New Facebook Page

 

New AO Community Portal

Development Spotlighting Surgeons

Dear Friends,

Our goal is to improve patient care. But what does this really mean? Making the lives of our four-legged patients more enjoyable, adding years of comfort and fun not only to the animal but also to families around the world.

 

We have many opportunities to impact the field of orthopedic surgery:

 

• By offering a platform for the community of veterinary surgeons worldwide.
• By sharing research results and innovations to remain leaders in the field.
• By teaching techniques and methods in the spirit and name of AOVET.

 

This is where you as AOVET Faculty come in to play. You are the key. Not only by sharing your knowledge and practical expertise, but also by uniting and growing the community.

 

Therefore, it is my pleasure to inform you about the current developments in AOVET.

 

Category 3 courses

AOVET has implemented a new strategy for the delivery of its educational courses. The new three-tier structure reflects the level of financial and logistical support provided by our historical commercial partner:

 

Category 1 = complete;

Category 2 = logistics only;

Category 3 = none.

 

The category 3 courses are our way to provide education in countries that are out of scope for our traditional workstation provider. Through this, we can offer educational events in all regions of the world in order to fulfill our mission of improving patient care. To accomplish this, we are committed to making the courses accessible to all socio-economic levels by implementing a fair course pricing scheme. Discounts for AOVET members are commonly used, but also reductions for members of local orthopedic societies that collaborate with us.

 

All of the support that was previously provided from our initial industrial partner, such as the organization of practical labs and logistics, had to be re-defined for these category 3 courses. The implications of the great unknown were painful to experience at times. However, initial problems led to a steep learning curve. Embarking now in the second year, we are proud to have a good process set in place to support Chairs, Faculty, and staff in this endeavor.

 

In the past year, we have established fruitful partnerships with four companies that provide workstations for educational purposes at AOVET courses. In addition, we have successfully held 11 category 3 courses in 2017 in Latin America, Asia, and Europe.

 

It is important to understand that this "category 3" denotation has no influence on the level of educational quality, compliance standards, or choice of Faculty. An AOVET course participant should experience the same course quality and content, be it in a category 1 or 3 country. The teaching of techniques and surgical methods at courses is the essence of AOVET courses. This makes AOVET  unique in the field of veterinary education.

 

I am proud to have you on board as the most important stakeholders in this new journey. Please feel free to reach out to me or the AOVET staff in Switzerland if you require more information.

 

Faculty selection

The AO Foundation is currently looking into aligning the guidelines on Faculty selection, management, and remuneration. AOVET is contributing to this alignment exercise and we have started an initiative to analyze the situation and outline future options for AOVET. We aim to have clear guidelines set in place in order to provide teaching opportunities for interested and skilled Faculty using meritocratic, fair, and transparent selection criteria.

 

AOVET Community

To expand our network and engage the community, we have two new and exciting online developments. Firstly, we recreated the AO Community Portal, which you should login to and check that not only your information is correct, but also that you are still an active paying member of AOVET, which is a prerequisite for all Faculty. Secondly, we have started an official AOVET Facebook page. We encourage you not only to "like" and "follow" the page, but also to interact and help spread the word about everything that AOVET is involved in. We have started to spotlight veterinary surgery stories such as Amy's polar bear, Rico and Mike's husky and Bruno's tiger. Please let us know if you want to share your case too as this is what AOVET is all about!

 

 

Looking forward to continuing this exciting journey with you.

Thank you very much for your hard work and dedication to AOVET!

 

Best wishes

​

Alessandro Piras

AOVET Chairperson

Education Commission