Among more than 30 schools of veterinary medicine in the U.S., the School of Veterinary Medicine consistently ranks among the top five for excellence in veterinary medical education, clinical service and biomedical research. The school has graduated over 2,000 veterinarians since 1987 and has grown its UW Veterinary Care teaching hospital from 10 specialties in 1983 to over 20 today, many of which require large footprints to support cutting-edge technologies. Its Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program is top ranked nationally, and research dollars awarded to the school have doubled in the last four years. In fact, 75% of the infectious disease research on campus is done at the School of Veterinary Medicine, including work to prevent the deadly Ebola virus and pandemic influenza.
For more than 30 years, the school has pushed the boundaries of animal and human medicine. And now, they’re pushing the boundaries of their own space. Built to see 12,000 patient visits annually, UW Veterinary Care currently sees more than 26,000, and with ever-increasing demand could expand to see 35,000.
Every day, the school impacts the future of medicine in profound ways. But to continue their groundbreaking work, they need to break new ground. A significant expansion of the school’s current footprint to double the size of its small animal teaching hospital and provide necessary research space is critical to ensure the school remains an international leader in animal and human health.
With your help, the school can continue to lead. They can provide more groundbreaking research to uncover links that lead to novel and effective care for animals and humans. The school can offer more cutting-edge technologies to make previously untreatable cases treatable. With more state-of-the-art space to train future veterinarians, care for patients and innovate new treatments that save lives, imagine what more they could do.
Story originally published on AllWaysForward.org