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Final Committee Proposal School of Veterinary Medicine
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Transcript of Final Committee Proposal School of Veterinary Medicine
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Proposal for a Medical Veterinary Degree: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine
Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Agriculture and Food Science
___________________________________________________________
American University of Beirut
AUB Veterinary Program Proposal Subcommittee:
Dr. Susan Prattis – FAFS, Lead Author
Dr. Abdo Jurjus – FM, Contributing Author
Dr. Elie Barbour – FAFS, Contributing Author
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Table of Contents
Introduction P2
Proposed Market P5
Summary of Program Plan P7
Timeline P10
Mission P10
Vision P11
Goals of the Veterinary Medical School P12
Student Learning Outcomes P13
General Description of the Veterinary Medical Degree P14
Description of SVM Curriculum P17
Outcomes Assessment P21
Candidate Qualifications, Admissions and Justification P24
Governance of the SVM P28
Model Organizational Chart P30
Revenue Model P31
Faculty Recruitment P33
Implementation P34
Challenges to Implementation P34
Curricular Outcomes Measurement and Assessment Tools P36
Appendices Provided Under Separate Cover:
o Executive Summary and Multiyear Operating Budget
o Summary of AVMA Council on Education Standards
for Self Study and Accreditation
o Sample Excerpt Clinical Competency Skills Record
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Introduction
The School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) at the AUB will be an integral part of
the comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research intensive American University of
Beirut, located in Beirut, and the Bekka’a Valley, Lebanon. It is a joint venture
between the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Agriculture and Food
Sciences. The synergy generated by the SVM interaction with the university
community at large will create unique challenges and opportunities to excel in
teaching, research and service.
Lebanon and the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the World Health Organization
(EMRO) have fragmented systems of veterinary medicine training, pathogen
control, regulation, and clinical practice. Most general veterinary practitioners are
trained predominantly in EU, Canadian, and Russian institutions and more recently
institutions based within Lebanon and in other Arabic countries. In Lebanon,
veterinary medicine has depended traditionally on potential practitioners becoming
educated at institutions outside of Lebanon itself. However, in the past seven years
a Veterinary School of Medicine has opened in the Lebanese University; this
institution was developed following the European Union country standards and
curriculum. This type of training consists of a combined program of initial
combined undergraduate collegiate and veterinary science background of five years
duration in total. Veterinarians graduating from this system are educated to the
Masters of Veterinary Science level, which is accepted currently as the first level
professional veterinary educational credential within Lebanon and allows these
graduates to practice Veterinary Medicine within Lebanon. Each year it is
estimated that roughly 25 new veterinary graduates go into the market. They are
licensed to work by the respective ministries and join their professional syndicate.
The American Medical Education System has been established in Lebanon and the
region through the pioneering work of the American University of Beirut, first
established as the Syrian Protestant College in 1866. Successful Medical School,
and Agriculture and Nutrition graduates, later on, have infiltrated the whole World
Health Organization Regional Office of the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) region
and the world. These graduates have always responded to human and animal
population needs within developing country areas. Despite the increased number
of local and regional medical schools in Lebanon and the surrounding areas, some
of which have replicated the AUB curriculum and education systems within their
own institutions, the AUB remains a very attractive, if not the most attractive,
medical school and university of the region. The School of Veterinary Medicine
could follow the same path; attracting students locally and from the surrounding
region who upon graduation could provide quality services for private clients,
governmental, corporate or nonprofit organizations, and corporations involved in
small, food, laboratory animal, shelter and public regulatory veterinary practice.
It is believed that a School of Veterinary Medicine following the American System
is greatly needed in Lebanon and the EMRO region. It will provide the state of the
art education, services and research in the field of Veterinary Medicine in Lebanon.
Veterinarians are considered to be among the most trusted health providers within
health care services fields (http://www.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-
professions.aspx ) at levels comparable to or exceeding medical doctors.
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Veterinary medicine is an attractive field for many students
(http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/veterinarian) and local as well as
regional potential students should be attracted to this new program as a result of the
breadth and level of clinical training offered; immediate entry into the practice of
veterinary medicine professionally within Lebanon following completion of the
program; and the potential for rotations and training within international clinical
and/or research settings. It will also promote better health for all and broaden the
context of public health based on the “One Health” concept and knowledge transfer
on key issues regarding the pivotal role of animal health and food safety as well as
environmental health in influencing health outcomes.
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Proposed Market and Veterinary Contributions to the MENA Region
Programmatic and Financial Justification: As a result of collaborative projects between the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Lebanese Ministry of
Agriculture, rural dairy farmers have begun to form collectives, with improved dairy product
hygiene, refrigerated milk transport trucking systems and improved pricing structures for their
families (FAO Lebanon Country Report). The current 2009 food animal census in Lebanon is in
excess of 880,000 large animals and 37.5 million poultry, with a trend towards increasing
numbers of poultry and goats, and stable remaining populations. These numbers and improved
supply chains suggest an expanded market in which to develop and provide food animal
veterinary services for rural Lebanese producers, farmers, and owners.
(1 http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Counprof/lebanon/lebanon.html#4).
Table 6.
Livestock
Population 1
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Asses 15 000 15 000 15 000 15 000 15 000 15 000 15 000 15 000 15 000 15 000
Camels 450 440 440 440 440 440 440 440 450 450
Cattle 77 000 78 124 88 216 86182 80 343 76 900 77 000 77 400 76 900 77 000
Goats 417 000 399 183 408 933 428 035 432 158 494 700 484 400 434 700 450 000 450 000
Horses 3 580 3 580 3 580 3 580 3 580 3 580 3 580 3 580 3 580 3 580
Mules 4 780 4 780 4 780 4 780 4 780 4 780 4 780 4 780 5 000 5 000
Sheep 354 000 328 579 297 829 302 513 305 360 337 300 370 400 324 400 330 000 330 000
Poultry
(,000)
31 000 32 000 33 000 34 000 37 500 35 500 36 000 36 700 37 000 37 500
Consumer and producer education across the spectrum of large animal husbandry and animal
welfare has not been emphasized in Lebanon and the surrounding area, and graduates of this new
school can make significant contributions in these areas. Finally, among the large animal
species, equine and camelid health and welfare industries are very important in this region and
have become increasingly important within Lebanon, and it is anticipated that doctoral
veterinarians graduating from this program would be able to immediately enhance business
operations and consumer – client practices in these areas.
While there are not current estimates of small animal pets populations in Lebanon anecdotal
evidence (personal communication, Lebanese Syndicate of Veterinarians) suggests that there are
increasing numbers of dogs, cats and other house pets present within the country, and a great
need to educate consumers in the proper care, socialization, and health management of different
species of family pets. There continues to be great concern that sufficient veterinarians are not
graduated in Lebanon to support the needs of One Health initiatives intertwining human and
veterinary health with environmental science, with urgent needs indicated involving food safety
and hygiene; food security, as Lebanon continues to import over 90 % of the food animals
entering consumer supply chains due to inability to produce them to meet meat, dairy and fiber
needs internally; the greater environment; zoonotic disease and accredited veterinary laboratory
diagnostic capabilities; governmental services; nonprofit organizational initiatives; and animal
science corporate entities. The School of Veterinary Medicine will meet these needs by
graduating veterinary leaders who can effectively contribute their knowledge in these areas and
other emerging sectors.
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In founding the School of Veterinary Medicine the focus will be on consumer fee for
services and products, with some aspects of managed health programs available for some
income stratified residents of Beirut, the surrounding area, and for large animal patients
in the Bekka’a Valley. In support of our local practitioner base the FM and FAFS will
be collaborating in developing a short survey for use in assessing the long term interests
of current veterinary practitioner members of the Syndicate of Lebanese Veterinarians,
as well as workforce estimates for veterinarians performing in governmental, corporate
and nonprofit organizational roles as potential stakeholders for school development. It is
anticipated that this survey will supplement earlier estimates of market conditions for
new veterinarians in Lebanon and the surrounding countries.
There are currently only three MENA regional veterinary institutions excluding
European Union institutions. These programs include the Jordanian University of
Science and Technology, granting a Bachelor or Masters of Veterinary Science; The
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Lebanese University, granting a Master and
Diploma in Veterinary Medicine; and the Cairo University, granting the Bachelor in
Veterinary Science. The proposed School of Veterinary Medicine of the American
University of Beirut will grant a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, which will be a
unique degree more in line with those granted in the US system. The scarcity of
institutions currently granting this degree in the Arabic Middle East, and the limited
number of graduates emanating from these programs that do not meet the current need
for this profession in the workplace suggests that there is an educational market growth
opportunity for this new program.
In addition to fee for service programs, continuing education course fees for local
veterinarians, collaborative research ventures, corporate sponsorship / partnership, and
innovative philanthropic support opportunities will be pursued to develop additional
initial cash flow support for the investment that the University is making into this
capacity building institutional development project.
