Greetings fellow ACVR members! This is my last message to you as president. I am very pleased to hand the reins over to Dr. Nathan Nelson, the incoming ACVR President. Dr. Nelson was trained at The Ohio State University, is currently Associate Clinical Professor at North Carolina State University and is both a DI and EDI Diplomate. He has long been a cherished colleague and he will serve the ACVR with dedication.
Congratulations to our new President-Elect, Dr. Federica Morandi. A native of Italy, Dr. Morandi pursued her imaging training at The Ohio State University and is currently Professor of Radiology and Director of Radiological Services at the University of Tennessee. As President-Elect, she will also be head of the Nominating Committee, so please reach out to her (president-elect@acvr.org) if you are interested in serving the ACVR in some capacity. Also, congratulations to our 2 new Councilors, Dr. Jennifer Bouma and Dr. Lindsey Gilmour. Dr. Bouma trained at University of Pennsylvania and has worked in various facets of private practice. Dr. Gilmour trained at Iowa State University and is Associate Professor at Texas A&M University. Drs. Morandi, Bouma, and Gilmour have been very involved with the ACVR over the years, having had roles on a variety of committees. Thank you to all those who ran for office, it was a wonderful group of candidates.
We would also like to welcome our new ACVR Treasurer, Dr. Matt Cannon, to ACVR Executive Council for a 3-year term.
Now that the first ever Virtual Scientific Meeting is behind us, Dr. Arble, Dr. Pease and myself would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the hard work of several people who made the meeting possible. Drs. Shannon Holmes and Mason Savage, the Co-Chairs of the Forum and Image Interpretation Session, respectively; the crew at PAMED that kept the wheels turning; all of the abstract authors and our esteemed speakers for their participation; the team at Veterinary Education who brought all of the technical expertise; our sponsors and exhibitors and lastly, a big thank you to all of you, our membership, for your support and positive vibes. Please remember to answer the post meeting survey so we can continue to build on your valuable input!
We had a large number of abstract presentations at this year’s meeting and would like to highlight once again the award-winners. Congratulations to all of you for your important research!
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CT/MRI : Dr. Becky Urion: DIFFUSION WEIGHTED TENSOR IMAGING AND TRACTOGRAPHY OF EQUINE SUPERFICIAL DIGITAL FLEXOR TENDONS
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Ultrasound : Dr. Elodie Huguet: Comparison of Thoracic Radiographs with Echocardiography in the Interpretation of Cardiac Chamber Enlargement in Dogs with Severe Left-Sided Cardiomegaly
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LADIS : Dr. Linda Dillenbeck: URETEROLITHIASIS IN 15 HORSES – CLINICAL AND ULTRASONOGRAPHIC FINDINGS
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Nuclear Medicine : Dr. Mathieu Spriet: Validation of a dedicated standing equine PET scanner and early data in 61 racehorses
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ZEWDIS : Dr. Eric Hostnik: LIVER ATTENUATION AND VOLUME MEASURED USING COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN CLINICALLY HEALTHY OCELLATE RIVER STINGRAYS (Potamotrygon motoro)
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General Interest : Dr. Susannah Lillis: Prevalence of Computer Vision Syndrome (Eye strain) Amongst Veterinary Radiologists
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Radiation Oncology : Dr. Steven Moraino : Does stereotactic radiation induce durable analgesia in canine appendicular osteosarcoma? A pilot study.
There has been enormous upheaval over the past months around the subject of diversity and inequality. It could be easy to look askance at what is happening around the world, wonder what this has to do with veterinary radiology and go back to reading the next case. However, if we take a closer look, we are, like the rest of veterinary medicine, a rather “homogeneously hyperechoic” group. ACVR Executive Council decided at our October meeting that it is time for our College to develop an ACVR Diversity initiative. This seems particularly fortuitous as a new taskforce of specialty colleges has reached out to us for collaboration. We are looking for 2 Co-Chairs to spearhead this initiative. The objective will be to form a committee and a roadmap to develop the initiative. Among other things, there will be recruitment of members, development and collection of surveys, creation and implementation of objectives for the college and follow up on how the objectives are affecting diversity throughout the ACVR. The group will likely be working with the AAVMC with regards to residents and the other specialty colleges with regards to Diplomates.
We would like to get the ball rolling within the next few weeks. If you are interested in becoming a Co-Chair and have experience with developing and implementing diversity initiatives, please contact Dr. Nathan Nelson (ncnelson2@ncsu.edu) or Dr. Tod Drost (execdirector@acvr.org).
In other news, the VRU Editorial Committee would like to congratulate 3 people who were approved for appointment as Associate Editors for the VRU Editorial Board during the Fall ACVR Executive Council Meeting: Dr. Susanne Boroffka (re-appointee representing EAVDI), Dr. Angela Marolf (re-appointee representing ACVR), and Dr. Mariano Makara (new appointee representing AAVDI). Their 6-year terms will begin Jan. 1, 2021 and end Dec. 31, 2026. For more information on the VRU Editorial Board, please click here.
Congratulations to Dr. Wade Won and his resident mentor Dr. Erin Brinkman for winning the 2020 VRU Resident Author Award for their paper entitled “Association of meniscal injury to joint space width on standard tibial plateau leveling osteotomy lateral radiographic projections of the canine stifle”.
Also in VRU news: in conjunction with the recent expert panels on Artificial Intelligence in veterinary radiology and radiation oncology, VRU will sponsor a supplemental issue dedicated to artificial intelligence. We are seeking a Guest Editor to oversee this special issue, with the intention of publication within the coming year. If you have particular expertise in artificial intelligence and are interested in either being Guest Editor or in contributing to the issue, please contact me at kalexander@centredmv.com.
Finally, our new website celebrated its 1-year anniversary! The website averages over 84,000 monthly page views with over 15,000 monthly unique users. Popular pages include journal access, meeting information, job listings, residency information and Cases of the Month. The newsletter has a 50-60% open rate, which is about double industry average. Thanks for reading!
A few specific website reminders:
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The Find a Specialist feature gets quite a bit of traffic, so please make sure that you have updated your profile.
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Somewhat counterintuitively, the Directory does not automatically include your email address. Please make sure that you add your current email address to your member profile.
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ACVR Membership renewals are now on a rolling basis, rather than once a year in December. Don’t forget to renew your Society memberships at the same time!
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You can now order ACVR Diplomate apparel and accessories! Either through the Shop feature or the tile under Diplomate Resources.
Thank you all for the honor of serving as president and, to those of you with whom I have worked more closely, thank you for making it a real pleasure and oh so much easier. It has been a year of unexpectedness, of learning and of making connections. I look forward to being able to see all of you in person sooner rather than later. Much health and happiness to each of you and to all of the people who you hold dear.
Dr. Kate Alexander
