The pair met a few years ago — initially during continuing education events and then through Lem's volunteer work with Community Veterinary Outreach, an organization that she founded in 2003.
The program provides preventive health care to pets of homeless people in several Ontario cities. Lem and Hodgson are now working together on what they call "the One Health component" of Community Veterinary Outreach.
Both Hodgson and Lem have spent most of their professional lives immersed in One Health — a global initiative that encourages interdisciplinary collaborations in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment.
Hodgson was raised on an Angus beef cattle farm before receiving her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from Cornell University in 1992. She spent time in practice, later completing her second degree in teaching and family medicine at the University of Toronto (U of T).
"As part of that degree, a lot of the classes we took were things like taking care of patients in the context of family," says Hodgson. "All of those courses that I was taking for my human degree were completely relevant to pets because of the role they have in so many families."
Now Hodgson teaches continuing medical education at the U of T's Faculty of Medicine. She teaches a series of workshops based on the CanMEDS (Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists) competencies – a model that shows a medical expert needs to also be a successful communicator, collaborator, manager, health advocate, scholar and professional.
"Your success in patient care and driving positive health care outcomes is based on the fact that you have the skills and competencies to integrate all your roles," she explains. "I believe that veterinarians need this as well . . . this is what makes a successful veterinarian or a successful veterinary technician."
Hodgson is also researching the benefits of including the "Pet Query" as part of a regular human physical examination.
"It's this door-opening question," she says. "And it strongly empowers the physician-patient-therapeutic alliance because the physician is demonstrating interest in something that's very important to that patient and that family."
Lem received her DVM degree from the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) in 2001. After graduation, she spent six months practising veterinary medicine in New Zealand before coming back to Ottawa.
Lem returned to the OVC in 2009 to complete a Master of Science degree in epidemiology. Her graduate research focused on the effects of pet ownership on street-involved youth. Lem interviewed 200 street youth – 90 of whom were pet owners.
The results she obtained from her study were incredibly strong. For instance, about 50 per cent of the pet-owning street youth said they had decreased their use of drugs or alcohol since becoming a pet owner. Fifty per cent reported that they now avoided getting arrested while almost 60 per cent said that having a pet gave them a reason to live and nearly 40 per cent believed that having a pet had saved their life.
Lem also found the youth had very high levels of attachment to their pets.
"One of the things that I look at more carefully is around attachment and how that forms and what that means in terms of decision-making for owners," says Lem, who is also on the board of directors for Community Veterinary Outreach.
The program runs clinics in the Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo. Volunteers operate the clinics and most of the required supplies are donated.
Lem and Hodgson are now working with human health care providers — family physicians and nurse practitioners — to integrate with the veterinary team at Community Veterinary Outreach clinics.
"We've been able to connect people back into social services or health care through the veterinary clinics," explains Lem. "That's really the direction that we're mainly moving toward."
Hodgson and Lem are also working on developing an outreach curriculum for veterinary students who regularly volunteer at the outreach clinics.
Besides getting hands-on primary care experience with real clients, Lem says the veterinary students are gaining empathy, a sense of stewardship and a broader understanding of pet ownership among marginalized populations that they probably wouldn't get to experience.
"Our vet students have been a real focus for the past year: how can we support them, how can we help them in their learning and their goals?" says Lem, adding that she and Hodgson have received some funding to develop a more structured outreach curriculum with definite learning objectives and assessment tools.
What advice do these One Health professionals have for students who are hoping to follow in their footsteps and become involved with community outreach work?
"I think that being able to volunteer in things such as Community Veterinary Outreach is crucial. You need to ask to have this sort of thing in your training and you need to take advantage of the volunteer opportunities," says Hodgson.
Both practitioners are willing to help others begin similar programs in other communities. They're also excited to see that many of today's students are socially conscious and passionate about contributing to society.
"I don't really think that we just give — we also get a lot out of it. I certainly know that I reap tremendous rewards from what I do," says Lem.
Hodgson and Lem will speak about their research and collaborative community work to U of S health science students, faculty and staff in E1130 (E-Wing, Health Sciences Building) at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, January 27. The practitioners will give another set of One Health-related talks at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, in Room 2115 at the WCVM.
Drs. Michelle Lem and Kate Hodgson's presentations are part of a series of One Health public presentations that will be offered at the U of S in January 2014. Download the One Health presentation series poster.