Business Model and Budget: The proposed budget is attached (Appendix 1). The initial year
of instruction will require an investment of 415,000 USD. Our prediction is that the School of
Veterinary Medicine can be commenced with a proposed five year operating budget with an
initial surplus of 66,863 USD in year one, and a projected five year net positive income
production of 10,786,186 USD. It is predicted that the School will be economically self-
sufficient after the initial 12 months of operation, with projected positive income of 1,534,356
USD at the conclusion of year 2. The business model proposed will rely heavily initially on
tuition fees from inaugural classes capped at 25 students to a maximum of 100 students across
the school once all four classes are in residence. Future revenue streams will initially rely on
client fee for service revenue include that obtained from continuing education seminar and
practical laboratories for regional practitioners; clinical service provided by the Mobile Field
Practice and a projected bricks and mortar veterinary hospital facility; and from providing
laboratory services to local private practitioners, governmental organizations, research
organizations and corporate entities. Supplemental startup funds will be provided from
development activities such as corporate partnership projects, collaborative activities, and
individual donor solicitation initially from stakeholders and alumni. It is crucial for independent
professional status within the University and greater profession that the School of Veterinary
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Medicine achieve financial self-sufficiency. The new School of Veterinary Medicine will not
receive US accreditation by the AVMA Council on Education accreditation body without
demonstrating financial and managerial success, coupled with successful graduation of five
veterinary school classes, and high North American Veterinary Licensing Examination passage
rates by these doctoral veterinary graduates (Appendix 2) among the eleven criterion that must
be met in this process.
The University will facilitate support for this new venture through shared existing
faculty instruction and teaching and/or laboratory facilities between the Faculties of
Medicine, Agriculture and Food Science. Combined research and teaching programs
with the AUB Medical Center and Faculty of Medicine, seeking efficiencies of scale in
intellectual effort, programmatic development, faculty appointments, facilities
availability and financial management will be important in developing this new effort.
Clinical practicum sites will be initially addressed by using the AREC campus farm
facilities, developing the first institutional mobile practice to serve small, large and
exotic animal clients in Beirut, the surrounding areas, and more distant sites within
Lebanon; and by working with selected small, large, corporate and governmental
veterinarians to provide short educational experiences for students. The Faculty of the
School of Veterinary Medicine will be hired gradually over time and will be additionally
drawn as noted above from cross appointments within the University. It is preferable that
a separate Veterinary Clinic Hospital be developed with time to enhance teaching,
clinical care and research opportunities in a centralized fashion; newly accredited US
veterinary schools that have relied exclusively on a distributed model of veterinary
student training, and the AVMA COE which accredited them, have been heavily
criticized by veterinary practitioners, academicians alike, and ultimately the US
Department of Education which certified accreditation bodies, as not offering an
optimum veterinary training model with poor outcomes for domestic and foreign trained
students emerging from that type of system. It is to our advantage to begin with the
mobile field service clinic, but to plan long term for veterinary hospital development.
SVM Programmatic Planning
It is anticipated that about new 10 core faculty members will be hired in the initial years.
It is also anticipated to begin with approximately 10 faculty currently members of the
current AUB FAFS and FM faculty who are able to teach in the basic sciences to an
entering class of 25 students, with additional faculty and staff employment growth
sequentially as new classes enter the program, and existing classes advance to the next
year. The Proposed Veterinary School will focus on providing education to our future
students, developing local expertise, seeking corporate and philanthropic support and
growing fee for service case load and programs in the following areas:
1) Urban / Suburban - focused cutting edge Comprehensive Generalist and
Specialist Companion Animal Medicine and Surgery services: These
services are ideally provided under the aegis of AUB School of Veterinary
Medicine Small Animal Hospital whose clinical facility, operating procedures,
staffing and fiscal management will be consistent with standards required to
become voluntarily accredited by the AVMA Council on Education, American
Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), the New York State Veterinary Medical
Society (NYSVMS); and would be in compliance with designated AVMA-
COE operational standards . Companion animals are defined as the following:
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dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, rodents, marsupials, ferrets, fish, amphibians, reptiles;
some exotic pets include those not commonly observed in other locations,
including non-human primates and species best exhibited in zoological
societies (e.g. lions, tigers, constrictor or poisonous snakes and amphibians;
etc.).
In addition, this facility and The Large Animal Ambulatory Service would offer some
features of complementary veterinary medicine, possibly including Acupuncture ( an
AVMA specialty practice area); Homeopathy; Laser Therapy for chronic disease and
alleviation of inflammation and discomfort; and Stem Cell Therapy.
2) Large Animal Ambulatory Service based at AREC in the Bekka’a – starting
an Ambulatory Service to support local farmers in the Bekka’a Valley and local
regions would immediately be useful as both extension / outreach to local
farmers, would develop a new cash flow for the Veterinary Program through
AREC facilities, and could be linked to the Master of Science degree in Rural
Development. In addition, as a part of future growth for this program, demand
developed by the Large Animal Ambulatory Services could indicate locations for
AUB School of Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Satellite Clinics for future
service to Lebanese citizens and companies, and growth and development of this
new program. In addition, we could develop a Center in Food Animal
Diagnostics, Nutrition and Metabolomics Disease to focus on the many
opportunities provided through AREC for substantial livestock and poultry
biomedical, veterinary medical microbial, genetic, food security/food safety and
nutrition research investigation.
3)Shelter Medicine, Management and Humane Care based at the AUB but
with extensive collaboration with the active members of the animal humane
movement here in Beirut and greater Lebanon, Animals Lebanon (AL) and
Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA). It would be extremely
helpful to obtain funding to develop a Small Animal Mobile Humane
Spay/Neuter Vehicle that could operate in Beirut and the surrounding suburban
areas, and possibly, travel to other areas of Lebanon to assist in the management
of feral cats and dogs especially, but potentially providing a mobile solution to
other humane related medical and/or surgical challenges in the region. This
section of the curriculum could also be the location for a Center in Animal
Welfare Education, which could work collaboratively with currently existing
animal welfare organizations in Lebanon, (AL) and BETA. It is crucially
important to increase community education regarding the role of pets in families,
animal behavior and safety, and zoonotic disease. Doing so could ultimately
decrease the large number of feral animals present in Beirut as well as bringing
increased awareness of animal handling, treatment and support to Lebanon and
the surrounding region. This proposed Center could play a significant role in this
area within MENA.
4) Small Animal Emergency and Intensive Critical Care Services - ultimately
based within the planned AUB Small Animal Hospital in Beirut, which would
initially offer emergency services and could develop excellent small animal and
exotic intensive critical care laboratory and clinical facilities with increased
patient case load and donations for this purpose. This service would be unique in
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Beirut, where there are no specialists in this area and in which local veterinarians
are purportedly reluctant to become deeply involved in providing emergency
services for other practices, and would have a high cash value due to its
intensive, sophisticated nature of the care provided. Typical capabilities would
include equipment and staffing enabling noninvasive patient monitoring,
including oscillometric or Doppler systemic blood pressure, pulse oximetry and
EKG, invasive hemodynamic monitoring (e.g. direct arterial blood pressure,
central venous pressure evaluation) and pulmonary artery catheterization;
temperature - controlled oxygen therapy incubators and blood transfusion
capacities; and Focal Assessment with Sonography for Trauma- (FAST), a rapid
ultrasound evaluation of body cavities to evaluate the presence, and distribution,
of fluid accumulation following trauma or severe disease.
5) Collaboration with the operations of the AUB Institutional Care and Use
Committee and Animal Facility, overseen by the Institutional Animal Care and
Use Committee (IACUC), with direct or distributed satellite staffing administrative
responsibility for evaluation, provision and regulation of animal care and use in
teaching, research and service throughout the AUBMC, the Medical School, the
University, and AREC. We expect to be able to train selected students in the
procedures used at the facility and by their staff, and in learning to detect clinical
and asymptomatic diseases through good management, technical and clinical
experience and interest in this field.
6) Interventional Radiology and Advanced Imaging Modalities, a service that
would feature access to large scale imaging equipment currently held by the
AUBMC, but which could ultimately be purchased by the AUB for the AUB
School of Veterinary Medicine and their patient population of companion animal
pets, food animals and equine sports populations. Having access to this equipment
and facilities built to allow use of radioisotopic materials in diagnosis and/or
treatment of animals would promote usage of noninvasive imaging methods such
as on demand Digital Radiography; surgical and emergency Endoscopy,
Bronchoscopy, and Ultrasonography; provision of Fine Needle Aspirate or arterial
manipulation and unblocking under Ultrasound or Computerized Tomographic
visualization; Positron Emission Therapy , Single Photon Emission Computerized
Tomography / Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computerized Tomography ) and,
with incorporation of a linear accelerator, initially for small animal patients, could
promote treatment of neoplastic diseases in accordance with current standards of
care.
7) Development of an American Association for Laboratory Accreditation – An
accredited Clinical Veterinary Laboratory will be offering support across
Pathologic, Toxicological, Pharmacological, Microbial, Molecular and Medical -
Surgical Services for the veterinary community, corporate and governmental
organizations within the region. Such a facility is sorely lacking in Lebanon, where
the veterinary community has traditionally relied on local human hospital labs that
vary in quality and accuracy, and do not consistently use veterinary – specialized
testing methods to aid in diagnosing, monitoring and treating disease in veterinary
patients. This laboratory could also serve as a Center for Zoonotic Disease
Investigation. In addition, laboratory methods and equipment housed in this area
could facility sophisticated veterinary and comparative medicine focused research
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studies, and research support of laboratory animal facility programs Typical
clinical capacity and operational support methods provided by this laboratory
would include all of the procedures and equipment necessary for effective
investigation and definition of microbial strain pathogens using serological, culture
and sensitivity, biochemistry, analytical chemistry and molecular methods of
investigation in clinical and basic fields, including virology, bacteriology,
parasitology, mycology, mycoplasmology, and prion disease analysis; hematology,
clinical chemistry, clinical immunology and clinical oncology; gross and
histopathology, histology, cytology; and toxicology and pharmacokinetics for
residue testing in large animals especially. These capabilities will increase the
ability to address internal needs of Lebanon as well as providing badly needed
infrastructure to the greater MENA countries. In addition, the presence of a blood
gas analyzer and blood coagulation analyzer; blood typing and cross-matching
capability allows for STAT blood testing; full species – specific blood work
testing, including complete blood count, serum chemistry panel, snap pancreatitis
assessment for dogs ( cPLI), and cats (snap fPLI).
