Paul D. Pion, DVM, DACVIM (Cardiology), co-founder, VIN
Remember, your input on the items in the Oath is welcomed and encouraged. The VIN Community is made great by participation from all.
That touches on a point I want to discuss today, one newer VINners may not realize and veteran VINners may forget. The fourth item in the VINner’s Oath:
4 I recognize that ALL VINners, GPs and specialists alike, equally contribute to the VIN community and have valuable knowledge and insights.
While VIN has many specialists among its consultants, associate editors and general membership, the VIN community (and by extension, the VIN database) is consistently enriched and informed by the experiences and insights of all VINners.
VIN is and always has been for veterinarians, by veterinarians. VIN is a community. VIN isn’t a reading service or personal consultation/referral service. There is an expectation that all within the VIN community will do their part. We are here to support and help each other.
As a community we embrace input from all. Still, every so often a colleague is upset when a colleague who is not a specialist responds to their medical case discussion.
Most VIN consultants and editors are boards certified, but it’s important to remember that the alphabet soup (or lack of) after a colleague’s name doesn’t define them or the value of their suggestions. Board certification is not a requirement for joining the team of VIN consultant/editors. Many without board certification or advanced degrees have achieved expert status in their field through less formal routes.
The power of the VIN community is the collective knowledge amassed by bringing together tens of thousands of colleagues. Often, other “trenchers” know things individual specialists might not and have tricks that will help you handle your case more in tune with what is practical for your practice or client.
On the flip side, sometimes a colleague gets frustrated when a specialist replies to a message board post with a VMTHish diagnostic and treatment scenario. While it may be hard to read a tertiary care level response when you are faced with limitations of budget, equipment, or geography, remembering that you are not alone in the VIN community will keep you from getting upset or immediately dismissing these insights.
Expanding on that last thought, consider that:
- When VIN consultants and editors respond to a practice issue or clinical case query, it is wonderful that a single colleague, client, and patient benefit from the interchange. Certainly that is the primary focus during the interchange – to try to help. But it doesn’t end there. The real power of the VIN community is the amassed information and experience. Most message board discussions are archived, cleaned up, and indexed by an amazing team of over 20 colleagues. When you search the VIN database and find help from previous case discussions, you hopefully recognize how useful it is for VIN consultants/editors to speak to the database — to go beyond the specific case and communicate general concepts and best practices when responding to case discussions.
- Even if you can’t offer referral level care to this patient, you or other colleagues reading the thread may learn something that helps with a future case.
In the ideal VIN Community interaction, you get a range of opinions, and benefit from a wealth of experience and knowledge.
Remembering that you are not alone in the VIN community is critical to understanding the value and limitations of VIN. Most consultation services cost more for insight on one case than you pay for a month of VIN membership. Only because all VINners pay a little each month and many also give back to the VIN community by sharing their insights and feedback, can you search VIN or seek personalized input on any practice or clinical issue, plus have access to all the wonderful features and tools on VIN.
The VIN community is lucky to have amazing consultants and editors who work hard to keep up with the vast number of message board posts. The VIN community is also lucky to be populated by colleagues in the trenches with a vast diversity of knowledge and mass of experience.
As I’ve mentioned before, VIN is not a fee-for-service; VIN is a Community, a place for colleagues to grow and learn from each other, from our mistakes as well as our successes. No colleague should ever be afraid to post or feel shamed for sharing their questions or insights.
It is also important to recognize the limitations of VIN. VIN is not a replacement for a reading service. VIN is not a replacement for referral of cases that require a different level of diagnostics or care. VIN is not an emergency service. VIN is our collective information source and support community.
So please, share your thoughts, questions, and experiences, and welcome it when your colleagues share theirs. You never know where that breakthrough will come from!