Detailed Program Description for ACVD Website
1. Program name and location: Blue Pearl Georgia Veterinary Specialists Individualized Residency Program
BluePearl Georgia Veterinary Specialists
455 Abernathy Rd NE
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
BluePearl Georgia Veterinary Specialists
1956 Lawrenceville Suwanee Rd
Lawrenceville, GA 30043
2. Is the program currently on ACVD Probation? No
3. Mentor(s):
Name: Robert Schick, DVM, DACVD
Years in ACVD: 27 years
Years as Mentor: 6
Additional Educators:
Name: Valerie Fadok, DVM, PhD, DACVD
Years in ACVD: 34
Years as Mentor: 12
Name: Michelle Nobrega-Lee, DVM, DACVP (histopathology training)
Years in ACVD: 0
Years as Mentor: 0
4. Specific requirements for applying to the program:
a) Be a graduate of an AVMA approved veterinary school or college or a graduate of an accredited and
recognized school from another country
b) Have completed a one year rotating internship or satisfactory practice equivalency
c) Be approved to practice veterinary medicine in the state of Georgia
d) Be a member of the national veterinary medical association (AVMA)
e) Be of satisfactory moral and ethical character including but not restricted to being honest
and truthful, not be habitually intoxicated or addicted to drugs, and not to have been
convicted of cruelty to animals
f) Be compliant with ACVD residency requirements – see .org
5. Length of residency in years:3
6. Is a Master’s degree or PhD required? No
7. When the residency was first offered? July 2016
a. Has it been continuous since then? n/a
b. If not continual what years was the residency offered? n/a
8. How many residents have been accepted into the program since inception? 1 (July 2016)
a. How many of these have become board certified dermatologists? 0
9. What is the average annual dermatology caseload for the institution over the past 5years? 1500-1700cases per year
10. What is the average total caseload seen the entire residency? 4600 cases (average cases annually times the number of years of residency)
11. On average, how many new patients, rechecks and consults does the program see per year?
(actual numbers of cases)
a. New cases 500
b. Rechecks 1000
c. Consults 45
12. On average, what percentage of the program’s cases are dogs and cats?
a. Dogs 90%
b. Cats 10%
13. On average, how many exotic, equine and farm animal cases does the program see per year?
a. Exotics 0
b. Equine 0
c. Farm animals 0
14. What percentage of time is the mentor in clinics with the resident while the resident is seeing cases during the resident’s first year: 95%, second: at least 85% and third: at least 60%?
(This means that the mentor is either physically seeing patients with the resident or can be contacted by phone and available to see the case within one hour of being called.)
15. Does the program have access to other specialists? If so, please list: Yes
a) Internal Medicine
b) Oncology (medical and radiation)
c) Surgery
d) Neurology
e) Radiology
f) Ophthalmology
g) Critical Care
h) Cardiology
i) Nutrition
j) Clinical Pathology
k) Anatomical Pathology
16. Please describe your library access: BluePearl Veterinary Partners has online access to veterinary and human medical journals through agreements with Wiley online. BluePearl Georgia Veterinary Specialists also has access to University of Tennessee’s online library.
17. Does the program have statistical support for their residents’ research projects? Yes, BluePearl Veterinary Partners has a working relationship with 3 statisticians.
18. Does the program have direct access to any basic science or clinical science laboratories that the resident can use for research proposes? No; however, we are ideally located in Atlanta, GA near both Emory University and Georgia Tech. Should the resident elect to pursue laboratory based research, BluePearl Georgia Veterinary Specialists is in a position to facilitate access to these labs.
19. How often do the residents and mentors have the following rounds?(For each type of rounds, please list how often they are held, how long each session is, and a detailed description of how they are conducted.)
a. Case rounds: Formal cases rounds are held weekly for 1 hour; however, informal rounds will
be conducted continuously throughout the work day
b. Journal club: Held twice monthly for a total of 2 hours per month.
-1 hour per month led by Dr. Schick (+/- Dr. Fadok) to review new/recent journal articles
from avariety of the journals on the required reading list. Articles will cover both basic
and clinical sciences of both human and veterinary medicine. The resident will read and
summarize the articles and then discussion will commence.