Timeline of Approval Operations:
It is anticipated that it will take approximately 6 months for the whole proposal to be approved to
the level of the Faculty Senate; and 6 additional months for approval through the Board of
Trustees, taking this process through the end of the fall 2015 semester. Because our inaugural
faculty will be drawn from the ranks of faculty currently working for the Faculties of Medicine,
Agriculture and Food Science, we believe that we can support an inaugural class matriculating in
fall 2016. In addition, we expect that initial full time additional veterinary faculty member
hiring in support of the basic sciences will commence in approximately 18 - 24 months, in the
spring 2017 semester for the 2017-2018 academic year. We will also need to hire one each of
dedicated veterinary assistant, nurse, and husbandry staff members as the patient load grows that
the students will be working with over time. In addition, we plan to interview and select our
local and regional clinical preceptors’ supervisors for the Year Two program during the 2016 –
2017 academic year. Additional clinical faculty members will be hired subsequently based on
programmatic needs, and student body population growth. If we plan to matriculate our
inaugural class in Fall 2016, they should graduate in Spring 2020, at which time we should have
four classes in residence at the School of Veterinary Medicine, and, should also be fully staffed
in the inaugural configuration of the school with potential for further growth and development.,
Mission
American University of Beirut Mission: The American University of Beirut (AUB) is
an institution of higher learning founded to provide excellence in education, to
participate in the advancement of knowledge through research, and to serve the peoples
of the Middle East and beyond. Chartered in New York State in 1863, the University
bases its educational philosophy, standards and practices on the American liberal arts
model of higher education. The University believes deeply and encourages freedom of
thought and expression and seek to foster tolerance and respect for diversity and
dialogue. Graduates will be individuals committed to creative and critical thinking, life-
long learning, personal integrity, civic responsibility and leadership.
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AUB Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science Mission: The mission of the AUB
Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science (FAFS) is to foster the sustainable
enhancement of the health and well - being of people and nature throughout Lebanon
and the region. To achieve its goals, the Faculty uses basic and applied research as well
as student – centered learning to prepare leaders and agents of change to address issues
of local and global relevance at the nexus of human nutrition, food security and
sustainable use of resources.
AUB Faculty of Medicine Mission: The mission of the AUB Faculty of Medicine is to
provide optimum, advanced, state of the art, comprehensive, timely and cost - effective
medical education for each student. The faculty aims to reach this objective by
implementing innovative teaching techniques, and by recruiting and retaining
outstanding faculty and students. The faculty also strives for improved student
performance and career opportunities, as well as improved medical approaches. The
faculty focuses on enhancing the regional and global reputation of the AUB Medical
Center (AUBMC) by encouraging the development of additional centers of excellence,
and developing more effective uses of physical resources and funds.
School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) Mission: The SVM will be the leading
professional veterinary school in the MENA region. It’s mission will be to provide
optimum, advanced, state of the art, comprehensive, timely veterinary medical education
in order to graduate doctoral veterinarians who are leaders it heir field dedicated to
enhancing animal and human health and wellbeing in Lebanon and the region.
Vision, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Program: To become globally recognized as
the doctoral veterinary school program of choice for the MENA region.
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine will exhibit teaching excellence, clinical care and
academic excellence by providing first rate student - centered educational programs,
accredited laboratories, clinical and research facilities, products, programs and user –
focused services to support veterinary clinical and scientific needs of local and regional
urban, suburban and rural communities, enhancing human and animal health in a unified
manner (“One Health” ) as a result of these efforts. The school will develop a new cadre
of doctoral trained veterinarians to enhance the number and capabilities of the profession
in this region, correct the current veterinary personnel shortage in Lebanon and
contribute to international financial competitiveness and enhanced population health.
The veterinary graduates will be prepared to pursue graduate education to the Master of
Science and Ph.D. Doctoral Levels in Veterinary Sciences as well as in other disciplines.
Through our training programs at the veterinary school (professional, graduate,
postdoctoral and residency levels) we will promote, ethnic and gender diversity in
leadership and representation in this profession within Lebanon and the broader MENA
region. Students, staff, faculty, clients and patients profiting from our efforts will in turn
enhance the economic stability of the region through involvement in entrepreneurial
activity across industry and governmental sectors, leading to a stronger “knowledge
economy” across the region. The new School of Veterinary Medicine will (be an
independent doctoral granting unit of the American University of Beirut) seek and
achieve accreditation by the Council on Education of the American Veterinary Medical
Association and the New York Department of Education, and will be financially self -
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sustaining through fee for service revenue generation, student tuition and professional
fees, successful fundraising and development efforts, and ideally, generation of social
entrepreneurial enterprises to be housed on the current AUB campus for those with an
urban focus, or, on the AREC campus for those with a rural, food animal, poultry or
capacity - building developmental focus.
The AUB-SVM, since its inception, will successfully integrate scholarship and research
with all aspects of veterinary medical education in addition to services to the region.
The medical school strength in basic sciences are valuable assets for developing
strategies to lead the way of research in such areas as infectious disease research;
pathology; molecular biology, including germ cell biology and animal transgenesis;
comparative oncology; and translational medicine that effectively protect animals and
eventually humans.
Goals of the Veterinary School
Our goal as a School of Veterinary Medicine of the American University of Beirut is to
educate well qualified students, through innovative educational programs over a course
of four years after a bachelor degree (six semesters in residence and one year of clinical
rotations in accredited veterinary academic centers) so that they may practice
competently and contribute to the advancement of community and public health. It is
also anticipated that graduate veterinarians may also become interested in teaching,
research, and non-practitioner careers, and the proposed curriculum will prepare them
well to undertake these future activities. New York State Department of Education
requirements require 60 semester hours of pre-professional post-secondary education
and completion of a curriculum of not less than four academic years in the DVM/VMD
curriculum. The proposed curricular plan for the SVM are consistent with these
requirements.
In brief, our program goals are as follows and will be assessed in accordance with
student learning outcomes noted below:
To provide quality veterinary medical education and practice that prepares
graduates to be competent veterinary medical practitioners.
To graduate students who will commit to advancing the profession through
teaching and research at an advanced and knowledgeable level
To prepare graduates who will commit to the advancement of the quality of life
of animal and human communities through improved health and wellbeing
The SVM proposes to use clinical rotations placing veterinary students with
veterinarians working in traditional clinical practitioner settings caring for large animal,
food animal and small companion animals, as well as in less traditional but equally
important workplace settings in corporations, clinical laboratories, government,
nonprofit organizations, or species such as zoological medicine, laboratory animal
medicine, aquarium and marine mammals. Veterinary students can more rapidly gain
clinical competence, be most competitive for US licensing examination, and gain
accreditation for the School of Veterinary Medicine through this route which will
13
potentially utilize workplace settings located within Lebanon, the greater local region
and in other countries. Such an arrangement can continue, or could ultimately be
supplemented by construction and operationalizing a fee for service small and exotic
animal hospital on campus. By doing both we will meet the COE requirements to
provide both on campus and off campus clinical education experiences for these
students.
It is especially important for regional development that graduates of the School of
Veterinary Medicine to provide the highest quality of veterinary doctoral education
possible and to develop veterinarians who are willing and able to provide leadership in
private and public practice while addressing the complex animal health, environmental,
agricultural, zoonotic and food borne illnesses, regulatory and business challenges and
needs of the MENA region. By doing so the new School of Veterinary Medicine will
establish exemplary standards in service, teaching and research conducted by its faculty,
modeled for its students, and demonstrated by its graduates.
The school will also emphasize and educate our public on the basis of compassionate
animal care and attention to animal welfare for individuals as well as animal
populations; an understanding of the value of animals in human societies; application of
humanitarian principles, integrity, reliability, industry, resourcefulness, and engagement
with human beings who are key translators of animal health and disease across the many
business and professional sectors within Lebanon and the MENA region.
Finally, AUB SVM graduates will learn the ways of scholarship and analysis in their
approach to veterinary medicine, so that they will be able to perform as life-long learners
by developing active engagement in their chosen profession, ability to work in teams,
power of observation, practicing continual self - study and critical thinking skills.
Student Learning Outcomes: Students graduating from this new program:
Identify, classify, diagnose, treat and prevent animal disease at the
individual and population level
Demonstrate an understanding of comparative “one health” epidemiology
and public health principles, and apply the principles, enabling them to
work proactively with other health professionals and as productive
leaders and participants in corporate industry, government and nonprofit
organizational structures
Demonstrate a range of comprehensive patient diagnosis and problem
solving skills across multiple species and in different clinical, basic
science and procedural arena
|Demonstrate fluency in spoken and written English language
Use emotional intelligence and enhanced communication skills to best
interact productively with their clients, to market and manage their
businesses and projects, and to care for their patients through direct or
programmatic care regiments
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Advocate for animals under study or in their care, including appropriate
usage of anesthesia and pain management, expert medical and surgical
skills and case management, deep and broad knowledge of standards of
medical care contraindications and applications in different species and
conditions, and to provide expert, appropriate, and timely emergency and
critical care.
