Michael Moyer, VMD

While I like to write, I am not a blogger by design. This space-the blogosphere—is slightly un-natural for me, but I believe in the incredible power of information, of connection, and hope to provide the occasional odd bit of knowledge in these posts.

So, what great big thought have I got to share today? I had a good day in surgery with the Penn Vet students yesterday (3 dog castrations, one dog spay, two cat spays). The students are in class of 2010—just four months away from graduation, and exactly twenty years after I finished at Penn Vet.

I’m writing this from home, where it used to be impossible to conduct any sort of office work or medical text research (my veterinary library was at my practice); now, I can access journals, texts, veterinary school resources, and veterinary specific networking sites that allow exchange of current clinical information. When I graduated, if I could not find the answer to a problem, I would call a former professor in Medicine or Surgery and ask. Now, from my phone, I can find answers I would have waited days to receive. I am able to connect with specialists and colleagues not just from a practice or two away, but from a coast or a continent away. No longer is absence of information an acceptable state of affairs. We can get to information (the trick remains how to make decisions with imperfect information in a way that is rational, timely, and helpful).

We’re making some leaps in technology at Bridgewater Veterinary Hospital, a new website with exciting new functionality. We’ll be introducing email reminders, web-based medication refills, and other communications enhancements. We look forward to improved accessibility, and improved service to our clients.

To me.  In 2006, I left full-time practice at Bridgewater Veterinary Hospital for a teaching position at Penn Vet in a new program focused on the plight of homeless animals in shelters.  I stopped all clinical work at the practice in 2009, to focus on some new programs in development at Penn.  It’s not as though I haven’t been busy, it’s just that I had to take some time away for the new program under my direction at the vet school.

My job at Penn is to teach spay and castration techniques to the students, and we do this in shelters and also at the Ryan teaching hospital.  So far, I’ve had the pleasure of working  with dozens of interns and surgeons, and over 450 vet students.  We have surgically sterilized thousands of pets, which has been a huge help to the shelters coordinating with Penn.  I also teach classes on the subject of animal sheltering, free-roaming cat issues, and diseases of particular concern to shelters and rescue groups.

The students also bring their own pets to me for veterinary care, so my clinical work has continued.  I like this clinical role, as I get to know the students and their pets just a bit better than I would in the classroom or operating room.

At the urging of several friends and associates, I have returned to clinical practice at Bridgewater, working two shifts each week.  My time in the office should allow me to do more of the things I enjoy—seeing pets and their families.  I’m re-energized to be back, and looking forward to seeing some of you in the office soon.