AAHA Executive Director To Step DownAugust 14, 2009John Albers, DVM, will step down as executive director of the American Animal Hospital Association on Dec. 31. He has held the position for 23 years. “I’m honored to have had the privilege of leading this prestigious association for over two decades,” Dr. Albers said. “The most rewarding part of this job has been working with AAHA leadership, staff, other veterinary organizations and the veterinary industry to help ensure the best possible care for companion animals.” Albers’ decision was not an easy one, according to Jason Merrihew, communications coordinator for AAHA. “It was a very tough decision for Dr. Albers,” Merrihew said. “However, he feels that the association is heading in the right direction, and that if there was a right time, it was now. He feels comfortable leaving, knowing that the guidance and strength of the current board of directors and leadership team, an experienced staff and a dedicated membership base will make the transition for the association easier.” The board of directors is appointing a search committee to work with an executive search firm to begin the process of finding a successor. As executive director, Albers has managed the administrative affairs of AAHA, carrying out …
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Mars Donates $2 Million For Human-Animal Interaction ResearchAugust 14, 2009 The Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition, a division of Mars Inc., recently committed more than $2 million to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) for Human-Animal Interaction research (HAI). The NICHD, a division of the National Institutes of Health, will combine the donation with funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research to form what it says is the first formal program in HAI. The donation will span four years and help fund NICHD studies in three areas: The impact of human-animal interaction on typical development and health; . Clinical trials that will focus on the role animals play in both physical and psychological therapeutic treatments; . The impact of animals on public health, including the cost-effectiveness of animals in reducing and preventing disease. “NICHD is pleased to be able to support an expansion in HAI research,” said Peggy McCardle, Ph.D., chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at NICHD. “Over the next four years, through our joint research initiative, we hope the scientific community will make great strides in understanding the significance of …
LSU Vet School Researchers Study Respiratory DiseasesAugust 12, 2009 Four faculty members at Louisiana State University's School of Veterinary Medicine are investigating respiratory diseases that affect animals and humans. The combined research is supported by more than $3.8 million in extramural grants. Shafiqul Chowdhury, DVM, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences, is researching molecular virology and recombinant vaccine technology of bovine herpesvirus. Dr. Chowdhury’s long-term goal is to understand the following two specific areas of BHV-1 research: How BHV-1 and BHV-5 spread within the nervous system. . The role of envelope glycoproteins in the regulation of pathogenicity and immunogenicity of BHV-1. Both projects are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The researchers investigating respiratory diseases in humans are: Samithamby Jeyaseelan, DVM, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences. . Maria Antonieta Guerrero-Plata, BSc, MSc, Ph.D., also an assistant professor in the department. . Arthur Penn, Ph.D., a professor of toxicology in the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences and director of the Inhalation Research Facility. <HOME>
Animal Welfare Organizations Question ‘Donor Intent’ In Leona Helmsley CaseAugust 11, 2009 Three animal welfare organizations have filed suit in New York’s Surrogate Court to intervene in the matter of Leona Helmsley’s $5 billion estate. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of the United States and Maddie’s Fund reported at a news conference August 11 that the Helmsley trustees are misdirecting funds despite her expressed intent to help dogs. Howard Rubenstein, spokesman for The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, said in a written statement Tuesday, “After waiting for nearly six months following that decision of the Surrogate, these three organizations have leveled a broadside attack against the trustees, against the Surrogate and against the New York State Attorney General, and have accompanied those attacks with an extensive media campaign. The trustees will be litigating this matter in the court, not in the press.” A statement posted on the trust website denies that Helmsley’s wishes have been ignored: “Did Leona Helmsley intend for this charitable trust to focus on the care and help of dogs, rather than people? Absolutely not. Have the trustees of this vast fortune acted improperly and …
AnimalScan Buys Iams Pet ImagingAugust 10, 2009AnimalScan LLC of Easton, Pa., has acquired Iams Pet Imaging LLC, a joint venture of Procter & Gamble Co. and ProScan Imaging, both based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Financial terms were not disclosed. Iams Pet Imaging's locations—Vienna, Va., Raleigh, N.C., and San Francisco, Calif., will join the AnimalScan headquarters in Easton to form the AnimalScan network of diagnostic facilities. The company reported that it expects to keep all IPI employees. Salvatore DeFrancesco, AnimalScan's chairman, said the acquisition fits well with the company’s long-term growth plans. “Diagnostic MRI centers for pets are a recent and growing trend in the U.S.,” he said. “Using the same state-of-the-art MRI equipment found in hospitals and health care facilities nationwide, we expect to expand into more major markets over the next 18 to 24 months." <HOME>