Interact with physicians and scientists and the general public in support of
one health postulates in which future environmental medical and social
management approach will draw upon this broadly educated veterinary
population, who should have a role to play in health promotion and
prevention, zoonotic disease detection and management, and food safety
and security
Current veterinary graduates must be prepared to interact with physicians,
scientists and the general public in support of one health postulates in which future
environmental medical and social management approaches will draw upon this broadly
educated veterinarians who have a role to play in health promotion and prevention,
zoonotic disease detection and management and food safety and security.
General Description of the Veterinary Medical Degree (VMD)
The School of Veterinary Medicine is subject to the regulations of the Board of Regents
of the State of New York under which the University is chartered.
The entrance requirements and the program leading to the degree of Doctor of
Veterinary Medicine are similar to those of Veterinary medical schools in the United
States. These typically require introductory through advanced biological science courses
with laboratory, inorganic and organic chemistry with laboratory, biochemistry with
laboratory, genetics with laboratory, upper level mathematics including biostatistics and
above algebra; humanities, including English composition, English writing, Public
speaking and Communication, and the other elective arts, humanities and social sciences.
Generally, it is not necessary to major in a scientific field as long as all prerequisites are
met successfully the course of 4 year undergraduate study culminating in completion of
the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. Prospective veterinary students
should also have gained experience in shadowing a veterinarian in private, corporate,
governmental and/or nonprofit organizational practice roles. The proposed course of
veterinary study covers a period of four years as required by the New York State
Department of Education. Graduates are qualified for the licensing examination in
Lebanon upon completion of the four-year program.
The curriculum is based on the pattern which is followed by most American Veterinary
schools with the necessary modifications and appropriate emphasis which make it
conform to the local and regional needs in the realms of Veterinary medical education
and veterinary health care. Thus the program is built on a solid infrastructure of the
basic and clinical medical sciences for which three academic years are devoted. During
the first two years emphasis is placed on the primary concepts of the various components
of the basic sciences through lecture, laboratories and field work. Veterinary students
15
will learn current developments in basic and clinical medicine and surgery, including
experimental data and trends underlying them, thus providing an initial basis upon which
interested students may develop careers in veterinary medical and/or biomedical sciences
in academic or corporate settings. A selected subset of these students will become the
future academicians.
The clinical component of the program, which covers a span of one year which while
broad in coverage, focuses in depth on medical veterinary problems which are of specific
concern in Lebanon and the region, and, will meet the breadth of knowledge that will be
required to successfully complete the North American Veterinary Licensing
Examination. The veterinary graduate of the program, therefore, is a veterinary
generalist with knowledge, skills and experience to serve as a competent veterinary
medical doctoral clinic practitioner, and sufficient background in the basic sciences to
pursue a variety of graduate programs if so desired by individual veterinarians.
In pursuing its educational objectives the School of Veterinary Medicine strives to
maintain an academic program of high quality and to help its students to acquire
appropriate professional and personal qualities commensurate with the requirements of
the profession. Thus, standards are maintained by observing strict regulations regarding
admission, advancement and graduation. A highly selected and qualified faculty
composed of veterinarians, physicians, doctoral scientists, and technical specialists with
appropriate distribution amongst the various disciplines will be maintained with
institutionally funded opportunities for faculty development in local, regional and
international settings. Furthermore, the school will also provide primary educational,
clinical and supporting facilities as required by US voluntary accrediting bodies such
as the American Animal Hospital Association and the New York State Veterinary
Medical Society, and in compliance with AVMA – COE accreditation requirements for
physical facilities and operational capacity. These include clinical and lecture based
classrooms, basic, clinical and field laboratories, a robust library; an animal clinical
facilities, including those supportive of in situ and mobile practices with appropriate
equipment, computational support, electronic medical records capacities and staffing; a
Farm Animal and Equine outpatient service and long term, inpatient facilities for the
examination and care of large herbivores, ruminants, and other food and companion
animal species; and, a Laboratory Animal Care Facility. Professional and personal
behavioral attributes characteristic of graduated professional veterinarians will be
nurtured through modeling appropriate interactions between faculty, staff, clients and
students; by providing coaching and academic training in effective interpersonal
interactions; and through study and successful completion of this program, promotion of
individual qualities of self-reliance, independent learning, critical thinking, team-work
and awareness of the social, public health and economic effects occurring among animal
and human populations secondary to disease incidence within communities.
In line with the AVMA – COE, it is equally important for professional veterinary
students to become educated in basic and clinical science content areas as well as in
professional values, skills, attitudes and behaviors, and business abilities. Learning
systems are expected to develop “habits of self-education and assessment among
graduate veterinarians” as a prequel to fulfilling commitments to engage in continuing
education over the course of a veterinary career, a practice that is not commonly
currently practiced among current Lebanese veterinarians and for which there is no
current requirement within the Syndicate of Lebanese Veterinarians, or, within consumer
16
regulatory laws and practices. These learning systems can include preceptorships in
different settings in which veterinary medicine is practiced, including corporate, private
practice, nonprofit and governmental sectors.
The veterinary professional education curriculum will undergo institutional assessment
ongoing self - reflection and revision in parallel with AVMA-COE accreditation
requirements, and with alignment of student learning objectives and program
assessments.
There is a great need in Lebanon and the surrounding region to develop ways of
educating residents about concepts in animal welfare, including responsible pet
ownership, animal behavior, zoonotic disease, agricultural and business practices and
procedures, and food safety/food security.
Lecture - based coursework, didactic classroom instruction will be supplemented with
the institution of Introduction to Clinical Veterinary Medicine and team – based
learning during ongoing modules throughout the first two years of instruction, which
place students into small groups that are supervised by a faculty facilitator, and in which
basic and pathophysiological clinical information is discovered, discussed and
assimilated by team members over the course of solving a case problem using
cooperative learning methods. This type of professional training has been instituted at
the AUB and in the US in professional doctoral clinical graduate programs and is an
effective method of improving retention of information, teaching independent learning
and self - reflective practice skills and materials and accommodating different learning
styles among students. In addition, opportunities to develop professional skills will be
provided, including developing hand skills, interpretation of clinical examination results,
communicating with clients and peers, surgical pattern and knotting methods, effective
animal handling across the different species, animal behavioral instruction, and
professional ethics case solutions.
17
Description of SVM Curriculum
By offering the VM Degree (VMD), the AUB School of Veterinary Medicine is
committed to innovative educational programs to train veterinarians who will
maintain a strong commitment to veterinary medical care and service, maintain a
commitment to continuing education and currency in general and/or specialty
practice, and be pioneer researchers in the discovery of new knowledge in basic
and applied sciences.
Yearly Course Objectives: The proposed veterinary program will be organized
into Preclinical Core Courses, Introductory Clinical Courses, Clinical Instructional
Externship Rotations and a full 12 month period of full time supervised, clinical,
required and elective, rotational practice in veterinary clinical settings (Appendix
4).
Year 1
The general objective of the First Year Program is to familiarize the student with
the basic concepts of normal animal biology. The emphasis is on normal structure
and function starting with cells and moving on to organs and systems. Individual
courses are managed by instructional faculty, with advisory supervision executed
by the First Year Class Teaching Committee. This committee will be composed of
Veterinary School Faculty and will meet periodically to evaluate the progression of
the program as well as the progress of the inaugural student classes.
The first year will focus on anatomical and physiological sciences, and will feature
matriculation into Gross Anatomy lecture and laboratory, Histology lecture and
laboratory, Veterinary Immunology, Developmental Biology, Biochemistry,
Veterinary Physiology I and II, Introduction to Radiology, and Nutrition. Students
will gain an initial grounding in veterinary medical clinical considerations, case
definition and diagnostic problem solving through Small Group Problem Solving
in Veterinary Medicine and Introduction to Clinical Problem Solving in Veterinary
Medicine. There will also be a first professional foundation course; Careers in
Veterinary Medicine, which will feature speakers from different and multiple areas
of veterinary medicine professional practice.
At the end of the first year program the students are expected to have acquired a
solid base of knowledge about normal structure and function to enable them to
appreciate the disturbance in structure and function brought about by the disease
processes. They will be assessed for accomplishment of specific clinical
procedures learned in the first year of instruction by a faculty veterinarian using a
Clinical Competencies Checklist (Appendix 5) as derived from the highly rated
North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine (tied with
Colorado State University for the 3rd
best school in the US, behind the Cornell
University and the University of California – Davis) (http://grad-
schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-
schools/veterinarian-rankings). All Clinical Competency Checklists reflect
knowledge gained at each educational course, course block, and yearly step.
Criteria will be consistent with AVMA – COE expectations of student knowledge
18
outcomes in relation to each step in their progression through the four year
veterinary program.
Year 2
The main objective of the Second Year Program is to introduce the veterinary
student to the basic principles and concepts of pathophysiology. Courses will use
lecture-laboratory format to demonstrate alterations in structure and function which
are induced by the disease processes and to analyze the mechanisms underlying
these alterations. Interpolation into the clinical situation is often resorted to in
preparation for the clinical clerkships.
