DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital, a practice in Portland, Ore., and a producer of more than 300 training videos, is sharing its online offerings with veterinarians, students and staff living in impoverished countries. The arrangement, done in partnership with the veterinary education company Vetstream, is intended to provide the developing world with low-cost—and in some cases free—information from the On the Floor @Dove digital library. DoveLewis, which sees about 13,000 patients a year, launched On the Floor @Dove in 2011. Nearly 500,000 people representing 197 countries have accessed the online content. “Advancing the standards of veterinary care around the world, especially in developing countries where there is a great need for training and support, is an extremely important component of our mission as a teaching hospital,” said Ron Morgan, CEO of DoveLewis. “There is an urgent need for affordable, high-quality veterinary education in many parts of the world, and especially in geographically isolated parts of Africa and Asia, where veterinarians lack the educational tools they need.” The On the Floor @Dove video catalog features actual patients and DoveLewis staff, including many of the hospital’s 19 veterinarians, five of whom are board-certified specialists. Medical topics such as surgery, radiology and pharmacology are covered in videos and articles, as are subjects tailored for veterinary technicians and assistants, practice managers and receptionists. DoveLewis branched into producing and selling access to training material—some RACE-approved—during the economic recession. “We are a non-profit organization, and with fewer people making donations we had to innovate,” Morgan said. “We were looking for additional long-term revenue resources that tied to our mission in order to add stability to our hospital operations and eventually help fund our important community programs that so many people rely on.” On the Floor @Dove offers both fee-based and no-cost videos and articles. “Partnering with Vetstream is the best way for DoveLewis, as a non-profit, to be able to bring our unique educational video content to veterinary professionals and universities in developing countries at as low a cost as possible, if not entirely free,” Morgan said. Qualified users include members of the projects, associations and organizations that partner with Vetstream, according to DoveLewis. Among them: WikiVet, which has 30,000 members and is free to qualifying students. Veterinarians in Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria through the African Small Companion Animal Network. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association, which has 93 member associations. The Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations, which works with veterinary schools in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.
