Dear ACVSMR Colleagues;

I hope everyone has stayed healthy and been able to persevere through this coronavirus pandemic. There appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel – hopefully, it is not an oncoming train and we will be back to our normal lives soon. In the meantime, I would like to provide some feedback to the surveys that you completed during the month of March in anticipation of our College strategic plan. While the formal drafting of that strategic plan has been delayed due to travel restrictions (we were originally scheduled to meet in Chicago next week to hammer out the first draft of the plan), we nevertheless are working on its framework, using the surveys that you submitted. A total of 114 of you responded, which I’m told is not bad for this sort of thing. Some of the comments, like the desire for ACVSMR-logo clothing and student webinars and establishing guidelines for ACVSMR consensus statements, were happily in the works even before the survey so some of you will be delighted at what appears to be an immediate response to your feedback. But there were larger issues that were brought up by many respondents, and I would like to comment on a handful of them here. I may not be able to provide you with answers right this moment, but know that these issues will be at the forefront of our strategic planning because of their importance to so many of you.
 
There were two major concerns about the discipline of veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation that were raised repeatedly; first was the lack of recognition of ACVSMR and its members as specialists in the field. The general lack of recognition was articulated as being broadly expressed across the industry. Too often, practitioners fail to recognize the value of our training and knowledge and believe that they can achieve similar knowledge and judgement through a handful of continuing education meetings or a “certificate”. Too many state veterinary boards fail to recognize that veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation is, in fact, a fully-accredited veterinary specialty and allow non-specialists to claim to be specialists in our field (my own state of Oklahoma is guilty of this). And too many academic institutions fail to embrace our specialty in the form of specific clinical services and residency support; or worse, designate members of their faculty and staff as “specialists” in our field without those individuals being members of our College or ECVSMR. The issue of practitioners undervaluing the knowledge and expertise of our Diplomates is not unique to our College – indeed, I have heard this complaint from many different veterinary specialists who are repeatedly confronted with practitioners who conclude that they are just as good as a specialist because they paid attention to a handful of talks or webinars on a particular subject. It is difficult indeed to walk the fine line between aggressively disseminating our knowledge and insights through continuing education activities, while at the same time counseling that the knowledge we provide to our fellow veterinarians is used appropriately. As we make the veterinary community aware of the value of specialist-level knowledge in the field of veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation, we must also ensure that the veterinary community is aware of the depth and complexity of this knowledge. Our current residency training program requires a minimum of 6240 hrs of training (assuming a trainee is only working 40 hr/week during each of the 156 weeks outlined in our residency guidelines): a couple of hours of CE lecture is but a tiny fraction of that. The first step in ensuring that our members are accorded the respect of a specialist is to do a better job of highlighting the depth and breadth of the training that is required to achieve the designation of veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist.
 
The second major concern about our discipline was the paucity of high-quality scientific evidence for many of the treatments and devices that are used for rehabilitation (both canine and equine). We are not alone in this regard – when you really look closely, it is remarkable how little that we do as veterinarians actually has high quality scientific evidence to back it up. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what we can to generate that evidence. Basic research can provide some foundation for therapeutic efficacy, but ultimately proof of efficacy requires clinical trials and a high-quality clinical trial is not a simple endeavor. As it happens, our CE committee is currently working on compiling a program for our meeting in October that will include a section on evidence-based medicine in the area of veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation. We hope that this will be the first step in facilitating a greater availability of such evidence through high-quality clinical trials conducted by our members.
 
The ACVSMR Board of Directors continues to work to develop our College despite this time of social distancing and restricted non-essential activities. Be assured that just as each and every one of you continues to find a way to make progress on an individual level, our College is not treading water – we are actively addressing the concerns that you have provided through this survey and hope to share with you plans and developments to take the ACVSMR to the next level in the coming months.
 
Best regards


Michael S. Davis, DVM PhD Dipl ACVIM, ACVSMR
Professor and Oxley Chair in Equine Sports Medicine
Director, Comparative Exercise Physiology Laboratory
College of Veterinary Medicine, Oklahoma State University
President, American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation
"Don't let the fear of failure prevent you from trying to succeed."

