Course Overview:

The course will focus on training the medical team to evaluate and assess emergency, initiate critical care stabilization, understand and evaluate clinical diagnostics, radiology and ultrasound, and then treat and monitor the critical care patient. The format of the program will be case based; each participant will be broken into virtual hospitals”. Each hospital will be given a caseload of 2-5 critical care cases. The lecture format will focus on one aspect of handling a critical care case, then the ‘virtual hospitals’ will begin triaging, stabilizing, obtaining clinical data and treating and monitoring the patient. The participants will perform hands-on clinical diagnostics using Heska’s instrumentation, read blood films (virtual slides), and evaluate digital and ultrasound images.

Lecture Topics:

• Developing Triage Emergency for the Medical Team

• The Golden Hour of Emergency – Stabilizing the Critical Care Patient

• Evaluating the Critical Care Patient – The components of clinical diagnostics:

o CBC – Blood Film
o Chemistry
o Urinalysis
o Blood Pressure
o Blood Gas
o Radiology
o Ultrasound
o Advanced Diagnostic Imaging Modalities

• Treating and Monitoring the Critical Care Patient

This course is meant for veterinarians and intermediate to advanced technical team members (certified veterinary technicians and technician assistants) who want more experience in emergency/critical care medicine.

This course is pending continuing education with RACE. For more information or to register, please contact Angela Betancourt at the NAVC: ABetancourt@tnavc.org or 800-756-3446 Ext 718.

Course Instructors:

Dr. Dennis Keith, DVM ACVR is a 1994 graduate of Colorado State University. After finishing his residency at the University of Pennsylvania, he served on faculty for one year before accepting a private practice position in Mesa, Arizona. Dr. Keith is now the Medical Director of a specialty hospital, which is completely filmless and does all of its imaging with computed radiography. Professionally, he is particularly interested in digital radiography, ultrasound, computed tomography, and contrast studies. Additionally, Dr. Keith was in a private mixed animal practice prior to specializing. He enjoys giving  practitioners the tools to improve their imaging capabilities and interpretive skills.

Dr. Elizabeth Dunphy, DVM AVECC received her B.S. in Animal Sciences in 1992 from the University of Vermont and her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine in 1996 from the University Of Minnesota College Of Veterinary Medicine. Early on in veterinary school, Dr. Dunphy developed a passion for Emergency and Critical Care Medicine while working in the Small Animal Intensive Care Unit. After graduation she accepted a position as an Emergency Veterinarian in Tucson, Arizona. In 1999 Dr. Dunphy made the decision to pursue advanced training in Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care Medicine and began a 4- year residency program at the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine. She became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 2003.

Dr. Sharon M Dial, DVM, PHD, Diplomate ACVP (Clinical and Anatomic Pathology), received a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from the Montana State University. She then received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Doctorate in Pathology from Colorado State University. Dr. Dial has been both a working pathologist as well as an active instructor at University of Wisconsin and Louisiana State University. She also has been a clinical pathologist for Animal Diagnostic Lab in Tucson, Ariz., and Antech Diagnostics. Dr. Dial is currently an Associate Research Scientist, Department of Veterinary Science and Microbiology at University of Arizona. Dr. Dial is co-authoring Clinical Pathology for the Veterinary Team, a reference and resource manual in clinical pathology for the veterinary team.

Andrew J. Rosenfeld, DVM, Diplomate ABVP. Dr. Rosenfeld is the founder and president of VTEC and has spoken on numerous occasions on topics in Emergency Medicine, Small Animal Anatomy and Physiology, and Cardiology. Dr. Rosenfeld was Director of Technical Education for the Pet’s Choice family of veterinary hospitals and specialty practices. He has practiced small animal critical care and emergency medicine for 13 years, and served as hospital director of Paradise Valley Emergency Animal Clinic in Scottsdale for three years. Dr. Rosenfeld is a member of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners and was an adjunct professor at Mesa Community College and Arizona State University. Dr. Rosenfeld has written The Veterinary Medical Team Handbook, a reference and resource manual for the medical team, (Blackwell 2007). Dr. Rosenfeld is co-authoring Clinical Pathology for the Veterinary Team, a reference and resource manual in clinical pathology for the veterinary team.