VETPARTNERS is blazing the trail for evidence-based veterinary medicine (EBVM) after strengthening its Clinical Board team.
The York-based group has made three key appointments to support its 160 small animal, mixed, equine and production animal practices to deliver the best possible standards of clinical care.
The focus of their role will be to establish practical ways of implementing EBVM, ensuring VetPartners’ work is patient focused and that their veterinary teams receive the clinical support they require.
Dr Kathryn Wareham has been appointed EBVM Manager, while Dr Natalie Robinson has taken up the role or Clinical Data Manager. Dr Christina Kuhl has joined the group as Clinical Content Manager to help with resource development.
They will report to Dr Rachel Dean, Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in Practice at VetPartners, pictured left, who co-chairs the group’s Clinical Board and is one of three vets on their senior management team.
Their aim will be to generate new data and provide decision-making resources to practice to support clinical work in practices and improve standards of care within the profession.
Dr Dean said: “These appointments show our commitment to making sure we properly support our teams to deliver the best care they can, and it enables us to do more clinical research and quality improvement to improve the evidence base.
“We are trailblazing EBVM and are serious about promoting it and enabling our teams to become more evidence-based and confident in what they do. Having increased expertise in the central team will enable us to ensure our practice teams have the support they need. We can and we will do this from within because, as a big group, we can bring all our data, expertise and experience together and share it.
“We have excellent knowledge, skills and capability in our clinical teams but we need better data to back up our decisions so we know we are doing a good job and continually improve our care and services. We want to be a great place to work, where teams are learning every day to do a better job tomorrow.
“We have three strong established species boards in small animal, equine and production animal, and a network of special interest groups that enable us to share knowledge, so we need to directly involved our decision makers in our work and help them implement the findings.”
Dr Wareham practised as a first-opinion vet, completed a molecular immunology PhD and later became post-doctoral researcher at Nottingham Veterinary School within the Centre for Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine (CEVM). Whilst in the post, she undertook extensive training in EBVM, literature searching and critical appraisal, as well as being involved in many research projects and teaching veterinary undergraduates.
At the CEVM, she was involved in developing and launching BestBETs for Vets, an on-line resource of short evidence summaries for practitioners. She also developed, reviewed and edited educational materials for CPD on EBVM, published papers on veterinary clinical trials and contributed materials for the BSAVA Masters in Clinical Veterinary Research.
Dr Robinson worked in small animal practice for four years, before joining the Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine (CEVM) at The University of Nottingham, undertaking a PhD focused on collecting data from small animal consultations by direct observation.
The findings from Natalie’s PhD helped to direct much of the future research in the CEVM, including her own research looking at the complexity of small animal consultations, decision-making during consultations and optimising preventative healthcare consultations. She has a particular interest in preventative healthcare, rabbit medicine, clinical decision-making and developing practical, evidence-based tools
Dr Kuhl is a small animal vet, who completed her veterinary studies at the University of Nottingham, also undertaking an intercalated PhD with the Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine, investigating pedigree dog breeding and health in the UK. Since graduating in 2017, she has worked in first-opinion practice looking after a variety of pets, whilst also continuing her interest in research.
For media enquiries only, please contact Amanda Little, VetPartners Senior PR and Communications Manager, on 07970 198 492 or email amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk