Clean Run - January 2018 - 24

Alphabet Soup

By Renee McDougall, DVM, MPH, Tyler Clough, DVM, and David Dycus, DVM, MS, CCRP, DACVS-SA

Ever wonder what all those letters mean
on veterinary business cards? Or why
two people may be able to give you advice about the same injury while a third
feels they need to refer you elsewhere? It
can get confusing, even for veterinarians.
Every year the number of accreditations
and certifications increases, which helps
us all make important strides toward improving veterinary medicine, even if we
do feel like we may need a decoding device to help us clarify our roles within it.
So, how do you know if you've made an
appointment with the right veterinarian? Is this clinician trained or self-acclaimed? And what exactly does it mean
to have achieved the right to use those
letters alongside your name?

First Things First
To become a veterinarian, an individual
had to complete tertiary schooling and
achieve a veterinary degree (typically
following three to four years for an undergraduate degree). Therefore, the first
three or four letters after your veterinarian's name will signal what type of veterinary degree they have and, if you care,
what country it came from. The most
common acronym seen in the United
States is DVM, or Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine. Only one school has an alternative acronym for the same U.S. degree,
and that is the University of Pennsylva24

nia, whose graduates are VMDs. Other
countries may also award DVMs after
completion of tertiary schooling in veterinary medicine; however, to practice
in the U.S., foreign veterinarians must
complete an extremely rigorous certification program demonstrating comparable
knowledge and skills to veterinarians in
the U.S. Other common foreign degrees
of veterinary medicine include MVB, or
Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine, a degree awarded by the University College
Dublin, and BVSc, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine, and BVetMed, Bachelor
of Veterinary Medicine, both United
Kingdom equivalents of the DVM.

Taking the DVM the Extra Mile
Veterinary specialists, like human medical specialists, are veterinarians who
have, at minimum, completed additional
training and passed an examination that
evaluates their knowledge and skills in a
specific area. In most cases, a year of internship training is required prior to entering a residency. After completing a two
to four year residency and passing the
specialty-specific test, the veterinarian is
known as a Diplomate of the college, or
a member of that specialty organization.
The hard-earned title must be upheld by
maintaining a current knowledge of advancements in the field. Generally, they
are required to participate in a minimum

amount of continuing education and/or
teaching. There are currently 41 specialties recognized by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the
national organization of veterinary profession. Below is a list of those you are
most likely to encounter with your dog:
* DACVAA: Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia
and Analgesia (Anesthesiologist)
* DACVB: Diplomate of the American
College of Veterinary Behaviorists
(Behaviorist)
* DAVDC: Diplomate of the American
Veterinary Dental College (Dentist)
* DACVD: Diplomate of the American
College of Veterinary Dermatology
(Dermatologist)
* DAVECC: Diplomate of the American Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (Critical care clinician)
* DACVIM: Diplomate of the American Veterinary Internal Medicine
We should pause here to appreciate the variety of specialties that can
accompany these six letters, the first
being internal medicine. When you
see DACVIM alone you are talking
to an internist, which is someone
who trained in internal medicine.
Sometimes, to delineate themselves
Clean Run | January 18

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - January 2018