ACVIM North American Neuroscience Course Brain Camp Advanced Veterinary Neuroscience Week 1

Course Information

Course Overview

This 5-day offering is the first installment of this 10-day module and is designed to offer an intense, high-level review of clinical veterinary neurology aimed at the neurology resident.  Topics will range from neuroanatomy and neuropathology all the way through diagnostic imaging and surgical interventions.  This is a broad review of clinical neurology with the goal of preparing for the specialty examination and clinical practice. 

By the end of this module you will:  

• Have an understanding of clinical functional neuroanatomy
• Have a basic overview of diagnostic imaging modalities for neurological disorders
• Have a basic understanding of diagnostic testing for neuromuscular disorders
• Have a basic understanding of common large animal neurologic disorders
• Have been presented with a high-level review of common neurologic syndromes in small animals

PLATINUM SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSORS

SILVER SPONSOR

Monica Aleman, MVZ Cert., PhD, DACVIM (LAIM & Neurology) Terry Holliday Equine and Comparative Neurology Endowed Presidential Chair University of California, Davis 

Silke Hecht, Dr. med. vet., DACVR, DECVDI Professor University of Tennessee Dr. Silke Hecht received her veterinary degree in 1998 and her Doctorate (Dr. med. vet.) in 2001 both from LudwigMaximilians-University in Munich, Germany. She completed her residency in Diagnostic Imaging at Tufts University in 2005. She is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Radiology (ACVR) and the European College of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging (ECVDI). Dr. Hecht is currently a Professor of Radiology at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. She is also a consultant for VetCT. Her areas of interest include MRI, neuroimaging, and oncologic imaging. She has published more than 90 peer reviewed publications and 25 book chapters. She is also the Editor of a Textbook on Veterinary Radiology. 

Amy Johnson, DVM, DACVIM (LAIM & Neurology) Associate Professor University of Pennsylvania Dr. Amy L. Johnson, DVM, DACVIM (LAIM & Neurology) is currently an associate professor of large animal medicine and neurology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center. She received her DVM from Cornell University and completed an equine internship at B.W. Furlong and Associates in New Jersey. She became board-certified in large animal internal medicine after completing a residency at Cornell University, and she subsequently became board-certified in neurology after completing a residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Johnson has been at Penn Vet for 15 years and was appointed to the faculty in 2011. Dr. Johnson’s research interests focus on improving the ability to diagnose the cause of neurologic disease in horses using clinical examination, laboratory testing, and advanced imaging techniques. 

Chris Mariani, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Neurology) Professor North Carolina State University Chris Mariani is a Professor of Neurology & Neurosurgery in the Department of Clinical Sciences at North Carolina State University. He was born near Toronto, Ontario, and graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph in 1996. He completed a rotating small animal internship at Michigan Veterinary Specialists, followed by one year as an associate veterinarian in Beverly Hills, Michigan. After this he began a residency in neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. This was followed by graduate work in brain tumor immunotherapy, leading to a PhD in Neuroscience from the College of Medicine, also at the University of Florida. Chris’ professional interests include neuroimmunology, inflammatory brain disease, brain tumors, epilepsy and the use of biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and therapy of these conditions. He currently directs the Comparative Neuroimmunology and Neuro-oncology Laboratory at NC State. 

Kaspar Matiasek, DVM, DrMedVetHabil Professor Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich Kaspar Matiasek is an expert in neuromorphology, CSF and tissue diagnostics of neurological and neuromuscular disorders. Since 2007 he heads diagnostic neuropathology laboratories in UK and Germany and receives samples form neurology specialists worldwide. Kaspar Matiasek is engaged in college activities and trains neurology and pathology interns, externs and residents in weekly case discussions, mortality and morbidity rounds, in online courses and workshops like the European Brain Camp and Barcelona Courses on Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy. 

Dennis O’Brien, DVM, PhD Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri Adjunct Professor, University of Alaska-Fairbanks Dr. Dennis O’Brien is Professor Emeritus in Comparative Neurology at the University of Missouri and Adjunct Professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. He received his DVM degree from the University of Illinois. After 3 years in general practice, he returned to the University of Illinois to complete a residency in neurology and a PhD in neuroscience. He is board certified in neurology by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the recipient of their Kirk Award for Professional Excellence. His research focused on hereditary and acquired diseases of the nervous system including epilepsy, movement disorders, developmental disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. 

George Strain, PhD Professor Louisiana State University Dr. George M. Strain is Professor of Neuroscience at Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. BS in electrical engineering (Illinois), MS in biomedical engineering, and PhD in physiology and biomedical engineering (Iowa State), followed by postdoctoral training in neurophysiology and neurology at the UCLA School of Medicine. He has provided electrodiagnostic services in the teaching hospital for 44 years, has published extensively on electrodiagnostic testing, deafness, epilepsy, and other areas of veterinary neurology, and is the author of Deafness in Dogs and Cats. His current research emphasis is on the molecular genetics of pigment-associated deafness in dogs. 

Chris Thomson, BVSc(Hons), DACVIM (Neurology), DECVN, PhD Neurologist Animal Referral Hospital Brisbane Dr. Thomson graduated from University of Melbourne, and completed their neurology residency at North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine, USA, and a PhD in neuroscience at University of Glasgow, UK. Dr. Thomson has worked at Melbourne, Glasgow, and Massey Universities, and latterly, in the Veterinary Medicine Department at University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Dr. Thomson recently swapped Alaska’s -30 deg C for +30 deg C in Brisbane, Australia and is now working in private referral practice at the Animal Referral Hospital. Along with their colleague, Dr. Caroline Hahn, Dr. Thomson has distilled decades of study and teaching about clinical neuroanatomy and neurological localization into ‘Veterinary Neuroanatomy: a Clinical Approach (Elsevier 2012). 

Colette Williams, PhD EDX Consultant University of California, Davis Colette Williams has spent four decades performing and teaching electrodiagnostics (EDX), including: EMG, MNCV/SNCV, REP STIM, late waves, BAER, EEG, and SEP. Colette has contributed an EEG chapter to Blackwell’s Five-Minute Veterinary Consult and co-authored EDX chapters in Tobias’s Veterinary Surgery: Small Animal and Ettinger’s Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She also has over 40 publications and is a reviewer for several journals. Colette consults for numerous universities and specialty practices. Her mission is to encourage the use of these techniques in veterinary medicine and to raise the standards to the level of those in human medicine. 

Matt Winter, DVM, DACVR Vice President VetCT USA