Newsletter JAVMA Sunday 2012 : Page 1
For veterinary medicine, it’s the best and worst of times Incoming AVMA President Aspros on the state of profession By R. Scott Nolen Charles Dickens’ classic “A Tale of Two Cities” offers a good description of the current state of the veterinary profes-sion, according to incoming AVMA President Douglas G. Aspros. Speaking at the AVMA House of Delegates regular annual session Friday, Dr. Aspros told the assembly that had Dickens also been a veter-inarian, he might have penned “A Tale of Two Professions” instead of a book about the French Revolution. “He wrote, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.’ It pretty neatly sums up where we find our-selves today,” Dr. Aspros said. State funding for veterinary colleges is declining. Practitio-ners are confronted by a stag-nant economy and a rapidly evolving world of service de-livery. New equine veterinar-ians face the lowest starting salaries among all private-sec-tor practitioners. Companion animal practices reliant on drug sales, vaccinations, and spays and neuters are seeing greater competition from low-cost pro-viders. Consolidations within the animal agriculture industry have resulted in decreased de-mand for veterinary services. These are but a few of the challenges Dr. Aspros said today’s veterinary profession must deal with. But does this mean veterinarians are cur-rently living in the worst of times? “Not by a long shot,” he countered. Veterinary education is more sophisticated and re-search-driven now than at any time. Veterinarians are willing to champion animal welfare even when doing so discom-forts clients or colleagues. Pain management has been embraced as an ethical obli-gation. Veterinary specializa-tion has helped raise standards of practice to the benefit of patients and clients. Veteri-narians hold key government positions, including in the de-partments of Agriculture and Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as demand for veterinary expertise grows. The one-health movement that brings veterinarians and physi-cians together to enhance our understanding of health and disease is gaining ground. Taken all together, Dr. Aspros has “great expectations” about the future of the profes-sion. “Veterinary medi-cine survived its first great dislocation in the last century when the horse stopped be-ing the main source of trans-port, and many city-based vet-erinary colleges closed,” Dr. Aspros said. “With the surviv-ing colleges in the land grant system we turned to animal agriculture and food produc-tion as our primary charge. “Today, we look to biomed-ical research and public health to recast our mission for the future. These are important endeavors for which we are uniquely qualified, and soci-ety would benefit from our in-creased participation in these spheres. “But offer no apologies for treating companion animals given the importance of pets in the developed countries. This is not a trivial reason for us to exist as a profession. With a growing population in a world where people are rapidly los-ing physical communities and replacing them with virtual ones, supporting the human-animal bond is both a vital and noble undertaking. Compan-ion animal veterinary medi-cine plays an important role in enhancing the emotional, psy-chological, and physical health of people.” Dr. Aspros has practiced small animal medicine in New York State since graduating from the Cornell University continued on page 2 Offering palatability, added texture and variety to help encourage compliance. Learn more at PurinaVeterinaryDiets.com NEW OM Savory Selects Overweight Management Feline Formula in Gravy. ™ NEW DM Savory Selects Dietetic Management Feline Formula in Gravy. ™ Trademarks owned by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland
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