Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

Template:Infobox college The Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) is a state-supported college of two states, Virginia and Maryland, filling the need for veterinary medicine education in both states. Students from both states are considered "in-state" students for admissions purposes.

VMRCVM is one of 28 colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States. It is accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association's Council on Education (AVMA COE) and the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC). In 2011, the U.S. News 'Veterinary Medicine' Ranking placed the college tied for 17th with Iowa State University in a poll of 25 ranked schools.

The college is considered a constituent college of both Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland, College Park. The college's main campus is located on Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, with a branch on the University of Maryland's campus in College Park, Maryland. It also operates the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia. The college's Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program is designed to be finished in four years. The first three years are spent at the Blacksburg campus; for the final year, students do clinical rotations at two veterinary teaching hospitals in Blacksburg and with private practitioners. Some students do rotations at the branches at College Park or Leesburg.

History

The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine broke ground on April 16, 1979.

Historically, there was a shortage of veterinary colleges in the southern and Mid-Atlantic states. In 1950, the state of Maryland began a contract to allow 10 Maryland students to attend the vet school at the University of Georgia in exchange for the admittance of 10 Georgia residents into the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. By 1972, Maryland expanded its relationship with out-of-state vet schools to include Tuskegee University, Ohio State University, University of Florida, University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University. Virginia also tried to address the absence of an in-state veterinary school. In 1971, Virginia entered into contracts administered by the Southern Regional Education Board, allotting 15 seats to Virginia students in the University of Georgia's veterinary school and two seats at Tuskegee University's school.

In June 1971, the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association initiated a study of the need for and feasibility of a college of veterinary medicine. In 1973, a commission of veterinarians and members of the Virginia General Assembly found that Virginia did need a veterinary college to adequately meet its need for veterinary services. The commission recommended that this college should be a regional college, should emphasize service to farmers in Virginia, and should be located at Virginia Tech.

In 1978, the Virginia General Assembly officially established the college as a part of Virginia Tech, one of Virginia's two land-grant universities. Meanwhile, in Maryland, the State Board of Regents decided in 1977 to establish a veterinary school at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; however, on May 11, 1979, the Board of Regents decided to join the Virginia school instead. In February 1980, a memorandum of understanding with the then-Virginia school stated that 24 slots in the entering class would be reserved for Maryland students and 40 places would be allocated to Virginia students. This founding class of 64 students entered the college on September 15, 1980 and graduated with DVM degrees in May 1984. The new college was fully accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1990.

In 2009, the college established a partnership with the American University of Antigua (AUA) that permitted students to attend AUA for their first four semesters and then transfer to VMRCVM for their last five semesters; however, AUA ended its veterinary medical program in 2011.

Academics

The Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine offers students a DVM degree or an M.S. or Ph.D. in biomedical and veterinary sciences. The college also has a joint program with the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine that leads to a master of public health. In addition to these degrees, students may participate in residency and internships in their desired fields of interest.

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program

The college offers a four-year full-time program leading to the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree. The first three years are taught in a case-based and traditional lecture/laboratory format. At the end of the first year, students choose a track: small animal, food animal, equine, mixed species, or public/corporate veterinary medicine. Students then take courses specific to their track for the next two years. In their senior year, which is 12 months in length, students train for veterinary practice by participating in clinical rotations.

Over the past five years, the Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine’s DVM program has had over 96 percent of its students pass the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE). In 2010-11, all of the college’s 85 graduating students passed the exam.

Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences Program

The Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences program is part of the Graduate School at Virginia Tech. The program offers a Ph.D. degree that requires 90 credit hours of course work, research, and a dissertation. The Ph.D. can be completed in four years, and prospective students do not need a master’s degree to apply. The master’s degree requires 30 credit hours of coursework, research, and a thesis and can be completed in two years. The college also has a dual-degree program that leads to both a DVM and Ph.D. in six years. In this program, students can pursue research opportunities in biomedical and/or clinical studies.

Master of Public Health

In collaboration with the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, VMRCVM offers a master’s degree in public health, a 42-credit-hour professional program in the new Department of Population Health Sciences.

Residency and Internships

The Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine provides students with discipline-specific residency programs. All VMRCVM residents must complete a graduate degree (M.S. or Ph.D.). Small-animal clinical residencies and large-animal clinical residencies are designed to provide three to four years of advanced training in specific disciplines in preparation for certification examination by appropriate specialty boards within the veterinary profession. The biomedical sciences and pathobiology residencies, which are part of a combined residency/Ph.D. program, prepare graduates for careers in veterinary clinical pathology or anatomic pathology. The Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center offers residency programs in equine internal medicine and surgery. These programs are fully approved by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Veterinary Surgery.

VMRCVM internships are designed to provide post-DVM students with the opportunity for experience in advanced diagnostic and therapeutic techniques in medicine and surgery as well as seminary and manuscript preparation. Internships are also aimed at providing students with training and experience in clinical instruction and preparing them for residency and graduate study or clinical practice.

Hospitals

Students of the Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine can gain veterinary experience by working in one of the college’s hospitals: the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which comprises the Small Animal Hospital and the Henry T. Peters Large Animal Hospital, or the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center.