The year will include General and Systemic Pathology; Veterinary Clinical
Pathology; Veterinary Parasitology; Microbial Infection and Immunity; Surgical
Principles; Introductory Pharmacology; Veterinary Pharmaceutics and
Therapeutics; Introduction to Food Animal Health Maintenance and Animal
Production I; Introduction to Small Animal Physical Examination Skills,
Epidemiology, Veterinary Public Health; Anesthesiology; Medicine and Surgery
I; and Health Maintenance and Animal Production II, which includes equine
medicine and surgery. Veterinary students will also experience their first clinical
disease focused course, Medicine and Surgery I: Companion Animal and Equine
Medicine. Pre-clinical rotations and professional foundation courses will include
Cases in Infectious Immunological and Metabolic Diseases; Introduction to
Physical Exam Skills, including Laboratory and Zoological animal species;
At the end of the second year program, the students are expected to have become
sufficiently versed in the mechanisms of the causation of diseases, and in the
principles of their epidemiology and therapy to enable them to purse clinical
clerkships. The Second Year Teaching Committee will assess overall student
progress within the program. As noted in previous years, this committee will
consist of members of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and will serve in an
advisory role. As in the prior year, students will be assessed for accomplishment of
specific clinical procedures learned in the first year of instruction by a faculty
veterinarian using a Clinical Competencies Checklist
Year 3
The main objective of the Third Year Program is to develop further didactic and
clinical integrative knowledge about core aspects of veterinary medical practice.
Courses will include lecture, laboratory and field experiences to develop clinical
judgement, breadth of experience and depth of knowledge that will be essential in
the practice of multispecies veterinary medicine. These will include Medicine and
Surgery II: Companion Animal and Equine Medicine and Surgery II, including
Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Unit management;
Reproduction/Theriogenology; Medicine and Surgery III: Food Animal Medicine
and Surgery; Swine, Poultry and Novel Avian Species Medicine; Laboratory
/animal and Special Species Medicine; Animal Welfare, Ethics and Social
Responsibility; Dermatology – Dermatological Diseases; Legal Concepts in
19
Veterinary Medicine; and Strategic Entrepreneurship in Veterinary Practice.
During the first semester there will also be Clinical Laboratories that will allow
veterinary students to further refine their problem –oriented approach to disease
diagnosis and clinical management (Introduction to Clinical Practice Exercises);
and to gain more experience in working with larger animal species (Clinical
Exercises: Large Animal Surgery and Diagnostic Techniques)
This year will also be the beginning of supervised local veterinary clinical external
clerkship rotations throughout the year. Most significantly, the last several months
of the 3rd
Year will include the Large and Small Animal Blocks, respectively,
vertically integrated medical and surgical service education featuring a mix of
didactic and clinical experience thus allowing veterinary student case development
in teams under close supervision; and Clinical Clerkship Rotations. As in the prior
year, they will be assessed by individual teaching faculty for accomplishment of
specific clinical procedures learned in the first year of instruction by a faculty
veterinarian using a Clinical Competencies Checklist that will be specific for block
rotations, procedures and educational outcomes at this level. The Third Year
Teaching Committee will assess overall student progress within the program; as
noted in previous years, this committee will consist of members of the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine and will serve in an advisory role.
Year 4
The 12 month duration of Clinical Clerkship Rotations are required and will draw
upon veterinary clinicians working in the field, in general and specialized practice
settings, as well as upon AUB based facilities including the Laboratory Animal
Facility, the proposed AUB Mobile Van and Field Service, and with time, the AUB
Animal Hospital. Clerkship locations will be located within Lebanon and the
surrounding region. The year will begin immediately at the end of the third year of
study, in May , and will run until May of the following year and will consist of 25
rotations ranging from one week to one month in duration. Each student will have
four weeks of vacation to be scheduled in an interspersed fashion at the beginning
of the rotational clerkship year. Veterinary students are expected to work during
holidays if they are scheduled to participate in a given rotation at that time.
Additionally, international placements will be sought in coordination with the AUB
International Education Center, and will be held within accredited veterinary
facilities to ensure veterinary student exposure to a variety of different types of
cases and at appropriate patient load levels. These will include , at veterinary
schools and colleges located within the MENA region, in Africa, or in any of the
EU Countries as well as in the American veterinary colleges and schools that serve
as a part of the Program for the Assessment of Veterinary Education
Equivalence and the American Association of Veterinary State Boards. With
time the domestic patient load should in Lebanon should also grow for the
proposed AUB Veterinary Mobile Clinic and Field Service noted earlier in the
proposal, which may result in development of the AUB Animal Hospital as a long
term objective. This Clinical Clerkship Rotation series will have program goals
and learning objectives as noted below:
20
1. Demonstration of clinical competency in treating owned patient animals
through participation in assigned required clinical clerkships in subjects
within core of general veterinary medical practice. Typical rotations would
address small animal, large animal and food animal, or laboratory and
zoological animal clinical practice. Required rotation topics would include
Internal Medicine with emphasis on Nephrology, Gastroenterology, and
Pulmonary Medicine; Soft Tissue Surgery; Theriogenology/Reproduction;
Pediatrics/ Neonatal Intensive Care; subspecialty internal medical fields
Dermatology; Cardiology; Neurology; and Anatomic Pathology; Shelter
Medicine; and Field Service. Additional elective rotations can be
developed and approved by the Fourth Year Teaching Committee and the
Office of the Assistant / Associate Dean for Student Affairs to address
individual interests among the students, including a rotation providing for
remedial work in certain areas where the student has been found to have
weakness but has incurred no failure; an elective spent conducting
supervised research for student without prior graduate degrees; and more
independent study for those already possessing prior MS or PhD degrees.
All general small or large animal veterinary medical rotations will be
performed within required veterinary animal hospitals or the proposed AUB
Mobile Van. Laboratory and special species medicine rotations will be
performed within the AUB Animal Facility, and/or approved, accredited
and certified zoological and aquaria settings. Students will be individually
responsible for case progression, but will be closely supervised by a
licensed (US, EU, African, MENA and Asian locations) veterinarian with
teaching experience, and, appropriate technical staffing, and treatment /
housing facilities that are certified, reviewed and/ or accredited in
accordance with US, Lebanese and International regulations and
professional practices.
2. Demonstration of appropriate clinical care management through expression
of clinical outpatient and inpatient case managerial judgment, ethical
judgment in clinical care and business development applications, client
communication skills, animal handling and welfare considerations, and
overall professionalism. Veterinary students will obtain clinical histories
and perform physical examination of client owned pets and working
animals. Students will be expected to acquire, analyze and interpret clinical
data derived from the individual and herd animal histories, physical
examination and procedures. They will also be responsible for devising and
implementing a rational clinical treatment plan using an evidence based
medical approach.
3. Demonstration of student adherence to infection control measures and as
well as knowledge and application of biosecurity plan measures for large
and small animal facilities; intensive care and emergency room settings;
general medical and surgical facilities; specialized laboratory, zoological
and aquaria facilities; and all associated animal housing ward, caging, pen,
aquaria and farm areas.
4. By the conclusion of the Clinical Rotation Clerkship series 4th
Year
veterinary students should be proficient in all primary clinicopathologic,
21
medical and surgical diagnostic and therapeutic areas applicable to the
practice of general veterinary medicine using an evidence-based medical
approach. Students will exhibit integration of animal advocacy, and
welfare, scientific decision making and basal knowledge of normal
homeostatic and pathophysiological states; and research application skills.
Graduating veterinarian should be able to work effectively with a diverse
clientele in addressing animal health challenges, and collegially with other
health, educational and business professionals. They should also be able to
recognize when a more complex case requires referral for provision of
appropriate veterinary care in this instance. Veterinary student graduates
will be qualified to practice veterinary medicine within Lebanon upon
graduation; a subset of these new graduates may choose to work in the US,
and will be required to successfully pass the North American Veterinary
Licensing Examination (NAVLE). NAVLE passage rates are also
considered as one of eleven accreditation criteria by the AVMA – COE in
their assessment of whether a new program is worthy of accreditation by
this body. Students will also be well prepared for further clinical or basic
science training should they choose to develop research -, clinical - or
teaching – based academic careers in veterinary medicine, biomedical,
undergraduate and/or allied health settings.
Outcomes Assessment:
Assessment of the effectiveness of veterinary training will be demonstrated by aligning
course and block students and program assessment with learning objectives and goals as
discussed throughout this document. It will be very important to assess the rate at which
students graduating from the proposed AUB School of Veterinary Medicine will:
1. Pass North American Veterinary Licensing Examination.
Typically, schools accredited by the AVMA Council of Accreditation
experience exam pass rates that are much higher than those at schools
outside of the US that are not COE accredited. Student passage of the
NAVLE is taken as an indicator of high academic educational
quality for foreign schools meeting US standards.
2. Assess graduation rates and program completion percentages,
following the incoming classes over the four years of veterinary
matriculation. AVMA – COE Self Study and Accreditation
Program Evaluation will not be initiated until the school has
graduated at least five years of successful classes, has met the
eleven AVMA –COE Accreditation Standards, and has shown
that their programs are not operating at a financial deficit.
Further, onsite evaluation of programs by AVMA – COE teams
will not be initiated in the presence of cross - governmental unrest
or hostilities.
3. Assess Institutional Research through continual query of students,
parents, faculty and staff, donors, practicing veterinarians, and other
stakeholder groups using qualitative and quantitative analytic methods
consisting of survey assessment, interview and focus groups.
22
Additional specific analysis of recent graduates and employers with
regard to veterinary work duties and responsibilities vs. training
emphasis of cohort classes as they advance into the workforce at 6
months, 1 year, 2 years, and 5, 10, 15, and 20 years post – graduation
would be an important additional way to validate Veterinary School
successes.
4. Assessment of rates of new business formation, cash flow, profit
and loss patterns; employment placement patterns; and changes
in societal factors. Examples of these societal factors include
decreased rates of food borne illness indicators, decreased pet
overpopulation and feral animal colonies, decreased incidence of
zoonotic diseases, and similar measures of improving health among
human and animal populations.
