International Society of Veterinary Specialists
A community for veterinary specialists, wherever you practise
ISVS brings together specialists, residents and specialist nurses who work or teach internationally. Members share cases, swap resources and help each other grow in their specialty. Joining is free.
The society
A community of specialists
Free membership for board-certified specialists, residents and specialist nurses. Case discussion, journal club, a shared library and standing rounds, in a closed member area.
For those training in India
Specialty training in India
What a specialist is, how formal training is structured, and who teaches it. Places are offered through partner institutions only.
For those who teach
Teach, mentor, build
Paid opportunities for specialists who want to teach or help establish a training programme, and a record of what is being built.
Why ISVS exists
Many specialists are the only one of their kind for hundreds of miles.
You might be the one surgeon in your hospital, the only criticalist in your city, or a specialist who moved abroad and left your old colleagues behind. When a case doesn’t add up, there’s nobody down the corridor to ask.
ISVS is a place to find those colleagues again. It’s run by specialists, for specialists, and it works because members give a little of what they know and get a lot back.
What’s inside
What members do together
Everything happens in the ISVS member area. You can take part as much or as little as your week allows.
01
Case discussions and second opinions
Post a case you’re working through and hear how specialists in other countries would approach it. Cases are shared with identifying details removed.
02
Shared resource library
Protocols, drug charts, lecture slides, client handouts and useful papers, uploaded by members and organised by specialty.
03
Journal club
A paper is picked, members read it, and then talk it through online. A good way to keep up with the literature when you don’t have a department around you.
04
Specialty groups
Smaller spaces for each discipline, so the conversation stays relevant to your work: emergency and critical care, surgery, diagnostic imaging, internal medicine and anaesthesia.
05
Member directory
Find a specialist by country and discipline. Useful for referrals, a quick question, or saying hello before a conference.
06
Teaching, research and collaboration
Invitations to lecture, run workshops or supervise residents, and co-authors and pooled cases for multicentre studies.
Who it’s for
Three kinds of members, one shared interest
Board-certified specialists
Diplomates of any recognised college, whether you work in private referral, a university, or on your own.
Residents
Specialists in training who want more cases, more reading partners and people who have sat the exam before them.
Specialist nurses and technicians
VTS-certified and specialist-trained nurses and technicians, who are part of every case discussion and every group.
How we look after each other
A few simple house rules
ISVS only works if people feel safe asking questions. These keep it that way.
01
There are no silly questions
Everyone here was a resident once. Answer the way you’d want to be answered.
02
Protect patients and clients
Remove names, clinic details and anything that identifies an owner before you post.
03
Credit people’s work
If you use a member’s protocol or slides, say where it came from.
04
Practice differs between countries
Drugs, equipment and budgets vary. Ask about someone’s setting before telling them what to do.
Questions
Common questions
Yes. There is no membership fee. ISVS is run by volunteers who wanted this kind of community for themselves.
Board-certified specialists, residents in a recognised training programme, and specialist nurses and technicians. If you are working towards a residency, get in touch and we will talk it through.
In the ISVS member area, which works in a browser on your phone or computer. Journal club and rounds take place on video inside the member area. Rounds are not recorded.
Yes, as long as you remove anything that identifies the owner, the patient or your clinic. Discussions stay inside the member area.
As much as you want to give. Some members drop in once a month for journal club, others answer case questions most days.
Very much so. Many members are the only specialist in their hospital or country, and ISVS was started with them in mind.
Monthly
The ISVS letter
A monthly email with an interesting case from the community, the next journal club paper and new resources in the library.
Join ISVS
Membership is free. Tell us a little about yourself and we’ll send your login to the member area, usually within two working days.
We check each application so the community stays made up of specialists, residents and specialist nurses.