Rowan University takes veterinary services on the road

The Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine at Rowan University in New Jersey aims to welcome its' first class of students in fall of 2025. In the meantime, faculty and staff have launched a shelter medicine and community outreach program on a bus. The new mobile veterinary clinic recently stopped by the Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey, during dvm360's Fetch Coastal conference.

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Kirsten White, DVM, a clinical assistant professor of shelter medicine and community engagement, discussed the mobile program's purposes, in an interview with dvm360. This video and the transcript below is part of the interview:

Photo: Kristen Coppock, MA/dvm360

Kirsten White, DVM: The reasoning behind having a mobile unit is accessibility. There are many barriers to care, and some of that is proximity or access to transportation. Many people are not as mobile as others, and it makes it hard for people and their pets to get to care. That's a problem in human medicine, and it's also a problem in veterinary medicine. So, part of the reason to be a mobile clinic is that we can bring clinics to more places versus people trying to get to clinics.

The other thing is the gap between being able to access care and then not being able to keep your pet. So, the other big reason to have a mobile clinic and to try to bridge that gap between full, public, for-profit primary care and veterinary medicine is that that is not an accessible service to everybody as well. If we can help people stay with their animals—because there's a documented benefit to being with the family that loves you,—regardless if your family has all the money in the world or all the transportation or all the education, or whatever your barrier may be, that doesn't mean you're not a good pet owner. So, if we can help those communities and those populations of people that are great pet families but need help with the health care, that'll keep more pets out of shelters and with their families. Because the shelter should be a place where you have to take your pet if there's no other option. That's part of our job, to help the shelters and help people stay with their pets.

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