Associate Professor, Critical Care Services Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado
This presentation will highlight the collaborative efforts, frameworks in place, and progress-to-date on the ACVECC Veterinary Committee on Trauma (VetCOT) mission to improve trauma patient care. The VetCOT was established in 2012 to create an international network of “lead” hospitals (university and private) to seed development of trauma systems that will collaborate to define high standards of care, maintain and leverage a veterinary trauma registry, perform clinical and translational research, and design and deliver trauma education (https://vetcot.org/). The trauma registry is a robust resource with over 60,000 cat and dog trauma cases to date, and over 20 publications (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/collections/61161762/?sort=pubdate). It is also being leveraged to further define the veterinary trauma population, and elevate the opportunity to utilize small animal trauma as a naturally occurring model to advance both veterinary and human trauma patient outcomes. Additionally, collaborations throughout the veterinary field, as well as with military, pre-hospital, and human trauma care providers and researchers are enhanced through joint conferences, research collaborations, and education efforts.