AIS Academic Cooperative
AIS Academic Cooperative
One of AIS’s main goals is to promote the growth of the veterinary radiology profession through the active and tangible support of academic institutions and training programs. Only through creative cooperation and collaboration with academia will this goal be accomplished.
Every academic program has specific strengths. These may include species variety, different modalities, program structure, caseload, or the number of board-certified faculty. AIS brings electronic infrastructure, many radiologists with academic experience, funding, literally millions of cases, and a leadership team committed to creating lasting change within the profession.
The first part of any cooperative is putting leadership teams together and discussing the needs of each institution and what we might offer one another. This is why we held our Academic Forum in May 2019. The forum invited Resident Program Directors, Department Heads and Deans from all accredited North American universities to come together to discuss tangible ideas about what we can do to continue to grow our training programs and support academia. Twelve leaders from nine universities attended.
Since that first forum over five years ago, we are now working in collaboration with 25+ universities across North America, Europe, and Australia to put into place programs tailored to each individual institution to help re-grow those that have dwindled, grow programs that are successful and seek further growth, and sustain the leading programs that wish to remain on the cutting edge of progress in our profession.
In addition, we are helping interested private hospitals grow their specialty practices and create in-house residency training programs. The success of our Academic Cooperative has drawn requests from other specialties for help in administering such collaboration. Early stages of collaboration with Antech Diagnostics for pathology are underway. Universities have also reached out for advice on collaborations with surgery , anesthesia, cardiology, and dentistry specialties as well.
While the socioeconomic events of the pandemic have prevented us from holding a second annual Academic Forum, we continue to grow and welcome new members of the Cooperative and institutions interested in thinking outside the box to further our profession.
For more information about the AIS Academic Cooperative, contact:
Keith Acquino, MBA, MT(AAB)(ASCP), CSP
Director of Academic Affairs