Dear Diplomates,

In August, we shared an update in the Diplomate Digest regarding the Veterinary Specialty Coalition (VSC) and the AVMA’s Veterinary Specialty Organizations Committee (VSOC), both groups which guide and support issues across veterinary specialty medicine.

As an update to this ongoing work, CEO Shannon Carter and I recently attended a VSOC meeting in which we learned that the AVMA Board of Directors (BOD) approved the request from VSOC to move forward with a one-day meeting of graduate veterinary medicine stakeholders for the purpose of exploring what the establishment of an accrediting body might entail. VSOC will select invitees from large and small specialty colleges and other stakeholders. You can read our call to action letter on this topic and a perspectives article in the most recent issue of JVIM.

The ACVIM is committed to continuing to work with these groups to advance our collective goals and have a voice in issues that affect the future of our profession.

In addition to this work, the ACVIM Residency Training Program (RTP) Oversight Task Force made its final report to the ACVIM Board of Regents (BOR) in November. The outcomes include key elements of a program evaluation system that we will begin to implement in 2024. It will include surveys designed to help us identify opportunities to continually optimize the training experience. 

Two members from the RTP Oversight Task Force will now serve on a new task force, which will begin working on a framework for evaluating 2025 training requirements to ensure continued training program quality. Outcomes from the 2023 volunteer-led workshop, detailed in the Future of Training whitepaper, will guide the work of the new task force. Discussion and development of this issue will continue at the pre-Forum volunteer leader workshop planned for 2024.

The ACVIM will continue to provide updates as we attend future meetings of both the VSC and VSOC and make headway on these and other issues. I encourage you to reach out to me or Shannon Carter with any questions or concerns you may have.

Best regards,

Jane Sykes, BVSc (Hons), PhD, MBA, DACVIM (SAIM)
Chair, ACVIM Board of Regents