Veterinary Teaching Hospital

The Veterinary Teach Hospital, which comprises the Small Animal Hospital and the Harry T. Peters, Jr. Large Animal Hospital, provides care to local clients within a 35-mile radius of Blacksburg. Since the hospital focuses on teaching, residents and interns work closely with clinical faculty members to provide care to small and large animals. Fourth-year veterinary students in the DVM program spend their final year in three-week clerkships designed to give them hands-on experience; these students welcome patients, record a case history, and conduct the initial examination of the animal prior to consulting with the supervising veterinarian.

Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center

The Marion DuPont Scott Equine Medical Center is a full-service equine hospital located in Leesburg, Virginia, that offers advanced specialty care, 24-hour emergency treatment and diagnostic services for all ages and breeds of horses. The center, which opened in 1984, has board-certified veterinarians in anesthesia, internal medicine, and surgery, as well as veterinarians in residency training programs and licensed veterinary technicians. Since the center’s inception, faculty members have played a key role in the development of both Marquis, the first FDA-approved treatment for equine protozoal myelitis, and GastroGard, a treatment for gastric ulcers, as well as advances in laser surgery joint disease, and treatments for lameness, colic, tumors, tendon and ligament injury, and antibiotic therapy.

Research

Students may also gain experience through the college’s various research centers, which are spread out across Virginia and Maryland. Under the leadership of the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, VMRCVM conducts a broad spectrum of basic/molecular and translational/applied research with a focus on animal health and productivity as well as human health and wellbeing.

Additionally, the school operates a library on its Blacksburg campus that is a part of the Virginia Tech library system.

Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine

The Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine (CPCVM) is located on the College Park, Maryland campus of VMRCVM. Primarily, the CPCVM supervises the public and corporate track of the DVM program. It also coordinates internship opportunities and provides summer fellowship experiences for veterinary students from across the United States as well as from several other countries.

Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases

The central theme of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases (CMMID) is “Animal Model of Diseases.” The faculty specializes in using various animal models that include not only traditional laboratory animal models (mice and rats), but also non-traditional (chickens, pigs, dogs, fish, crab, equine) animal models. CMMID employs animal models to better understand the disease processes that impact both humans and domesticated species. The center is geared toward addressing current problems in public health that require the use of appropriate animal and tissue culture models, as well as gene-expression analysis.

Center for Comparative Oncology

The Center for Comparative Oncology (CeCO) is an academic center for basic and clinical research on cancer. The center, which opened in 2002, unites a variety of cancer research programs on the Virginia Tech campus. It seeks to understand the development of cancer in animals and in people, to develop new ways to diagnose cancer and to find new treatments to control and cure it.

Center for Animal Human Relationships

The Center for Animal Human Relationships (CENTAUR) is an academic center conducting instructional, research, and outreach programs designed to foster a greater understanding of the mutual benefits associated with human-animal interaction. It provides education, research, and service related to the therapeutic benefits of companion animals.

Center for Reproductive Excellence Using Advanced Technology and Endocrinology

The Center for Reproductive Excellence using Advanced Technology and Endocrinology (CREATE) has three board-certified theriogenologists, each with their own research and species interests. The CREATE Lab offers advanced reproductive services—from breeding soundness and infertility evaluations to genetic counseling—for the following species: equine, bovine, canine, feline, ovine, and caprine.

Laboratory for Neurotoxicity Studies

The Virginia Tech Laboratory for Neurotoxicity Studies conducts investigations studying the effects of toxins on the nervous system. Currently, the laboratory is conducting interdisciplinary research in experimental neurotoxicology studying the effects of agents such as pesticides, solvents, heavy metals, mycotoxins, and nanomaterials in in vitro and in vivo models, funded by federal agencies and industries. Faculty with expertise in toxicology, pharmacology, neuropathology, and veterinary pathology conduct this work.

Veterinary Medical Informatics Laboratory

The Veterinary Medical Informatics Laboratory (VMIL) is an interdisciplinary research and service program within the Office of Research and Graduate Studies. VMIL studies conceptual and structural features of the medical information unique to animals. VMIL also assists in analysis and development of medical information models, databases, and systems. In addition to its research, VMIL acts as a service program by developing terminologies for veterinary organizations.

Future Plans

The college opened a $10.5 million, 16,000-square-foot Infectious Disease Research Facility in November 2011 and plans to complete a $14.1 million, 30,000-square-foot Veterinary Medicine Instruction Addition in the fall of 2012. Located on the Blacksburg campus, both facilities connect to the main VMRCVM building.

What's more, the college has plans for a 90,000-square-foot Translational Medicine Building, which will expand the Veterinary Teaching Hospital and create additional research and training spaces. The new facility will be a collaboration with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Science at Virginia Tech.

Starting with the Class of 2016, VMRCVM will also be expanding the number of students in its DVM program. Of the 120 anticipated spots, 50 are reserved for Virginia residents and 30 for Maryland residents. The remaining spots are for at-large applications and include space for up to six West Virginia residents under a new agreement.

External links

• http://www.vetmed.vt.edu/