Veterinarian honored for promoting human-animal bond

New Orleans

-- The human-animal relationship was a key point of discussion at the recent American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) annual conference, and one veterinarian who made it a focal point of her work was honored by the group for her efforts.

The AVMA presented Jane Shaw, DVM, PhD., the Leo K. Bustad Companion Animals Veterinarian of the Year Award for her work in preserving, protecting and understanding human-animal relationships.

Shaw directs the Argus Institute at Colorado State University, which promotes veterinarian-client-patient relationships and supports people and their pets to optimize animal health care, according to the AVMA.

She helped develop the FRANK communication systems, which hosts workshops for graduate veterinarians to improve the client-veterinarian relationship through improved communication and decision-making. Additionally, her dissertation was the first scientific study of veterinarian-client-patient communication, and her publications analyze recorded conversations between veterinarians and their clients.

Shaw also is assistant professor of veterinary communication at CSU. She earned her veterinary degree at Michigan State University in 1994 and her doctorate in epidemiology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, in 2004.

Also honored at the AVMA conference was U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.), who received the AVMA's first Advocacy Award for his "devotion to advancing issues of key importance to veterinary medicine," according to the AVMA.