Unexpected complication

Well, I ran into an issue that I really wasnt expecting...I contacted the veterinary medical board in State of California to find out if I could acquire a list of small animal veterinarians. Although I can find a listing of veterinarians on the governments website, I can not single out those that strictly work with small animal. Most veterinarians are small animal veterinarians, however it would save time if I could find a list of those that simply practice as small animal veterinarians.

How would that help me?

The focus of my capstone project is small animal veterinarians and family physicians; a list already determining all of the licensed small animal veterinarians in a state would reduce my additional steps of looking up every potential contributor to my capstone online to determine their primary patient species. Its not impossible, just incredibly tedious.

To get back to California...

When I spoke to the office of the veterinary medical board I came to one of my first official stand stills, they wanted me to fax them the jest of my capstone study. I immediately sent out the following statement...

In the United States, four of every 10 homes own a dog and three of every 10 homes own a cat1. Zoonotic disease accounts for approximately 60% of all infectious pathogens2. A collaborated effort between veterinary medicine and human medicine is required to reduce or eliminate zoonotic disease transmission. The purpose of the study “Friend or Foe? The working relationship between veterinary medicine and human medicine” is to evaluate current communication methods regarding reportable zoonotic diseases between members of both health professions and develop the means to create improved communication. During my video presentation, I will conclude with recommendations to improve communication between small animal veterinarians and family physicians.

Florida, California, Texas, and New York are the states in my study and are the best representation of the continental United States due to their climates, ecological factors, and economic standings all of which can influence the types of zoonotic diseases seen in each area3. Each states sample is determined by the states provided current licensed and practicing family physicians and small animal veterinarians. I am sending a request to complete my survey provided by a link through www.surveymonkey.com to a random 150 professionals from each profession in each state, ultimately requesting voluntary participation from 600 small animal veterinarians and 600 family practice physicians. In addition to the request for completing a survey, I am asking for participation in phone interviews and a web forum. The electronic survey will collect general information on the communication efforts between veterinarians and family practice physicians. However, the phone interview will provides specific viewpoints from the professional and a web forum will be offer a means for professionals to give a viewpoint in real time in an environment similar to that of brainstorming. Analyzed data provided by the electronic survey is anonymous, the phone interview may or may not be anonymous, and the web forum will not be anonymous. The consent form indicates the anonymity of the phone survey, denotes the lack of anonymity with the phone interview and web forum, and explains that declining involvement in the interview or forum does not affect the results or potential participation in either.

Approximately a week and a half later I received an email from the State of California that their legal department does not believe its a good idea to release the information to me. To be honest it did shock me. I'm not asking for information I do not already have access to through their website. The point of contacting them was to shorten my steps so that I do not have to look up every potential participant for my project. Prior to contacting the veterinary medical board in California, I had also contact the veterinary medical boards in Florida, New York, and Texas and had no problem getting information from them (when information was available, as some states do not make a distinction on the primary patient species).

So, what was the result?

I decided to not acquire information from veterinarians in the State of California. I really do not understand what the problem is, however at this point since I received correspondence in writing telling me they would not release the information to me, I do not want to cause a potential professional rift. If I was completing this survey as a professional having already attained my degree, I may have a difference of opinion on the matter.

Why was this unexpected?

Since the veterinary medical boards in most states provide the contact information for their licensed and practicing veterinarians I did not see it as a problem to contact them and ask them to narrow down their pre-established public list. Its one of those bureaucratic red tape situations that requires me to evaluate the scenario determining if the possibility of causing ripples in the pond is necessary (or should I take my business elsewhere...lol).

1 Crosby, Janet. (2009) Veterinary Medicine. Retrieved on December 8, 2009. Retrieved from
http://vetmedicine.about.com/diseasesall/a/aa051303a.htm
2 Rabinowitz, Peter M, Conti, Lisa A. (2010) Human-Animal Medicine Clinical Approach to Zoonoses, Toxicants and Other Shared Health Risks. Saunders.

3 Department for International Development. (2006) Zoonotic Diseases in Livestock. Retrieved on December 6, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.smallstock.info/info/health/zoonoses.htm