2 ACVS diplomates receive major awards at symposium

San Diego

-- The American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) and the ACVS Foundation honored two longtime diplomates with major awards at the recent 2008 ACVS Veterinary Symposium.

William V. Lumb, DVM, MS, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, received the ACVS Founders' Award for Career Achievement, given for outstanding contributions to the art and science of veterinary surgery.

Marvin L. Olmstead, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, a renowned leader in the development and perfection of canine total hip-replacement surgery, received the ACVS Foundation 2008 Legends Award.

Dr. Lumb is considered a pioneer in teaching cooperative principles in veterinary surgery and anesthesia research. A charter diplomate who was instrumental in forming the ACVS, he is credited with opening a new career for veterinarians - scientific investigator and collaborator in surgical research.

Dr. Lumb was named director of the Surgical Laboratory at Colorado State University in 1963, where he instituted graduate programs in surgery and anesthesiology leading to the Master's and PhD degrees. The laboratory was the first to combine surgical training with research training in an academic program. The interdisciplinary program trained students from across the United States and 15 foreign countries.

"Dr. Lumb and his surgical-training program laid a large part of the foundation for the fledgling ACVS. His selection ... recognizes this contribution to the ACVS, to veterinary medicine and to his students," said Larry R. Bramlage, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, chairman of the ACVS Board of Regents.

"I can think of no diplomate who better epitomizes the criteria (for the Founders' award), says Donald L. Piermattei, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, of VCA Veterinary Specialists of Northern Colorado, who presented the award. "Dr. Lumb was an early advocate of the surgeon as research scientist, and his graduate-training program had a huge influence on the ACVS."

The ACVS Foundation Legends Award presented to Dr. Olmstead recognizes diplomates who develop a surgical or diagnostic procedure that becomes the treatment or test of choice for a given condition and, despite possible modifications, remains so over time. It must be novel and advance veterinary surgical science.

"Over the last 20 years, the name of Dr. Marvin Olmstead has become synonymous with total hip-replacement surgery in dogs. Surgeons come to The Ohio State University from all corners of the world to get firsthand tuition from Marv Olmstead on the ... procedure," says Kenneth A. Johnson, MVSc, PhD, FACVSc, Dipl. ACVS and ECVS, a professor of orthopedics at the University of Sydney, Australia, who presented the award.

"Marv Olmstead probably has performed more of these surgeries in dogs than any other surgeon, and thus has enormous experience with managing the inevitable difficult cases and complications. Whenever we were faced with a difficult hip problem, the question soon came up, 'What would Marv do?'" Johnson adds.

Dr. Johnson currently is an emeritus professor, small-animal orthopedic surgery, at Ohio State and a surgeon at Oregon State Veterinary Referral Associates.