Meeting demands in specialist training — whose responsibility?

There appears to be a chronic shortage of veterinary specialists, especially in the clinical sciences and diagnostic areas. Pritchard (1) recently remarked on “growing shortages in nearly all veterinary specialties such as surgery, radiology, pathology, and laboratory animal medicine.” Other specialties for which critical shortages have been identified include anesthesiology, neurology, oncology, nutrition and ophthalmology (4).

The major limiting factor in the education of these specialists is financial support (1,2), which typically comes from funds available to veterinary schools and faculty members. In some cases the problem is compounded by a shortage of faculty and by student debt. Industry, the veterinary profession, veterinary schools, referral clinics, government, and the public at large all have an interest in an adequate supply of veterinary specialists, and it may be helpful if the appropriate groups can be brought together to address this problem. One example of a collaborative effort to increase the number of veterinary specialists is discussed below.

Veterinary pathologists are required for a variety of critical functions, including diagnosis of diseases of animals, interpreting tissue changes in drug trials, conducting research on disease processes, and teaching veterinary students. When it appeared that there was a severe shortage of veterinary pathologists, the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP) and the Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP) decided to do something about it. A survey of training programs and employers was conducted in 2002 to determine the supply and assess the demand for veterinary pathologists. The data confirmed that there was a critical shortage in industry, academia and government and this would get worse as retirements and demands would both increase. There were almost 150 unfilled positions and that number was projected to reach 400 by 2007.

In response to this situation, the ACVP/STP Coalition for Veterinary Pathology Fellows brought industry and academia together to increase the number of veterinary pathologists that were being trained. The first 4 years of the program resulted in the creation of residencies for 15 anatomic pathology and 3 clinical pathology students and 4 post‐residency PhD pathology research positions. Bristol‐Myers Squibb, Charles River Laboratories, Eli Lilly, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer, sanofi‐aventis, Intervet Schering‐Plough and Wyeth funded these positions.

The original positions were awarded on a competitive basis to 14 North American veterinary schools, including one Canadian veterinary school. The sponsors paid for stipends, tuition, benefits, travel, and education supplies for 3 years. In addition, 12 companies provided support that facilitated activities of the coalition. Interestingly, there was no requirement for graduates from the programs to serve the sponsors. The Fellows who complete the program are committed to completing the ACVP certification examination but have no other obligations.

This is an excellent example of industry and academia working together to meet societal needs. Industry will benefit as a larger supply will increase their chances of meeting their requirement for highly trained pathologists. The veterinary schools are pleased as this funding allows them to attract more outstanding graduates into the residency/graduate program system. The post‐residency programs will assist veterinary faculties to replenish their ranks of research pathologists. The coalition has continued to monitor the supply of and demand for veterinary pathologists and has concluded that the efforts directed towards training have made an impression on the demand but there is still a substantial shortage. The shortage is widespread and documented by others (3). The sponsors of this program have renewed their support and there is reason to believe that the situation will improve in the years ahead, although this one important initiative is relatively small‐scale.

The model developed by the pathologists involves financial support from industrial partners who depend on having pathology expertise. In the clinical specialties the major users of the expertise are referral hospitals and veterinary schools. There is considerable scope for collaborations among these organizations in assessing needs and developing and implementing plans for joint training programs involving work/study. “Work/study” can also operate effectively within veterinary schools, as evidenced by its use in Canada and the United States in the 1960s to employ graduates into junior faculty positions while they enrolled in MSc and PhD programs (1).

Robert Marshak, former dean at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, emphasized the importance of advanced training for the entire veterinary profession. He considered that “the profession’s future progress is crucially dependent on the fruits of research and the training of successive generations of veterinary scientists” (5).