5. Developing a Lebanese for Observatory for National and Regional
Disease Incidence Surveillance Program within the AUB School of
Veterinary Medicine, with special focus on use of Electronic
Medical Records, Proficiency Testing within the American
Association for Laboratory Accredited laboratory, and Annual
Reporting and dissemination of results to the World Organization for
Animal Health (OIE) as well as to the Lebanese public through
publication on the AUB School of Veterinary Medicine webpage.
6. Develop clinical and educational facilities, programs, processes and
procedures in compliance with the AVMA – COE Accreditation
document. This accreditation document also governs the types of
outcome assessment studies and data that are acceptable for
presentation to the organization at the time of self-study review
(https://www.avma.org/professionaldevelopment/education/accreditati
on/colleges/pages/coe-pp-required-reports-from-colleges.aspx). For
each educational activity there must be written assessment standards
and a report provided for outcomes assessment (both grades and
achieving clinical competencies) to individual students as well as the
AVMA – COE Accreditation team. Use of the Clinical Competence
Checklist in assessing individual student achievement and
competence is supportive of this accreditation requirement. These
data are accompanied by precise descriptions of case load (number of
animals, individual species, diagnoses, and generation of robust
clinical records), proficiency training and experience of School of
Veterinary Medicine faculty, staff veterinarians involved in
supervising rotational clerkship student training, and technical and/or
nursing staff who are instructing the students and evidence of ongoing
training / competency testing of veterinary students
7. Successfully participate in external journalistic assessments of
program quality, including, for example, the US News and World
Report Ranking of Veterinary Schools, and other similar
organizational approaches.
23
8. Faculty are expected to exhibit scholarly activities and productivity,
and so it is imperative that they be supported in these efforts as a part
of the planned Faculty of Veterinary Medicine program.
It is expected that the proposed AUB School of Veterinary Medicine program will
survey their graduate’s employers; the graduates themselves as alumni; current and
former students; staff and faculty who make up the institutional community
comprising this new AUB program;, and clients / patients who have utilized the
services of the school program as a way to determine outcomes and ultimately,
impact. We predict that the presence of this program within the AUB will
substantially support development of food security and food safety programs,
international development, create new knowledge in theoretical, practical clinical
and basic applications, and increase the level at which current regional
veterinarians are practicing in the community. Further, the emphasis on One
Health, Public Health and Zoonotic Disease may ultimately impact consumer
habits and health in a positive fashion with improved client education and
decreased case occurrence of some diseases observed as a long term outcome result
of this intervention.
24
Qualifications of the Candidate to the Veterinary Medical Program:
The modern trend in designing and selecting pre-med requirements takes into real
consideration the broad scope of the Veterinary medical profession. A pre
veterinary medical student should:
1) Develop a solid background in biology, chemistry and physic and demonstrate
aptitude as well as working knowledge of the natural sciences, to appreciate
vital processes in both health and disease;
2) Communicate in a clear and concise fashion, read rapidly and with
understanding, and demonstrate comprehension of complex and sometimes
ambiguous ideas ;
3) Acquire a deep understanding of the humanities, philosophy and the arts.
Understanding human relationships and human nature is vital to the practice of
veterinary medicine.
Therefore, the ultimate aim of the pre- veterinary medical requirements is to
produce a well-rounded graduate with broad and diverse experiences, who presents
evidence that his or her intellectual and personal credentials are of such a quality as
to predict success in the study and practice of veterinary medicine.
1. Admission to the Medical Veterinary Program:
The admission requirements are similar to those of Veterinary schools in the USA.
The proposed School of Veterinary Medicine program incoming student successful
candidacy characteristics should be determined in light of the AVMA-COE
specific guidelines governing outcomes assessment evaluation, market needs and
practice requirements for regional veterinarians, and for veterinarians who wish to
obtain additional advanced education and training within Lebanon, the greater
Middle East and North Africa, or European and US markets. The AVMA – COE
suggests the following guidelines (Appendix 1):
The process of selecting a veterinary medical school class is complex and
elaborate. Many initiatives have been introduced previously for the AUB School
of Medicine in a bid to broaden the medical school applicant pool, improve the
selection process, and create a diverse, capable, and caring physician. A similar
process can be applied to admissions of pre-veterinary students for the propose
School of Veterinary Medicine as long as AVMA – COE stipulates regarding
evaluation of applicants are incorporated into the process. The AVMA-COE
specifically states that Veterinary School Admissions Committees must consider
additional factors aside from grade point average and standardized test scores in
selecting students for inclusion into professional school classes. Flexibility in
implementing the requirements is therefore requested. The requirements for
eligibility to admission to the proposed School of Veterinary Medicine are
summarized as follows:
1. Completion of a bachelor degree (BS or BA) from any faculty of the
25
University, or from an accredited equivalent Lebanese or foreign university.
This is an effort to increase the pool and diversity of the applicants. All
candidates must complete pre-veterinary medical requirements including:
2. Completion of a minimum required undergraduate courses in Biology (8
credits) lecture with laboratory; appropriate courses would include
Introductory Biology, Genetics, Population Biology, Animal Science,
Ecology, Development Biology, and other electives. A minimum level of
Chemistry lecture and laboratory should include full courses in Inorganic
and Organic Chemistry; (15 credits); Biochemistry is helpful but is not
required. Two full semesters of Physics lecture and laboratory (8 credits)
are required. It is important to gain experience and fluency in English (6
credits) which can be achieved through Writing, Composition, Literature
and Communications study. Similarly study of the Humanities and/or
Social Sciences (8 credits) provide substantial grounding in appreciating
human beings with whom veterinary students will be working, studying,
and ultimately supporting through their societal impact activities. Finally, it
is crucial to have excellent quantitative knowledge which can be gained
through study of Mathematics (6 credits) at the level of Biostatistics and
Calculus; Algebra is not acceptable at this level. The cumulative overall
average should not be less than 75 for the University students and not less
than 3.25 for transferring students from outside colleges and universities.
3. A competitive Medical College Admission Test score.
4. Selected students will be invited to visit the AUB for a tour and indepth
Admissions interview on campus with members of the Admissions
Committee. This Committee will include membership from the Veterinary
School Student Body; members of the School of Veterinary Medicine,
FAFS and FM; and, preferably, outside members who are not affiliated
directly with the American University of Beirut.
5. Demonstrate compliance with University rules and regulations.
2. Justification for Pre-Veterinary Medical Requirements:
The basic requirements for Medical School should take into consideration the
obvious change in veterinary medical knowledge, the fast pace of new scientific
discoveries, and the permeation of biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology,
and genetics into most areas of Veterinary Medicine.
Therefore, adequacy of preparation in the pre-clinical sciences requires acquisition
of more information than in the past during the pre-veterinary medical years.
Interdisciplinary courses that break down the barriers among, demonstrate
complementary concepts of, and highlight collective wisdom in, biology;
chemistry, physics, and mathematics are encouraged. In short, a focus on
integration of principles over several courses should be emphasized.
Candidates for the School of Veterinary Medicine medical should complete
requirements prior to matriculation into this professional doctoral program.
26
Biology (8 credits) with laboratory:
The courses should cover cell biology, human biology, genetics, and molecular
biology. The courses should include nucleic acid structure and function, genetic
recombination, mechanism of gene expression in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells,
cellular and subcellular organization, differentiation, reproduction, membrane
properties and receptors, and structure-function relationship.
Chemistry (15 credits) with laboratory:
The courses should cover general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry.
They should provide the foundation for the study of biologically relevant
chemistry. The premedical requirements in chemistry should focus on more
biologically relevant areas of general and organic chemistry. Substantial chemistry
background is required as a prerequisite to understanding the functional activities,
contraindications and reactions following use of chemotherapeutic agents in
clinical patients, and, in following evidence – based veterinary medical new drug
developments.
- Inorganic chemistry courses should cover topics like bonding, chemical
reactivity, equilibrium, and thermodynamics
- Organic Chemistry courses should include the following topics: isomers,
bonding alkanes, alkenes and alkynes, aromatic and amine compounds
- Biochemistry should include topics such as: Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins,
amino acids, tricarboxylic acid cycle; and the synthesis, metabolism and
degradation of bioactive molecules.
Physics (8 credits) with laboratory:
These courses should prepare the students well in biologically relevant areas of
mechanics, kinetics, the properties of matter and wave theory, electricity and
magnetism, nanoparticle theory, quantum mechanics and optics. These topics will
be important in the practice of radiology, in understanding imaging technology,
radiation therapy, and in basic physiological mechanisms of homeostasis and
disease.
Quantitative Reasoning, Mathematics and Computational Skills (6 credits):
Computational skills are required for contemporary scientific literacy. To prepare
adequately for the quantitative reasoning demands of the contemporary veterinary
medical curriculum and veterinary specialties, to provide analytic perspectives, and
to appreciate the uncertainties in evaluation of biological system, students are
required to have familiarity with Biostatistics and Calculus.
Language – English and Communications (6 credits):
The applicant to the veterinary medical program should have courses that
required practice in critical writing and thinking; writing skills, effective
communication, using source material appropriately, verbal reasoning, fluency in
English language.
27
Humanities and Social Sciences (6 credits):
These courses will prepare candidates to understand human behavior, to appreciate
societal structure and function, to achieve cultural awareness. Courses in literature,
languages, arts, social sciences (sociology, psychology, anthropology, and ethics)
are encouraged; they provide valuable preparation for the study and practice of
medicine.