Melissa Cavanagh of Winnipeg, Man., is a second-year veterinary student who was the WCVM research communications intern during the summer of 2013.
The program provides preventive health care to pets of homeless people in several Ontario cities. Lem and Hodgson are now working together on what they call "the One Health component" of Community Veterinary Outreach.
Both Hodgson and Lem have spent most of their professional lives immersed in One Health — a global initiative that encourages interdisciplinary collaborations in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment.
Hodgson was raised on an Angus beef cattle farm before receiving her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from Cornell University in 1992. She spent time in practice, later completing her second degree in teaching and family medicine at the University of Toronto (U of T).
"As part of that degree, a lot of the classes we took were things like taking care of patients in the context of family," says Hodgson. "All of those courses that I was taking for my human degree were completely relevant to pets because of the role they have in so many families."
Now Hodgson teaches continuing medical education at the U of T's Faculty of Medicine. She teaches a series of workshops based on the CanMEDS (Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists) competencies – a model that shows a medical expert needs to also be a successful communicator, collaborator, manager, health advocate, scholar and professional.
"Your success in patient care and driving positive health care outcomes is based on the fact that you have the skills and competencies to integrate all your roles," she explains. "I believe that veterinarians need this as well . . . this is what makes a successful veterinarian or a successful veterinary technician."
Hodgson is also researching the benefits of including the "Pet Query" as part of a regular human physical examination.
"It's this door-opening question," she says. "And it strongly empowers the physician-patient-therapeutic alliance because the physician is demonstrating interest in something that's very important to that patient and that family."
Lem received her DVM degree from the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) in 2001. After graduation, she spent six months practising veterinary medicine in New Zealand before coming back to Ottawa.
Lem returned to the OVC in 2009 to complete a Master of Science degree in epidemiology. Her graduate research focused on the effects of pet ownership on street-involved youth. Lem interviewed 200 street youth – 90 of whom were pet owners.
The results she obtained from her study were incredibly strong. For instance, about 50 per cent of the pet-owning street youth said they had decreased their use of drugs or alcohol since becoming a pet owner. Fifty per cent reported that they now avoided getting arrested while almost 60 per cent said that having a pet gave them a reason to live and nearly 40 per cent believed that having a pet had saved their life.
Lem also found the youth had very high levels of attachment to their pets.
"One of the things that I look at more carefully is around attachment and how that forms and what that means in terms of decision-making for owners," says Lem, who is also on the board of directors for Community Veterinary Outreach.
The program runs clinics in the Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo. Volunteers operate the clinics and most of the required supplies are donated.
Lem and Hodgson are now working with human health care providers — family physicians and nurse practitioners — to integrate with the veterinary team at Community Veterinary Outreach clinics.
"We've been able to connect people back into social services or health care through the veterinary clinics," explains Lem. "That's really the direction that we're mainly moving toward."
Hodgson and Lem are also working on developing an outreach curriculum for veterinary students who regularly volunteer at the outreach clinics.
Besides getting hands-on primary care experience with real clients, Lem says the veterinary students are gaining empathy, a sense of stewardship and a broader understanding of pet ownership among marginalized populations that they probably wouldn't get to experience.
"Our vet students have been a real focus for the past year: how can we support them, how can we help them in their learning and their goals?" says Lem, adding that she and Hodgson have received some funding to develop a more structured outreach curriculum with definite learning objectives and assessment tools.
What advice do these One Health professionals have for students who are hoping to follow in their footsteps and become involved with community outreach work?
"I think that being able to volunteer in things such as Community Veterinary Outreach is crucial. You need to ask to have this sort of thing in your training and you need to take advantage of the volunteer opportunities," says Hodgson.
Both practitioners are willing to help others begin similar programs in other communities. They're also excited to see that many of today's students are socially conscious and passionate about contributing to society.
"I don't really think that we just give — we also get a lot out of it. I certainly know that I reap tremendous rewards from what I do," says Lem.
Hodgson and Lem will speak about their research and collaborative community work to U of S health science students, faculty and staff in E1130 (E-Wing, Health Sciences Building) at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, January 27. The practitioners will give another set of One Health-related talks at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, in Room 2115 at the WCVM.
Drs. Michelle Lem and Kate Hodgson's presentations are part of a series of One Health public presentations that will be offered at the U of S in January 2014. Download the One Health presentation series poster.
Melissa Cavanagh of Winnipeg, Man., is a second-year veterinary student who was the WCVM research communications intern during the summer of 2013.
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