Training starts in January for users of the OVC Health Sciences Centre's new information system -- a comprehensive, integrated and flexible system that will support the hospital's clinical, teaching, research and business requirements for the next decade.

Sessions will cover general training and specialized information covering specific modules of the new system.

More information, including the dates and times of the training sessions, is now available online. The website also outlines the new information system's features and functionality, governance and implementation, and provides a project timeline.

General training is for everyone: administration and clinical staff, technicians, faculty, veterinarians, residents, interns and fourth-year DVM students will be given a hands-on overview of the complete system in two-hour training sessions that begin on Jan. 6.

Scheduling of specialized training will be done in January. Ten sessions are planned during Jan. 25-27.

To schedule your general training session, please contact Tejay Monga ext. 54117 or tmonga@uoguelph.ca.

Renovations have begun on new research facilities for the Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses (CPHAZ).

Construction will affect office and laboratory space formerly occupied by the Animal Health Laboratory and Department of Pathobiology at the west end of Building 49. Plans call for the temporary closure of corridor C1105 (adjacent to the former post-mortem viewing area and AHL bacteriology lab).

Throughout construction, students will continue to have access to locker rooms 1131 and 1128 via corridor C1107. It will be accessible from the entrance next to the former AHL administration area, and from the main east-west corridor (corridor C1102) connecting the Small Animal Clinic and the former Department of Pathobiology.

(The east end of corridor C1102 will be closed when construction begins on the Animal Cancer Centre later in the spring. The student locker rooms will still be accessible from the north via the College Avenue entrance to building 49.)

The infrastructure project is scheduled for completion in May. The work is supported by a $1-million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) New Initiatives Fund. The funding goes toward equipment and facilities to expand CPHAZ's capacity to conduct state-of-the-art research in animal-related aspects of public health, particularly zoonotic diseases.

CPHAZ offices will remain in McNabb House.

Got a story about your pet? To mark its 150th anniversary in 2012, the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) will publish a book of poems, stories, essays and remembrances about how companion animals enrich our lives and imaginations, as well as about veterinary professionals.

The book will be distributed annually to graduating veterinary students in Ontario and be available to veterinarians, animal lovers and universities across North America. Sections will include animal companionship, life stages, scenes from the vet clinic, how animals inspire imagination, becoming a veterinarian, and children's stories and poems.

The book will be edited by OVC dean Elizabeth Stone and poet Hilde Weisert, co-founders of the Society for Veterinary Medicine and Literature.

Submissions should be up to three pages or 750 words and will be selected by a panel of writers and veterinary educators.

The deadline is approaching fast -- the call for submissions closes Dec. 15 -- so send in your stories soon.

For more information including the submission guidelines, see the website.

A retired OVC professor, whose association with the University of Guelph goes back more than 60 years, has died.

Bruce M. McCraw passed away Nov. 19 at Guelph General Hospital at the age of 86.

McCraw retired in 1989 following a long career at OVC that began in 1948 in what was then the Department of Parasitology. In addition to his teaching and research, he was actively involved in campus and community life, serving the OVC Library Committee, the U of G Senate and Executive, and the Guelph Children's Aid Society.

For more, see the story in the Guelph Mercury and the obituary online.

The OVC Health Sciences Centre celebrates the official opening today of new facilities that will improve patient care for companion animals and enhance learning opportunities for student veterinarians.

The official ribbon cutting unveiled a new intermediate care / fluid ward and an updated and expanded intensive care unit. The new facilities are the result of a $750,000, 2,400 sq. ft. renovation completed recently in the Small Animal Clinic. The project was supported by a generous gift from an anonymous donor.

"We've made significant improvements to make more efficient use of available space and meet a variety of patient needs," said Dr. Alexa Bersenas, head of the emergency and critical care service.

In addition to a larger admissions area, more animal housing, improved flow and visibility for patient care, the new intensive care unit has an isolation area for patients admitted with infectious diseases and antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. A new emergency entrance allows cases to enter the hospital without going through the main entrance and lobby.

The adjacent intermediate care unit provides an area where 24-hour supervision can be maintained at an appropriate level for patients that are not critically ill. Previously, the ICU was the only area in the hospital where patients could receive intravenous fluids. But the majority of those cases were receiving diagnostic or other procedures that didn't require being kept in the ICU.

From a teaching perspective, students will gain more experience handling cases in a way that is more in line with what they'll see in practice, but in an environment that provides 24/7 patient care, Bersenas said.

"The new space will help us provide optimal and appropriate care for all our patients without providing excessive care," she said. "We've also been able to make use of previously existing skylights to provide natural light in the ICU, something that has been shown to speed recovery in human patients."