Extracurricular and Research activities:
In addition to scholastic achievements, the School of Veterinary Medicine
Admissions Committee gives consideration to previous research experience,
community service, and volunteering which are considered as positive attributes
and are encouraged. Applicants are required to have gained experience in
shadowing a veterinarian over the course of their daily activities, which should
have been substantial enough to have gained insight into the requirements and
practices frequently experienced within the practice of this profession.
Successful applicants to the School of Veterinary Medicine should have been fully
engaged in a prior undergraduate course of study that has provided knowledge,
rigor, and cultivated habits of mind. Their educational experience should have
provided the student with a scholarly experience and have inculcated in the student
comprehension of the scientific method, a love of learning; and served to promote
and facilitate a life- long habit of independent learning with concomitant
motivation for continuing self-education. This prior educational experience should
have fostered scholastic rigor, analytical thinking, quantitative assessment,
analysis of complex systems in comparative animal biology, in addition to an
expansive liberal arts education.
28
Governance of the School of Veterinary Medicine
The School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) will be governed by the rules and
regulations practiced uniformly at the AUB. A founding Director/Dean will lead
the School of Veterinary Medicine, and will be appointed based on joint
recommendations of the FM and FAFS. Governance: The School of Veterinary
Medicine will be led by an independent Dean/Director, who will lead the school
and who will be appointed based on joint recommendations from the Faculties of
Medicine, Agriculture and Food Science. Two Assistant/Associate Deans will be
appointed similarly to posts as Heads of 1) Clinical Training or 2) Academic
Affairs.
The School will be organized into departments, each of which will be headed by a
Department Chair as follows:
1. . Clinical Sciences, including clinical services typically provided under the
aegis of a mobile clinic and projected free standing veterinary hospital in
accordance with New York State Veterinary Medical Society and American
Animal Hospital Association voluntary Accreditation Programs. These services
would typically be split into large, small and exotic species lines/ equipment
and facilities, and would include Medicine; Soft Tissue and Orthopedic
surgery; Dentistry; Emergency Room Services and Intensive Care Units;
Radiology and Interventional Radiobiology services; Dermatology, Neurology
and Cardiology among others.
2. Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, including Anatomy, Cell Biology,
Genetics and Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology.
3. Population Health, including Epidemiology, Biomedical Statistics; Field
Service and Production Medicine; Laboratory Animal Medicine, Zoological
and Shelter Medicine; and,
4. Pathobiological Sciences including Anatomic, Clinical and Experimental
Pathology; Immunology and Infectious Diseases; Microbiology;, and
Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Operations, in accordance with the American
Association for Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory accreditation standards. As is
the current operating procedure in FAFS and FM, there will be standing
advisory committees populated by School of Veterinary Medicine faculty and
addressing teaching and student affairs that will report to the Dean/Director and
ad hoc teaching committees for each year of the educational path of the school
(e.g. VMD/DVM-1, VMD/DVM -2, VMD/DVM-3 and VMD/DVM -4) that
will also be populated by School of Veterinary Medicine faculty. It is expected
that within a reasonable time period and prior to submission of Accreditation
Documents for consideration by the AVMA-COE, that the School of
Veterinary Medicine will gain independence from the Faculties of
Agriculture, Food Science and Medicine. This may occur in the same
manner as it did the School of Nursing within the University system, with
separate representation within the Faculty Senate and on Faculty and
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University Committees. Doing so should also demonstrate the independence
required for full AVMA COE accreditation as stated in those criteria.
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Model Organizational Chart: The organizational chart (Figure 1A, below) is
drawn to represent the American Model that would most closely approximate
maintaining the independence of the School of Veterinary Medicine unit as is
required by the Council on Education, American Veterinary Medical Association
their Guidelines for Accreditation, while allowing substantial contribution and
cross fertilization between the Faculties of Medicine, Agriculture and Food
Science. It is also possible that other Faculties may wish to gain affiliation with this
new unit at some later time, and an arrangement could be developed for individuals
at that time. The proposed Veterinary School is shown as being initially constituted
by a joint venture of the Faculties of Medicine, Agriculture and Food Science.
With growth we do anticipate that the School of Veterinary Medicine will gain
independence as an academic graduate degree granting unit, followed by
accreditation. AVMA-COE requirements stipulate independence at accreditation.
President
Provost
FM FAFS
School of Veterinary Medicine
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Revenue Model The main source of revenue for the proposed Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is
student tuition fees. Based on estimates made projecting tuition revenues based on
a 25 person incoming and continuing class we anticipate that the Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine School will have a target population of 100 students, and
would reach this capacity level after four incoming class years. The overall Five
Year Projected Operating Budget is depicted in Appendix 1, Since the budget
developed does provide for tuition driven cost recovery from the beginning of the
program’s existence then it is very likely that as long as the University can do the
overall commitment and work of supporting a new program past the first year that
it will be both self-supporting and generating a cash stream that is above the
minimum required. Commercial and farm customers who view the presence of this
program as a distinct competitive advantage in their operations such that it will be
possible to develop multiple income streams and to not be so dependent on tuition
payments alone. The students are currently very price sensitive, and especially to
high pricing. It will be important to the AVMA-COE visitors that students within
the program represent regional human populations in all of its diversity. It may be
that additional funds are required to enable financial support for diverse candidates
who are qualified but not financially able to pay the tuition as set currently. A
strong financial performance is mandatory for AVMA – COE accreditation, and so
it would be especially helpful that the predicted above baseline cash revenues and
cushion, once achieved, should be kept by the program, vs. being released back to
FAFS or FM. Many institutions make it possible to do that, and it would help the
new program to grow as well as demonstrating self- sufficiency to the US
Accrediting body, a key financial marker for their assessment.
Additional revenue streams may be generated directly through fee for service
provision of care for sick or injured animals. The most immediate approach would
be to develop a mobile practice moving throughout rural, suburban, rural villages
and the more open countryside in Lebanon to support individual farmers, small
landholders and larger corporate and governmental clients.
Following acceptance of this program it would be important to begin planning and
developing a capital budget to identify land within the campus land holdings,
produce a land site review, and build a small animal hospital on site. An AUB
Small Animal Hospital Clinic would provide a cutting edge setting for first rate
facilities, staffing and programs, facilitating development of true clinical services
as would classically be found in any animal hospital meeting the accreditation
standards of the American Animal Hospital Association (https://www.aahanet.org),
the United States Department of Agriculture (Animal Welfare Information Center,
http://awic.nal.usda.gov/companion-animals ) and the Association of Shelter
Veterinarians Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters ( .
http://sheltervet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Shelter-Standards-Oct2011-
wForward.pdf) among other applicable guidelines. This Beirut based facility would
also be a mecca for grant - funded research revenue as would be present to support
advanced research animal projects by investigators at this institution and at others
throughout Beirut and the region.
Finally, additional revenue streams could be developed for individual payer
courses developed and produced in collaboration with the AUBMC, training
32
physicians, advanced care nurses and physicians assistants in continuing education,
or in learning new procedures prior to using them on clinical human patients.
These types of courses customarily also have industrial support, and include
equipment and procedures such as laparoscopy, microsurgery, endoscopy and other
less invasive procedures that are used typically in pediatric patients especially
(typically using pigs). These functions also provide an educational clinical training
area for veterinary medicine within Beirut for veterinary students, and provide a
setting within which to characterize important animal and zoonotic diseases that
may be present within Lebanese and MENA animal and human populations but
that have not yet been defined. Finally, having this capability would be especially
important as a part of Disaster Response and Relief, and would significantly serve
Beirut and the surrounding areas as there are currently few organizations, except
for the Beirut Ethical Treatment for Animals kennels, that are capable of this type
of triage, or resource, for animals in Beirut.
In addition to the clinical hospital itself, it would be important to develop and build
significant veterinary diagnostic laboratory infrastructure in accordance with
International Accreditation Standards for Veterinary Laboratories (American
Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians
http://www.aavld.org/accredited-labs with appropriately trained, experienced and
credentialed technical and managerial staffing to maintain compliance with strict
accreditation standards. There are no commercially available accredited veterinary
diagnostic laboratories in Lebanon, forcing local veterinary clinicians to utilize
human laboratories which may not yield the same type and quality of diagnostic
results using equipment and protocols that are optimized for human medicine. The
presence of these laboratories within the Veterinary Medical Faculty Program
would permit substantial revenue generation from local and regional private small
and large animal veterinary practitioners and could be easily facilitated by
providing an AUB – specified route featuring a dedicated and secure driver and
van for collecting and transporting specimens rather than contracting this important
part of this business to local delivery services; large corporate agricultural
organizations; nonprofit non-governmental organizations working with food
animals in the field; and other governmental or semi-institutional organizations
seeking to develop assays, determine toxicity levels, system levels, and other
assays that are routinely performed as a part of the clinical portfolio of this type of
laboratory. Regular performance testing would be a key feature to maintain
accuracy and meet accreditation standards, and blind testing of location
laboratories would be an additional way to generate regular and substantial
revenues.
Finally, having a veterinary diagnostic laboratory within the AUB would strongly
support internal clients such as the Animal Facility, in efforts to develop clean
barrier facilities, monitor food, water and environmental microbial populations and
fully investigate clinical and asymptomatic disease through individual necropsy,
microbial, hematological and molecular evaluation of animals found sick or dead,
or, through institution of a sentinel system to detect animal pathogens in research
room holdings that deleteriously affect investigator research but are largely
asymptomatic in presentation.