We hope that you are all doing well, all things considered. The ACVSMR Credentialing and Residency Committee is aware of the interruption in residency training that is occurring worldwide due to the current pandemic and wanted to pass along some pertinent information.  
 
Firstly, for final year residents that intend to submit their credentials to sit the exam in 2021, we will be extending the deadline to October 1, 2020 from August 1, 2020. The resident still must submit their credentials, annual logs/ report, etc on August 1st, 2020 but they will have until October 1st, 2020 to submit any additional/ outstanding training weeks.
 
Secondly, we will be accepting training weeks that are performed remotely. As a program director, we feel that you will be the best gauge of what type and amount of remote training would be equivalent to an in-person training week. However, the C&R committee members have submitted some examples of what a remote training week might entail. Please click here for a list of examples as a rough guide. If you have specific questions, and/or want to ensure that your training plan will meet the standards, please feel free to email us (residency@vsmr.org) ahead of time.  
 
Finally, know that everyone training under the current guidelines (2017 onward) have 6 years to complete their 156 weeks of residency training. I.E. most residents are able to extend their training by one year without any special requests should they desire. If your resident will not be able to complete their training in the time allotted per their guidelines, and would like to be considered for a 1-year extension, please have them write an official request to the C&R Committee (residency@vsmr.org).  
 
Please share this information with any of your residents whose training is impacted by this pandemic. We thank you and appreciate your efforts in helping residents continue their training during these unusual times.
 
Be safe, be well,
Erin Contino and Jan Huntingford
Co-Chairs, ACVSMR Credentialing and Residency Committee

Annual Reports Due: August 1, 2020

Exam Registration Date: October 1, 2020

ACVSMR Exam: March 3-5, 2021 (location TBD)

The PR&M Committee has had a very active initiative along with the AARV to send diplomates to as many of the CVMs as possible. We were well on our way giving lectures and wet labs around the country. Since the beginning of the school year, we have sent diplomates to LSU and Purdue with several more schools on our list (Cornell, North Carolina, Iowa, Tuskegee, Wisconsin, and Ross) when the pandemic shut everything down. We took that opportunity to take our teaching online. We offered 2 well attended webinars this past week to students.  On Monday, 4/27, Dr. Tara Edwards lectured about the mobility evaluation of small animals and on Wednesday, 4/29, Dr. Cooper Williams spoke about the evaluation of the hind leg of an equine lameness evaluation.  Dr. Edwards was joined by Dr. Laurie McCauley and Dr. Williams was joined by Dr. Philippe Benoit who both spoke about careers in VSMR and the benefits of AARV membership. Both webinars filled to capacity (95 registrants) with a 65-70% attendance rate. The feedback has been positive and we look forward to offering more online learning for our veterinary students. If you are interested in giving a student level lecture, please reach out PR&M Chair, Dr. Evelyn Orenbuch (evelynvet@gmail.com or PR@vsmr.org)

Open Board of Director Positions

• Business experience - A strong background in business, legal and organizational policies to assist the College in its continued development and growth. The candidate should have no major conflicts of interest.
• Leadership experience - Demonstrated skills and experience by holding leadership positions in other veterinary specialties or large veterinary organizations that provide the needed wisdom and experience for successful management of the College
• Service record - Nominees should have an established and proven record of service to the College
• Collegiality - Respect and encouragement of individual strengths and fostering and development of collegiality among the membership. Nominees should have a demonstrated ability to build consensus within the College
• Respect and trust - Have strong support of colleagues within the field of expertise

Regent - Seeking nominees that are an equine diplomate with a rehabilitation focus
This is a four-year position serving on the Board of Directors. Regents advocate for and represent their discipline within the college. The nominee is expected to fulfill all of the following requirements:

• Service record - Nominees should have an established and proven record of service to the ACVSMR
• Knowledge and experience - Have a strong understanding of their field of interest and the relevant sports medicine and rehabilitation issues in either the canine or equine practice category
• Unbiased judgment - Have the ability to provide strong, but fair representation of the field, regardless of personal views
• Collegiality - Respect and encouragement of individual strengths and fostering and development of collegiality among the membership. Nominees should have a demonstrated ability to build consensus within the ACVSMR
• Respect and trust - Have strong support of colleagues within the field of expertise

How to Submit Your Application for the Board of Directors:

Will your case go viral on the ACVSMR's Facebook and Instagram pages?
 
