by Kate Knutson, DVM
of negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit a couple weeks ago have given way to the balmy teens today. As of this writing, Mark Russak is AAHA president, and the handover in Phoenix is still a few weeks away. By the time this article is published, I will be AAHA president and the snow may have melted out of the Minnesota landscape. I am entering the AAHA presidency in the midst
A
of a number of collaborations and initiatives. Each one is important. Collectively, the various programs can change the way we are practicing companion animal medicine. Adhering to them will allow our health care
teams to excel in the relationships we have with our clients and patients. Opening and using this com- munication armamentarium will bring patients into our practices, thereby increasing our revenues while focusing on much needed preventive health care for our patients. One of the biggest enterprises being undertaken is
Partners for Healthy Pets (
partnersforhealthypets.org). This program has been driven by AAHA and AVMA, and it has the largest number of associations and com- panies that have ever come together for the common goal of promoting veterinary preventive medicine. This initiative alone is going to help us imple-
ment much needed preventive medicine programs for our patients and our clients with a toolbox con- sisting of guidelines and protocols that are easy to use and implement. Part of my mission as AAHA president is to encour-
age my fellow AAHA passionistas to implement and spread the excitement of programs being offered by the likes of Partners for Healthy Pets, AAHA, Pet Nutrition Alliance, Companion Animal Parasite Coun- cil, American Association of Feline Practitioners, CAT- alyst Council and other seminal programs.
view from AAHA On a Mission
FROM THE PRESIDENT
s I write this article, a blizzard has shut down the East Coast, although the weather at the MVMA Annual Meeting is quite tropical for February in Minnesota. The severe wind chills
I am going use this column in Trends magazine,
as well as my blogs and my network of colleagues and friends, to help promote these programs. My goal will be to get our “I Choose AAHA” campaign out to as many people as possible in the next 12 months. I also want to have a resource site where people can go and find the things they need to help make their practice more healthy and vibrant. As the year progresses, I hope we can get more
and more hospitals involved in the “I Choose AAHA” campaign on their Facebook pages. I also would like us to start working together and doing our protocols at the same time. That way we can give one another support and help. There are many things in veterinary medicine that
can be done together, hospital by hospital, without giving up individuality and culture. I believe work- ing together will help increase our revenues, increase the number of pets we are seeing and decrease the burnout that we frequently see. Burnout is often caused by the sense of isolation
we have as practitioners. AAHA can go a long way toward helping practitioners understand that we’re in this together. As the year progresses, please let me know what I’m doing well or what I’m not doing well and how you would like to see AAHA help you. If everyone takes a small part in this endeavor and we put it all together, it will be just as exciting as a $15 million brand-strategy proposal. This is my vision for the next 12 months. As we
know well in Minnesota, some months bring cold and snow, and others bring sunshine and clear skies. But know that each month that I am AAHA’s president, I will strive to do my best to use my posi- tion to promote the programs that are important to the association, the profession and to you. ETIAP*
Kate Knutson, DVM, is the association’s 2013–2014 president. She is hospital co-director of the three-doctor Pet Crossing Animal Hospital & Dental Clinic in Bloomington, Minn. * Read Knutson’s full profile on page 37 for an explanation of ETIAP.
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Trends magazine, April 2013
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