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Faculty Recruitment:
The AVMA – COE considers collaboration across instructional units to be a
potential strength of newly developing veterinary medical doctorate professional
programs: “Veterinary medicine occupies a unique position as a bridge between
medicine, agriculture. Colleges of veterinary medicine that enjoy close
geographical and functional relations with schools of medicine and agriculture and
with departmental or other groupings in the biological sciences are greatly
strengthened.” The AUB is well positioned to operationalize these connections
through the unique presence of the Faculties of Agriculture and Food Sciences,
Chemistry, Physics, Public Health, Business, and Medicine on the same campus
with the rural AREC setting and focus on becoming a regional asset for the
Lebanese people. In the US, doctoral- trained veterinarians are considered to be
peers of physicians and dentists; this concept is especially prominent within
institutions that have successfully included concepts of One Health across their
curricular platforms, with access to a mix of human and animal based clinical and
scientific professional training and practice models. This is not the case currently in
Lebanon and the surrounding countries, where veterinary training is based on a 5
year training track that combines baccalaureate undergraduate training with
professional training, resulting in veterinarians who are trained only to the Masters
level. The AVMA – COE notes that veterinary professional training in accredited
programs should be a minimum of four academic years including a minimum of
one academic year of hands - on clinical education; should be distinctive and
professional, and should clearly demarcate the boundaries of the profession without
confusion with veterinary science – trained professionals who are not in their view
qualified to offer professional veterinary services in the US.
As the inaugural faculty for the SVM program will be drawn from current FM and
FAFS faculty, it would be wise to hiring “just in time” for the content and support
being taught for each additional year as the inaugural class advances, and
subsequent classes are interviewed, accepted, and begin their educational processes
in following years. This incremental increase in faculty, administrative and
technical resources is included in the proposed full and part time equivalent
staffing. A reasonable size faculty defined as doctoral and technical/nursing staff,
to execute the SVM academic program could begin initially with about 10
inaugural faculty, with gradual expansion in numbers and capacity to an estimated
30 – 35 faculty members as additional classes arrived on campus for instruction,
and the courses being taught and focus of instruction changes. Similarly sized
small initial faculties in the US have typically ranged when fully constituted of
numbers varying from 95 (North Carolina State University) to 143 (University of
Pennsylvania) located in one to two locations, and supplemented with the activities
of visiting faculty, research and clinical fellows, and in fully developed units,
veterinary nurse specialists, technical and administrative staff. Doing so would be
less costly to the University and would allow it to respond to this new venture in a
formal, cost effective and manageable manner.
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Implementation:
Because the AUB does not currently have a clinical veterinary facility constructed
or ambulatory services for small, large or indigent animals (treated as a
development of the humane movement in Beirut especially, but not exclusively) it
is important to develop 1) a mobile medicine and surgery service, and 2)
cooperating strategic partnerships with local veterinarians in a variety of different
professional settings as well as with AVMA – COE accredited veterinary schools
located in the US. . This clinical experience is especially important because the
new Veterinary School will be evaluated by the AVMA COE in part on the ability
of its students to demonstrate educational progress and knowledge, and, to pass the
North American Veterinary Licensing Examination. Veterinary schools who
graduate students who have high pass rates on this exam have stronger educational
programs, and typically do become accredited, in comparison to foreign schools
that are not accredited. In addition, should difficulties in construction funding,
planning or implementation occur a mechanism will be in place with Memorandum
of Agreements to continue effectively training students around infrastructural
deficits as these are being remedied through AUB construction actions.
Challenges in Veterinary Medical School Programmatic Implementation Currently, Lebanon does not have an extensive network of private group
practitioners, corporate veterinarians or fully credentialed governmental
veterinarians practicing excellence in medicine and surgery that could easily host
teams of AUB veterinary students as is performed by some US Schools of
Veterinary Medicine who have developed extensive networks for such on site
practical training among the private, nonprofit, corporate and governmental sectors
for breadth of exposure. There are also few organizations that support
professionalization at the doctoral level for this field of study, including
accreditation programs for veterinary hospitals and other professional units (e.g.
Association of Laboratory Animal Science; National, Local or State Veterinary
Medical Associations; practitioner – based educational associations such as the
Bovine Practitioners, Equine Practitioners, Feline Practitioners, etc.), professional
programs, lobbying and advocacy organizations outside of the animal welfare
movement in Lebanon.
This absence, along with significant difficulty in analyzing veterinary biological
fluids within the country; importing drugs, materials or equipment for veterinary
use; and putting in place standard equipment maintenance and other contracts for
veterinary – specific equipment, constitute a challenge for practitioners in small
and large animal medicine as well as for other fields, in which consultants are
forced to carry individual medications, equipment and other materials and supplies
that are not approved or available within Lebanon to successfully complete their
work here.
As discussed earlier, it is very important that the AUB develop and fund an
Accredited Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. This laboratory infrastructure should
be optimally centralized and separate in location, budget and staffing from either
the Central University Laboratories, or the Medical School, and would cater to
veterinarians and their typical patients which exhibit a dizzying variety of
differences in homeostasis from human patients, and whose specific biological
35
characteristics are important to address when setting up accurate, reliable
laboratory testing programs. A distinct advantage of developing a veterinary
laboratory Accredited by the American Association for Laboratory
Accreditation and that meet the R216 – Specific Requirements: Veterinary
Laboratory Accreditation Program standards is that the laboratory would also be
ISO compliant, and thus could function in a consultative manner for organizations
large and small across the MENA region, where it would be the first and only one
of its kind with this capacity. Private sector organizations and private equity
businesses could partner with the American University of Beirut in this
organizational process. The knowledge and reliability resulting would enhance
confidence in laboratory results obtained from this unit, and might open
opportunities for collaboration, consultation and additional cash flow opportunities
for future projects and services.
The School of Veterinary Medicine must be in operation for at least five years,
performed operationally without accumulating any deficits, and graduated multiple
classes prior to submitting any proposal for accreditation to the COE. In addition
accreditation requires that applicant institutions gather full assessment data on
veterinary graduates (including role delineation documentation and success on US
Veterinary Licensure examinations); veterinary school, clinical service and/or
hospital academic, administrative and financial performance; and completion of the
program self-study noted above.
Physical Facility Requirements
It would be advantageous for basic science lecture and laboratory training, clinical
skills training, and problem based learning seminars, to use facilities and access to
herds present on the Beirut and Bekka’a Valley AREC campuses. These sites are
present in spaces allocated to FAFS and FM especially, but could also include
spaces used in other departments and concentrations with their agreement and by
arrangement with those individual faculties. For initial clinical training and in
support of the local Lebanese public it would also be advantageous to develop a
small animal urban clinical facility and practice, and, a large animal ambulatory
practice, separately. The facilities and operational procedures for these practices
should follow the standards espoused by the American Animal Hospital
Association, the New York Veterinary Medical Society, the USDA Animal
Welfare Act, and the Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in
Research and Teaching, and the New York State Practice Act Standards in Animal
Hospital Structure and Function.
For the Beirut - based AUB Animal Hospital the following physical plan areas
will be required (the list is not exclusive): 1. Surgery suite with appropriate anesthesia machines, laser capability, robotic
surgery, endoscopy and appropriate monitoring equipment
2. Preoperative preparatory surgical suite
3. Clinical treatment areas
4. Public Examination rooms
5. Pharmacy and governmental permission to import common US approved
veterinary drug and vaccine lines
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6. Radiographic imaging suite using digital radiography; both dental and somatic
radiography
7. Imaging suite with access to MRI / PET / CT / Ultrasound / EKG / EMG / EEG;
if not immediately available it would be helpful to work out access with similar
facilities already present for human patient care in the AUBMC, as was the practice
at VHUP, University of Pennsylvania for many years
8. Emergency room unit and seating area support
9. Critical care unit
10. Animal wards; indoor and outdoor runs protected from the AUB community
and local traffic
11. Isolation facility with separate HEPA filtered units for clinical patient
infectious disease quarantine
12. Exotic animals (pscittacine birds, reptiles, amphibians, some mammals) ward
with temperature, light and
humidity control
13. Accredited laboratory services and capabilities on campus and separate from
the Medical School facilities
14. Redundant systems, including a generator, and back up water supply
15. Electronic medical records and ancillary investigative / evaluative / assessment
capabilities
The Mobile Field Service Practice at the Bekka’a Valley would be governed by
the same guidelines and practice act, as well as specific guidelines that would be
found in the AVMA – COE Accreditation Document and website. These clinic(s),
including the mobile service practice, could all become American Animal Hospital
Accredited as well as AVMA-COE Accredited, and could provide services to local
farmers across the Bekka’a Valley as well as consultative services to increase
production by individual families and companies. There appears to be sufficient
current space at AREC to develop animal pastures, a small large animal hospital
and barn, and most importantly, and isolation facility for adults and young animals
(foals, calves, kids and lambs). In all cases a more robust occupational health
screening program may be required for students and staff working with these
species to avoid zoonotic disease transmission from patients to students, staff and
faculty. Finally, it might be advantageous to develop an Ambulatory Spay – Neuter
van for small animals that could operate in Beirut and the suburbs, as well as in the
Bekka’a Valley, in well - organized manner adopted by Shelter Medicine
organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals. The van would have a significant effect on pet overpopulation, feral
populations, and general education of Lebanese public citizens in the humane care
of domestic animals over time. Veterinary students in this program could
contribute to managing the reproductive and health status of the famous AUB cats
through provision of clinical services, under the Shelter Veterinary Medicine
program.
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