UF credentialed program hones veterinary students' business acumenMay 16, 2018The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine is offering a program designed to help its students develop business-related skills from contract negotiations to debt management as practice owners. "Ours is the only college of veterinary medicine in the country that offers an academically credentialed business management certificate program," said Martha Mallicote, DVM, the program's director and a clinical assistant professor at the college. The UF Veterinary Business Management Certificate program, which began in 2013, is an offshoot of a business management course begun by Dana Zimmel, DVM, associate dean for clinical services and chief medical officer for the UF Veterinary Hospitals. The program features 10 hours of elective coursework, or six courses, including a clerkship, in which students provide the owner with a financial, fee, and compliance analysis, along with feedback on inventory management and a strategic marketing assessment. Students must complete a report summarizing their findings and suggest improvements. As of 2018, 109 students had earned a certificate and 38 veterinary practices had been evaluated through the program's practice management clerkship. "Student evaluations are very positive," Dr. Mallicote said. "We also get good feedback about them finding employment, as well as …
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UF study says hearing loss in stranded animals causes behavior changesApril 10, 2018Several years ago, University of Florida aquatic animal veterinarian Michael Walsh, DVM, a clinical associate professor of aquatic animal health at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, noticed a concerning pattern of two stranded dolphins after they had been rescued. Both dolphins returned to the beach once they had been released back into the wild. While Dr. Walsh worked to rehabilitate the animals, he noticed they exhibited numerous behavioral problems. A hearing test at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., revealed one of the dolphins was completely deaf (the second dolphin couldn't be tested), which led Walsh to wonder whether the problem of animals adapting to new environments might be hearing related and more common than initially thought. When Megan Strobel, DVM, then a first-year UF veterinary medical student, went to Walsh, her faculty mentor, in 2013 to discuss a possible research project, he suggested that she might compare hearing capacity and behavior changes in wild and facility-housed dolphins. The result of their collaboration, which also involved numerous other individuals and organizations, was a study that appeared in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine. The study found that stranded animals with hearing deficits showed markedly different behaviors than animals …
UF student wins national veterinary business competitionFebruary 22, 2018After two rounds of essays, fourth-year University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine veterinary student Cynthia Kathir won the Business Aptitude Award, which includes a $15,000 prize. The award is given by the Simmons Educational Fund, a nonprofit organization that educates practitioners and students about veterinary business. Every veterinary school in the U.S. is invited to compete for the award. The first stage of the competition pitted her against 15 UF veterinary students. Kathir wrote about her five-year plan after graduating from veterinary school, which included working in a veterinary practice focusing on small animals to gain the experience to open her own practice. In the second stage, Kathir competed against about 30 others who had won at their universities. This time, she had to analyze a fictional scenario of a generic associate veterinarian weighing the pros and cons of working for a practice. Kathir is the second UF student in the past four years to win the award.
Florida commits $16M to veterinary student scholarshipsJuly 12, 2017Veterinary students at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine will receive more than $800,000 in scholarships this year.
NIH issues grant to further canine cancer researchSeptember 30, 2016The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded a $500,000 grant to fund a study aimed at increasing the understanding about the interactions between cancer and the immune system in dogs with naturally occurring tumors. The researchers will then apply that knowledge to the understanding of human cancer.
UF honors retired professor for promoting diversity in vet medicineJuly 6, 2016The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine recently honored Louis F. Archbald, DVM, Ph.D., with the inaugural Champion of Diversity Award in recognition of his lifetime efforts promoting inclusion within the veterinary medical profession. Dr. Archbald is a UF professor emeritus of theriogenology.
