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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

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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

29

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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