Dear Fellow ACVIM Diplomates,

It is hard to believe more than half of the year has already passed! With the warmer temperatures summer brings, I hope this message finds you and yours well. As the incoming President of the Board of Regents, I am excited to be the voice and advocate for our membership in the year ahead.

I would like to begin by taking a moment to acknowledge the injustices we have witnessed in recent months. On behalf of the ACVIM and Board of Regents, I want to reaffirm our commitment to inclusiveness.

We recognize our responsibility to take a position of leadership on equality within the specialty veterinarian profession. We are dedicated to maintaining a community of inclusiveness that respects the diverse backgrounds and values of our members, candidates, staff and partners in all activities. You can find a thorough definition outlined in the ACVIM Statement of Inclusiveness and Non Discrimination Policy.

In other news, the Board of Regents successfully held its semi-annual meeting virtually in June. We covered a lot of ground and I would like to highlight some of the key takeaway’s that may be important to you.

• Despite the cancellation of our Forum event in June, the College remains in strong financial condition. Thanks to the fiscally conservative policies of the ACVIM leadership for the past several decades, we have been able to accumulate funds that provide income, as well as give us a financial cushion. For several years we have had the policy of maintaining a safety reserve to ensure that if we ever had an unexpected financial crisis, we would be able to maintain necessary functions without jeopardizing our financial integrity. While the cancellation of Forum and the examinations resulted in significant financial losses in revenue this year, our safety reserve is more than adequate to replace those losses in our operational budget and allow us to continue to serve our Diplomates and candidates without interruption or compromise.
• In addition, due to the exam cancellations, the ACVIM staff continues to actively work to move all specialty exams to an online platform by 2021. More updates will be provided before the end of the year.
• In the last few months we’ve received multiple inquiries from members regarding our position on telemedicine. Diplomates at universities and in private practice have had to adapt the ways in which they manage communication with primary care veterinarians, other specialists and with clients. The BOR and the ACVIM leadership identified the importance of taking the lead in defining how we move forward with telemedicine in the context of specialty medicine. Because of this, the Board commissioned a task force with identifying the relevant issues for consideration, as well as to inform the Board about what approaches are already in use, or on the horizon.

In conclusion, I would like to personally express my gratitude to those who support the ACVIM through immeasurable hours of volunteer service. We could not advance the ACVIM mission or specialty veterinary medicine without each of your efforts.

I wish you all a healthy, enjoyable summer.

Sincerely,

Harold McKenzie, DVM, MS, MSc (VetEd), FHEA, DACVIM (LAIM)
President, ACVIM