20 Ways To Avoid Trouble With SurgeryAugust 6, 2009Editor’s Note: Dr. Zeltzman scored a coup in getting the trust representatives of the AVMA PLIT to participate in a conference call for publication. The first part of his report—“10 Ways to Avoid Anesthesia Trouble”—was published in the July issue. Every day, the trust representatives of AVMA Professional Liability Insurance Trust receive liability insurance claims related to surgery. The representatives agreed to speak candidly with me to help Veterinary Practice News readers avoid 20 of the most common liability claims over surgical complications. #5 Not this paw During the consultation, the diagnosis should not be the only part of the discussion. It is important to discuss the possible complications so the owner’s expectations are compatible with what you can provide. Every surgical candidate should have a thorough physical exam. This means not focusing on the tip of the iceberg, such as skin mass, but looking at the rest of the patient. For example, a patient facing ACL repair may not do as well because he also has hip dysplasia. Honestly discuss the prognosis. Even a 99 percent success rate means a 1 percent risk of …
$11.1 Million Grant Awarded To LSU Vet SchoolAugust 6, 2009The Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine recently received a 5-year $11.1 million grant from the National Center for Research Resources to further develop the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE). The National Center for Research Resources is a division of the National Institutes of Health. The money is an extension to a $9.9 million grant the school received in July 2004 to establish the center. The original grant also created a Center for Experimental Infectious Disease Research, which constitutes a strategic alliance between the school, the LSU College of Basic Sciences and the Tulane National Primate Research Center. The COBRE grant provides funding and research capabilities that give assistant and associate professors the opportunity to establish research programs that will compete for independent funding by the NIH. Once a faculty member receives his or her own NIH funding for a particular research program, he or she will be rotated out of COBRE and replaced by other eligible faculty. “What makes this grant so important is that it continues the momentum we began with the funding of the first COBRE that brought in $9.9 million and will allow us to continue the expansion of our research …
Ruffling Feathers Over Pet InsuranceAugust 6, 2009 If you’re representative of the majority of small-animal veterinary professionals, here’s an issue that might ruffle your feathers, or at the very least, elicit your strong opinions. It’s pet health insurance. Though more than 30 years in the making, the industry is struggling to get off the ground, its success hampered by Consumer Reports articles of dubious validity and veterinary fear of HMO-style medicine. While some of you may feel warmly toward the concept of a financial product that solves client problems, saves pets AND boosts our bottom lines, only a small percentage of us actively recommends it. Even fewer of us participate in disseminating pet health insurance’s potential glories to the tune this still-immature industry would have us dance to. It’s been convincingly proposed that generalized consumer resentment of the U.S. health care system is largely to blame for this widespread hand-wringing. Will we: Be forced to engage in expensive and odious paperwork? Take on onerous reimbursement detail? Suffer the business end of technicalities too fine-printed to tease out? Manage client wrath when reimbursements fail to materialize? Scarier still, will our prices be driven down by systemic and insidious insurance company integration into our …
When Does Medicine Become Religion?August 6, 2009 Complementary and alternative medicine spans the gamut from the scientific and credible to the metaphysical and implausible. Certain methods more akin to faith healing than biomedicine have blurred the lines of demarcation that ordinarily separate medicine and religion or spirituality. Prayer, for one, claims a foothold in both camps, with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health regarding prayer as an “active process of communicating with and appealing to a higher spiritual power, specifically for health reasons.”1 An article in The Times of London last year asked, “If Chinese complementary medicine can go mainstream, why not spiritual healing?”2 The reporter shadowed such a healer treating cancer patients at University College Hospital in central London. One oncologist attested: “I was a skeptic at first, but you can’t question the results. I’d be devastated if we lost those professionals now.” Patients experienced profound peace and relaxation as a result of her supposedly channeling healing energy. Therapists who perform spiritual healing posit that they are acting as conduits for energy arising from a higher source. They treat either with hands on or off the patient, and some do …
Tax Deductions For Pet-Care Expenses ProposedAugust 5, 2009 House Resolution 3501, commonly referred to as the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years, or HAPPY Act, would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow an individual to deduct up to $3,500 for “qualified pet care expenses.” “Qualified pet care expenses” is defined as “amounts paid in connection with providing care (including veterinary care) for a qualified pet other than any expense in connection with the acquisition of the qualified pet.” “Qualified pet” is defined as “a legally owned, domesticated, live animal.” It does not include animals used for research or owned or used in conjunction with a trade or business. The act would not apply for a person who deducted expenses under IRC sections 162 (ordinary and necessary expenses) and 213 (diagnostic and similar procedures, medical devices and other medical expenses not covered by insurance) during the preceding three taxable years. The measure, introduced on July 31, was drafted in conjunction with data from the American Pet Products Association’s National Pet Owners Survey. It has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) issued a Pet Alert on Aug. 5 …
