Vet Gazette

Dr. Kris Otteman (Class of 1986) is the director of Shelter Medicine and Humane Investigations at the Oregon Humane Society.

Last week Dr. Kris Otteman, director of Shelter Medicine and Humane Investigations at the Oregon Humane Society (OHS), was one of six OSU graduates to receive this year’s Alumni Fellow Award from the OSU Alumni Association.

Dr. Otteman (Class of 1986) was instrumental in developing a partnership with OSU that provides experiential learning for fourth-year veterinary students at the OHS Animal Medical Learning Center in Portland. She also developed one of the first shelter‐based medicine residency and internship program in the United States.

Dr. Otteman is a big beaver fan; she and her husband, Dr. Jeff Brant (CVM Class of 1985) ‘bleed orange’. “I really love this college,” she says. “It built the foundation for my career and allowed me to do what I always wanted from the time I was a small child.”

After earning their DVMs, Drs. Otteman and Brant opened a mixed-animal practice in Klamath Falls. Then in 1993, Pet Smart offered them (and fellow OSU alums Scott and Sandy Campbell) an opportunity to provide in-store veterinary clinics and they went for it. Those clinics evolved into a chain of full-service hospitals called Vet Smart. “It was really grass roots when it started,” says Otteman. “The four of us got together and started building a team of people. Within the first year, we opened 36 hospitals in Oregon, Washington, California and Illinois.”

Otteman’s primary role at Vet Smart was recruiting and training. She also worked on procedures and policies for the operation. “We were really focused on high quality,” she says, “We wanted to get it right, both for the pets and the profession. ” Those hospitals eventually evolved into the Banfield Pet Hospitals chain. Otteman says it was a great opportunity to learn about business and gain skills she still uses today.

In 2001, Otteman volunteered for the Cat Adoption Team who ran a shelter in Tigard and were in the process of building a veterinary hospital. “At that time there were no veterinary hospitals inside shelters anywhere in the whole country,” she says. “I got really excited about the idea of providing veterinary care for a large population of animals to get them through the shelter healthy so they could go to new homes quickly.”

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Dr. Elizabeth Collar, a third year resident in Large Animal Surgery, won first place in the Large Animal Research Category for her presentation of “Third Carpal Bone Fracture is Associated with Focal Subchondral Bone Porosity in Racehorses” at the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) this month. ACVS established the competition to encourage the development of clinically important research, and the dissemination of the results of these investigations, particularly those conducted by surgical residents.

Dr. Collar’s research involved collaboration with CVM faculty, and with Dr. Urszula T. Iwaniec, Associate Professor in the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences, and Dr. Susan Stover, Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the UC Davis.

Several past residents from CVM have won this award, including Dr. Shannon Reed, Dr. Marc Kinsley, and Dr. Barbara Hunter.

The Outstanding Surgical Residents’ Awards are sponsored by Securos Surgical.

By Alex Rowell, Psy.D,
Vet Med Wellness Coordinator/CAPS Psychology Resident

As the quarter is now fully underway, I am sure there have been times where you have been thinking to yourself, “how I am going to get all of this done?” or “Am I cut out for this?” This internal dialogue has a way of creeping into those little places in our lives that increase our self-doubt, insecurities, and even the ability to reflect on why you even embarked on the journey of veterinary medicine.

Whether you just began classes a month ago, or cannot wait until June to finish, it is important to remind yourself that the work each of you do is impactful, important, and incredible. Being a professional student is something that very few people understand or can even comprehend. I am sure there have been countless times where you wanted to go out with your family or loved ones but could not because you had a Pharmacology lecture at 8 am, or had to go into lab on a Saturday while everyone else was relaxing.

The word “normal” or “day off” has little meaning to those whose choose to practice the art of being a healer. The word heal means to resolve, repair, remedy and to settle – things that every one of you do – but the true meaning of healing is not measured simply by a test score or a lab result, it is measured by the influence you have on your patients. Whether it is a dog wagging its tail, overwhelmed with excitement to see its owner, or it is a horse going to its final restful sleep, to heal does not mean to cure, it means you have given a small part of your life, knowledge, and practice to an animal and its owner.

Being a healer does not mean you have all the answers and resolutions to remedy the diseases of your patients; being a healer is more than that: it means that you are brave enough to empathize with your patients – both the good and the bad.

I hope you can remember all of this when it is the middle of the night and you have been studying for six hours’ straight; or when you look across at your classmate, can tell they had a rough day and need a shoulder to lean on. I hope you can remember that compassion is essential for your patients, but more importantly for yourself. Self-compassion does not mean you have to ignore your pain or even repress it; it truly means that you meet your own anxiety, depression, and self-doubt with a kind heart. And when that little voice comes in and tries to tell you that you are not good enough, or do not deserve to be here, remember there will be patients in your professional life that will remind you why you chose to practice the art of healing.

Dr. Sarah Nemanic observes students testing virtual reality goggles used with an anatomy teaching tutorial.

Dr. Sarah Nemanic, assistant professor of radiology, has been working with an OSU team to develop a 3-D ‘virtual reality’ teaching tutorial for veterinary anatomy students (see story).

Concurrently, Dr. Nemanic studied the efficacy of the tutorial, and the results of that study were recently published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education (Vol.43, No.3).

The study assessed the effectiveness of an interactive, computerized, 3D tutorial for teaching the anatomy of the canine larynx and hyoid apparatus using a randomized control design with first-year students. “Teaching the anatomy of the canine larynx and hyoid apparatus is challenging because dissection disassembles and/or damages these structures, making it difficult to understand their three-dimensional (3D) anatomy and spatial interrelationships,” said Nemanic.

Students in the study received the traditional methods of didactic teaching and dissection to learn the anatomy of the canine larynx and hyoid apparatus, after which they were divided into two statistically equal groups, based on their cumulative anatomy test scores from the prior term. One group received the interactive tutorial, while the control group received the same 3D images without the computerized tutorial. Sixty-three students participated in the study, 28 in the tutorial group, and 35 in the control group. Post-learning assessment and survey scores were significantly higher among students in the computerized tutorial group than those in the control group. Students likewise rated their learning experience higher when using the 3D computerized tutorial.

Dr. Nemanic is now seeking funding for the next phase of the project: creating computer stations in the college where students can access and use the virtual reality program.

Magruder Hall gets hot and spicy on Saturday, October 29^th  at the annual Chili Cookoff for Scholarships. This year students and student clubs are competing for nearly $21,000 in scholarship money.

Bring your appetite, taste a variety of traditional and exotic chilis, then vote for your favorites. You can also vote on best theme, as students go all out to decorate their booths and themselves.

All this for only a $5 donation, which gets you voting tickets and as much chili as you can eat (with all the fixin’s). Serving begins three hours before kickoff (exact time TBA).

The CVM Chili Cookoff is sponsored by SCAVMA, Willamette Valley Animal Hospital, and the College of Veterinary Medicine.