Send your best stories, pictures, videos, case reports, happy notes of the day ... directly to the moderators.

• For Facebook - Rob van Wessum
• For Instagram - Philippe Benoit

Rob or Philippe will post your masterpiece and watch as your post gets shared and liked and reposted around the world.

Email is our main way of reaching the membership, and we want to make sure we can contact you about membership and other issues directly affecting you, as well as news from the College. We do not give your email out to third parties.

Please help us out by taking a moment to log in to the Diplomate area of our website to make sure your preferred email address is listed in our system and your contact information is up to date. Thank you!

Send us photos from your activities! Have you been involved in a recent canine or equine competition? Do you have a success story about a patient to share? Did you recently present at a sports medicine or rehabilitation-related conference?

Help us spread the word about rehabilitation and sports medicine by sharing photos and success stories of your activities! Please send your photos with captions and success stories to info@vsmr.org. We will acknowledge you and/or your practice in the credits of each photo. Thank you!

Model Release Form We also have created a model release form that your clients can sign to give permission for ACVSMR to publish their photos.

Download the model release form.

Please email completed forms to Dr. Kenneth Bruecker at kbruecker@me.com.

Thank you to the ACVSMR members who have volunteered for our speaker registry. We invite all interested members to register so that we are able to recommend canine and equine speakers for upcoming meetings.

If you are interested in joining the speaker registry, please send an email to Dr. Jennifer Brown, chair of the Continuing Education Committee, at jenbrowndvm@gmail.com with your contact information and topics of interest.

Diplomates: Please send details of any upcoming lectures and workshops that you will present to our newsletter editor Dr. Kenneth Bruecker at kbruecker@me.com. These lectures qualify as continuing education for diplomates pursuing recertification.

WVC Oquendo Center – Las Vegas, Nevada
July 9 - 11
Sports Medicine Workshop - Drs. Sherman and Debra Canapp

Companion Sports Medicine Workshop - Annapolis Junction, MD
June 5
Sports Medicine Workshop - Sherman Canapp, Jr

TOBI - Annual Orthobiologics Symposium – Las Vegas, Nevada
June 11-13
Orthobiologics for Grade II tendinopathies from animals to humans: Evidence Based Medicine - Dr. Sherman Canapp

ACVSMR offers a classified section to advertise job, internship, and residency opportunities. Job advertisements will be included in 3 issues of the ACVSMR email newsletter and posted on the ACVSMR website for 3 months unless a shorter time period is requested. Ads are complementary for 3 months for ACVSMR diplomates and $75 for 3 months for non-members. ACVSMR diplomates must be signed into the website for the fee to be waived.

Please visit the ACVSMR Career Center on our website to place your ad.

Available Residencies and Internships

ACVSMR residencies and internships can be found by searching the VIRMP website. They are listed under "Residency" or "Internship - Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation." The following residencies and internships were listed on the VIRMP website in November 2019:

Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Residencies:

Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Internships:

• Cornell University 
• University of Tennessee
• University of Pennsylvania
• Twin Cities Animal Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine

• Colorado State University
• University of Melbourne
• University of Pennsylvania
• Circle Hippolian France
• University of Florida
• University of Sydney, Australia
• University of California Davis
• University of Queensland
• Liverpool UK
• Charles Stuart 
• Tierkliun Germany
• University of Tennessee

Diplomates and residents, please send your recent publication information to Dr. Kenneth Bruecker at kbruecker@me.com so we can announce it here.
To see publications from previous months, visit the Diplomate Publications page of our website.