PhD in Agricultural
Science from the University of Nottingham. He is a Chartered Member of
CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.
Clare Boulton
Librarian, RCVS Charitable Trust Library
Clare Boulton has been Librarian at the RCVS
Charitable Trust since April 2008. The Library
provides access to evidence based resources for
vets and veterinary nurses in practice. Resources
include full text online journals and bibliographic
databases including CAB Abstracts. As part of their
work Library staff carry out literature searches either
as part of a regular alerting service for subscribers or on request. They also
offer workshops on how to carry out systematic searches for literature using a
range of bibliographic databases.
Clare has a Diploma in Library & Information Studies from Manchester
Polytechnic and an Open University Diploma in Management Studies. She is
a Chartered Member of CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and
Information Professionals.
4.15 Debate: Future Policy Session
Lead by Geoff Little MVB MRCVS
This is an open debate with all speakers to identify key points as to
how the profession can take EVM forward
4.45 Closing Remarks
Geoff Little MVB MRCVS
5.00 – 6.15 Drinks reception
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Background
The modern Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) approach to clinical care has
been revolutionizing patient care in human medicine and policy for the last
four decades, and has been thoroughly embraced by politicians and the wider
public, even though animated debate about its usefulness is still occurring
within the medical profession. The Cochrane Collaboration, a depositary of
systematic reviews which support the foundations on which EBM has so far
relied, has been growing in size, significance and number of published
records. A similar veterinary database has been more challenging to set up,
due to the particularities of veterinary medicine and also to the wide number of
species that veterinary medicine oversees. The RCVS Charitable Trust,
recognizing its mission in helping vets and vet nurses to provide the best
possible care for animals, is supporting this symposium with a view to
Objectives
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Provide a forum for debate where opinions on the clinical potential and
the caveats of Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine (EVM) can be voiced
Provide information on EVM, namely on the current status of its
implementation in the veterinary profession and its future implications in
veterinary practice and clinical governance
To share and discuss lessons learned by the establishment of EVM
principles in the human medicine field
To encourage the setting of a forward-looking strategy to implement EVM
practices across the profession
To discuss EVM training needs for veterinary undergraduates and
practitioners
To help identify the important real-life clinical questions
Outcomes
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Setting a forward looking strategy for the establishment of a collaboration
to foster EVM in the UK
Prioritising which actions to take in order to encourage a proactive
approach in the profession towards the development of evidence-based
resources
Consider possible sources of support – administrative and financial – for
EVM initiatives in the UK
Establishment of forums and communication channels between those
interested in EVM and clinical governance i.e. plans for continuing
communication
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