Dear members
We are delighted to present the provisional plan and costs for the upcoming winter meeting. Some of the finer details and topics will follow, however the outline is summarised below.
As many of you know we have been making efforts to meet at the end of the year. The aim of this meeting is to try to develop collaborative research between our private practice and university-based members. We have decided that this first meeting will take place on a single day. The outline of the day is shown below. We hope this will appeal to our membership, particularly those of you in first opinion practice who we are particularly keen on being involved in this venture. As we all know there are so many crucial questions relating to cases we see every day that would be great to answer. These questions will be so much easier to answer with collaboration. We hope that with input from our members with expertise from first opinion practice and those active in research we will be able to generate projects that will make significant contributions to patients with common problems.
The outline for the inaugural meeting outline is as follows:
Friday 23rd November
Registration opens at 6pm – till 8pm
Dinner 8.00-10.30pm – venue TBC
Saturday 24th November
8.00-9.00am Registration reopens
9.00am Welcome and introduction to the day
9.15am Overview of developing research collaborations with first opinion practice – outlining the importance of first opinion case based research to attempt to address the current bias to referral populations in the literature.
10.00am Coffee (biscuits!) and discussion
10.30am Presentations by Protexin and Royal Canin on the current evidence for the use of probiotics and other neutraceuticals in dogs and cats
11.30am Presentation by the Pet Blood bank on current knowledge and future perspectives on the availability and use of blood products in dogs and cats
12.30am Case report and active research project presentations
1.30pm Lunch and discussion
2.30pm Review of projects proposed on the forum and new project proposals – thoughts and ideas from membership.
New project proposals to be presented in a 5 minute slot using 3 ppt slides or overheads, however visual aids not compulsory.
3.45pm Summary of project discussions from the afternoon – proposals presented to rest of group with decision over which projects to take forwards and who will be involved in these.
4.00pm Coffee (biscuits!) and discussion
4.30pm Closing remarks and feedback
5.30pm Mentoring session for those keen on discussing projects with particular supervisors
The cost for the day has been fixed at £30 which will include lunch and registration fee.
The venue is the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD
We look forward to as many of you attending as possible.
Best wishes
Mark on behalf of the organising committee