BSAVA Congress 2024

Thursday 21st March 08:40 - 09:35

Charter 4

This session will cover:

Mining the research: should this paper change what I do? - Rachel Dean

• Explain what differentiates good science from mediocre or bad science
• Decide when new information is relevant to your practice and when statistics matter
• Demonstrate how to progress care by using EBVM techniques in real life

Knowledge Summaries: can they really change clinical practice? - Kit Sturgess, Editor in Chief of Veterinary Evidence

• Explain how the strength of evidence affects the impact of a knowledge summary on current clinical practice
• Synthesise the information within a Knowledge Summary
• Synthesise whether the evidence suggests a change in current clinical practice

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Friday 22nd March 10:50 - 11:40

Charter 4

This session will cover:

How long does a bacterial infection need to be treated? - Fergus Allerton, RCVS Knowledge Clinical Lead for Medicines

• Understand the current literature – and its limitation
• Learn about the new studies on antibiotic treatment duration

When do abscesses need antibiotics? - Paul Stanley

• Learn about scientific studies that have looked at treating abscesses without antibiotics
• Know the risks of not treating abscesses with antibiotics and how to communicate those risks to clients
• Know which bacterial infections need, and which do not need antibiotics

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Friday 22nd March 11:50 - 12:40

Charter 4

This session will cover:

What is the effect of education on antibiotic use? - Ian Ramsey

• Understand the literature concerning how veterinary education affects antibiotic prescribing
• Outline how education in the practice and classroom can change antibiotic prescribing

New guidelines for antibiotic use - Fergus Allerton, RCVS Knowledge Clinical Lead for Medicines

• Know the new PROTECTME guidelines and how they should be used

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Friday 22nd March 15:20 - 16:10

Charter 4

This session will cover:

The view from the clinic - Fergus Allerton, RCVS Knowledge Clinical Lead for Medicines

• Consider what clinicians need from their laboratory to help them prescribe more effectively

The view from the laboratory - Dorina Timofte

• Consider what the laboratories can offer clinicians to help them prescribe more effectively

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Saturday 23rd March 10:20 - 12:20

Exchange Auditorium 

Join us for a live-drama case study! Follow the journey of a primary care nurse as they navigate the treatment of a chemo patient, a crashing critical surgery patient, as well as an ever increasing workload from other staff and patients. During this session, Lesley Moore will cover:

• Why Significant Event Audits are important in practice
• How to carry out an effective Significant Event Audit
• How to make them easy in first opinion practice

This session includes a live performances and a panel discussion.

Lesley and her team were awarded RCVS Knowledge Champion for their clinical audit to improve general anaesthesia and sedation in 2019, and in 2023, Lesley was named Highly Commended for her clinical audit on ear cytology.

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Dr Kit Sturgess was awarded his PhD looking at the mucosal immune response to feline immunodeficiency virus. He is a Specialist in Small Animal Medicine and an Advanced Practitioner in Veterinary Cardiology. Kit became an RCVS fellow in 2016 for Meritorious Contributions to Clinical Practice and was awarded the BSAVA Woodrow Award for contributions to small animal practice in 2022. Kit splits his time between clinical work, governance, lecturing and writing. Kit is Editor in Chief of Veterinary Evidence, Chair of Trustees of Cats Protection and Chair of Responsible use of Medicines Alliance's Target and Measures group.

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Fergus graduated from the University of Bristol in 2004 and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Liege, Belgium. He is a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Medicine and currently works at Willows Referral Service. Fergus is actively involved in veterinary antibiotic stewardship and contributed to the development of the PROTECT ME guidelines. Within ENOVAT he is working on recommendations for antibiotic use for surgical prophylaxis. He is the current editor of Companion and the 10th and 11th Editions of the BSAVA formulary. He is also a member of the WSAVA Therapeutic Guidelines Group.

Fergus is the RCVS Knowledge Clinical Lead for Medicines.

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Lesley qualified from Middlesex University in 2013. Her main clinical area of interest is ECC and for the last nine years she has worked for Vets Now,  the first six years as Principal Nurse Manager which is where her interest in Quality Improvement began. In 2019, Lesley's team won a RCVS Knowledge award for their clinical audit work to improve sedation and general anaesthesia in an emergency setting, and in 2023, Lesley was named Highly Commended for her clinical audit on ear cytology to improve proactive identification and treatment in practice. In 2021, Lesley became Quality Improvement Co-ordinator for IVC Evidensia with her QI interests being use of QI tools in general practice and promoting an improvement culture across practice teams. 

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