-1 hr per month led by Dr. Fadok (+/- Dr. Schick) to review recent and/or old journal articles. The covered topics will vary from session to session but will include parasitology, immunology, pharmacology, comparative dermatology, etc.
c. Histopathology training: Dr. Schick will be running these rounds; however, Dr. Michelle Nobrega-Lee, a board certified anatomical pathologist will also be in attendance. Rounds will focus on histological principles and techniques (including special stains), developing an understanding for vocabulary, recognition of normal microanatomy, pattern recognition for disease including neoplastic and non-neoplastic processes. Additional cuts from the resident’s own cases will be obtained from UPenn and the resident will spend several hours weekly reviewing these cases. The finalized reports will be available to the resident for comparison. A set of teaching slides, which includes both normal and abnormal specimens, as well as samples submitted to Idexx laboratories will be available to the resident for review/training purposes. At the end of the second year, the resident will be expected to be capable of writing histopathology reports for her own cases and selected teaching slide sets. Written reports are evaluated by the mentor and additional educator (Dr. Nobrega-Lee) allowing them to assess the need/areas for further emphasis in study.
d. Basic science learning rounds: Dr. Fadok will lead formal/didactic basic science rounds 1 to 2 times monthly for 1 to 2 hours. This curriculum will be facilitated by Powerpoint presentations and seminars, directed readings from selected core textbooks and journals with subsequent discussion and referreed online courses. Furthermore, case review conducted by Dr. Schick formally one hour weekly as well as continuously throughout the work day will also include review of basic sciences as it pertains to clinical cases. These discussions between mentor and resident will allow the mentor to assess the resident's understanding of basic concepts , monitor the resident's progress throughout the program and identify areas of weakness that would benefit from more focused review/discussion/training. Quarterly reviews will also be conducted via written examinations.
20. Resident’s benefits: (Please give a general list of benefits and then whom a potential candidate
should contact to get more specific information on salary and benefit packages)
a. Vacation – 2 weeks per year
b. Sick days – 5 days per year
c. Health insurance – Health, Dental and Eye insurance
d. Retirement – 401k retirement plan
e. Additional – VIN membership, Professional Liability Insurance including license defense
protection, $1,500
f. uniform allowance, $2,200 professional allowance/year
21. Does the program allow the resident to attend the NAVDF (North American Veterinary Dermatology Forum) meeting annually? Yes
22. Does the program pay for the resident to attend the NAVDF meeting annually? Yes
23. Average number of days a resident will spend on clinics per month: 14-16
24. Average number of days a resident will spend on non-clinical pursuits per month (not including Sundays or holidays): 8-10
25. Does the resident have to take general medicine emergency duty? No
26. Does the resident take Dermatology emergency duty? Yes
If so how often: Twice monthly
27. Is time allotted for externships in other subspecialties or at other dermatology practices? Yes
If so explain: 2 weeks to be spent with the UCDavis Dermatology department and two 1 week
blocks to be spent with the UPenndermatohistopathologist. An additional 2 weeks of
externship time is also open should the resident elect to pursue an additional out rotation.
28. How much time is allotted off clinics for board preparation? The residency is completed in June
2018 allowing the resident 3-4 months off for intense study.
29. How much time is allotted to carry out a research project (grant writing, data collection, paper preparation) during the residency (please report in number of weeks)? All off clinic time can be utilized for the preparation and completion of the research project.
30. What are the other responsibilities/duties of the resident? Resident will be involved in the education of the rotating interns – this will include both formal rounds as well as clinical case instruction. Resident is also expected to deliver at least one formal presentation to interns and house-officers annually, in addition to at least one continuing education seminar to area veterinarians. The resident will also be expected to provide in-house and telephone consultation services.
31. How many residents has the program had over the past 10 years? 0
32. How many/what percentage of the above residents (question 31) passed credentials on the: n/a
33. How many/what percentage of the above residents (question 31) sat boards for the first time: n/a
34. How many/what percentage of the above residents (question 31) passed the board exam on their: n/a
35. Is your residency program reviewed by an outside committee at your university? n/a
37. Names of your last 5 residents and whether they are willing to be contacted by potential residents: n/a