AVMAtv spotlights veterinarians through Web videos

Veterinarians now have their own channel, but don't bothering flipping through TV stations to find it.

Starting Sept. 2, AVMA launched AVMAtv—the first online, 24-hour Web channel dedicated to delivering information about veterinary medicine, animal health, and animal welfare through video.

The free site, www.avmatv.org, allows viewers to watch videos on the topics of initiatives, veterinary history, community, careers, and news.

Current videos feature exotic animals, emerging diseases such as avian influenza, and food safety. For those looking to enter the veterinary profession, there are videos showing an inside look at the life of a large animal practitioner working on Hawaiian ranches as well as a laboratory animal researcher and more.

And that's just the beginning. New videos will be added frequently.

Affiliated organizations—including other national associations, veterinary schools, and state VMAs—will be submitting videos, too, and these will be added to the site, said Dr. Kimberly Anne May, assistant director of the AVMA department of professional and public affairs in the Communications Division.

For registered visitors to the site, AVMAtv will offer community and interactive features, including a comment box on videos. Eventually, AVMAtv will evolve into an area where members of the profession and the public can share information.

"We want the site to be interactive because it allows us to cater the site to the needs of the viewers in response to their feedback," Dr. May said.

The goal is to provide a video-based site that will inform the public about the diverse roles of veterinarians. To accomplish that, the site showcases not only various career opportunities but also provides reliable resources on animal health and welfare, Dr. May said.

"We don't intend for the site to become a veterinary consultation site; we want it to provide credible information that the public and our members can trust and use as a resource," she said.

Dr. May was involved in AVMAtv's creation, which was more than a year in the making.

She said the idea came about when EFX Media developed the TV Web-based platform and contacted the AVMA about getting in on the opportunity.

"It's an emerging technology and shows a lot of promise," Dr. May said.