IDEXX: Empowering Veterinary Professionals Through Continuing Education

IDEXX Laboratories, a leader in pet healthcare innovation, recognizes the critical role that ongoing education plays in the veterinary profession. Through the IDEXX Learning Center and various partnerships, IDEXX is committed to providing accessible, high-quality continuing education (CE) opportunities to veterinary professionals worldwide. These initiatives aim to keep veterinary teams at the forefront of medical advancements, improve practice efficiency, and ultimately enhance patient care.

The IDEXX Learning Center: A Cornerstone of Veterinary Education

Since its inception in 2007, the IDEXX Learning Center has awarded over 800,000 CE credits free of charge, representing a $30 million contribution to the veterinary profession based on the cost of similar educational offerings. This online platform serves as a comprehensive resource for veterinary professionals seeking to stay informed about rapidly evolving medicine and technology.

"The IDEXX Learning Center's contribution to the industry is unparalleled," said Julie Legred, executive director of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America.

Wide Range of Topics

The IDEXX Learning Center provides CE on a wide range of topics important in veterinary practice, from how to talk to customers to endocrinology to financial management. As part of an ongoing commitment to help veterinary practices grow professionally and financially, the IDEXX Learning Center continually introduces new and relevant CE content. Examples include:

Advances in Early Diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease and Implications for Disease Management.
Parasites Lost: Fecal Antigen Testing and the Identification of Parasitic Infections.
Pulmonary Hypertension in Veterinary Medicine.

Addressing the Need for Accessible Education

Traditional CE accredited events can cost up to $500 per course. The IDEXX Learning Center distinguishes itself by offering all of its resources without charge, making quality education accessible to a wider range of veterinary professionals.

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Keeping Pace with Advancements

"Medical and practice technology is constantly evolving, changing and improving in veterinary medicine. The IDEXX Learning Center helps support the profession by providing veterinary staff the ongoing education required to keep pace and provide an extraordinary level of care to their patients and clients," said Jonathan W. Ayers, chief executive officer, IDEXX Laboratories.

Expanding Educational Reach Through University Programs

IDEXX's engagement in the veterinary learning journey begins with university connections. Established in 2017, IDEXX’s University Education Programs augment and complement veterinary program curricula at more than 20 universities in North America.

Preparing Students for Success

“Our focus is to provide hands-on experience with diagnostics and software tools to prepare students for Day One Competencies,” says Stephanie Thompson, DVM, IDEXX Regional Medical Affairs and Outreach Manager for the Americas. Students learn from IDEXX DVMs and specialists through symposia sessions on topics including preventive care and renal health. They gain firsthand experience with the latest IDEXX innovations by running samples on in-house diagnostic analyzers and SNAP Tests, along with viewing diagnostic results with support from tools like IDEXX’s VetConnect PLUS and IDEXX DecisionIQ.

"Students begin to understand the value industry partners bring into practice as educational resources, not only as sales organizations. Our educational offerings truly deliver an experience they wouldn't have otherwise. Faculty also benefit from IDEXX University Education programming.

Supporting Specialists Through Innovative Programs

Specialists deliver dedicated expertise to support the work of veterinarians in general practice. Much like the capacity challenges faced in general practice, specialty fields are also constrained by growing caseloads and a decline in specialists to address them. A traditional specialist education track includes completing a veterinary degree, an internship, and a three-year residency program.

Addressing the Residency Shortage

“Residents pursuing a specialty are experiencing declining program opportunities. As caseload demands continue to increase, training opportunities are declining as the need to attend to patient care supersedes specialists’ ability to develop and provide required didactic study to residents,” shares Rebekah Mack, DVM, DACVIM-SAIM, Senior Manager, Global Medical Education Development and Delivery at IDEXX.

Springboard: An Academic Support Program

With this challenge in mind, Dr. Mack led the charge to develop a rigorous academic support program to aid busy house officers, residency coordinators, and the clinicians responsible for training and producing more residents in achieving their mission. Springboard, developed, delivered, and supported through a partnership between IDEXX and VetBloom, launched in June of 2023. This innovative program delivers the specific, advanced education residents require to be successful in pursuit of their chosen specialty, at no cost to the resident. The first educational unit, available now, delivers renal and urinary physiology content through self-directed, interactive online learning modules paired with live, case-based discussion opportunities and assessments to reinforce learning.

According to Dr. Mack, “Springboard delivers on the IDEXX and VetBloom commitment to the professional careers of veterinarians.

Diverse Learning Options for Veterinary Teams

Veterinary team members at any career stage may be required to maintain their professional credentials through continuing education requirements. In addition to fulfilling requirements, ongoing education also offers the opportunity to learn about new clinical developments in the veterinary profession, new tools, and new ways of engaging with fellow team members and pet families.

Webinars: A Popular and Accessible Format

Webinars are a particularly popular learning option, drawing tens of thousands of webinar attendees globally each year. In addition to webinars delivered by IDEXX clinical experts, webinar series are offered in partnership with other veterinary professional organizations, such as the International Society of Feline Medicine or the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA). Like all IDEXX Learning Center content, webinars are typically offered free of charge and are designed to appeal to a wide range of experience and education levels. The webinar format allows IDEXX to respond quickly to current issues practitioners are facing, such as a surge in infectious disease in a particular geographic region.

Practical and Immediately Applicable Content

“At IDEXX, we put a big emphasis on ensuring that our educational offerings can be used right away. What will help a vet in practice the very next day? What do they need to learn to implement it and enact change in their practice immediately?

Conference Education: Addressing Current Needs

Professional conferences also serve as a common path to accessing continuing education. “One of the things we look at when developing content for our conference education is, ‘What are practitioners asking about right now?’ We get input from the most common questions asked of our Medical Consulting Service team and of our Professional Service Veterinarians who visit practices nearly every day,” says Conway.

Additional Resources for Continuing Education

Beyond the IDEXX Learning Center, a variety of organizations and platforms offer valuable CE opportunities for veterinary professionals.

Partners For Healthy Pets: The Preventive Healthcare Certificate Program is a FREE online 10-module course that provides veterinary students, along with technicians, associate veterinarians and practice owners, information on how to provide preventive healthcare in conjunction with yearly visits. Upon completion, participants will be able to download a RACE approved and CVPM approved certificate for 9.0 CE credits.
YuMOVE Advance 360: Reducing Pain in Animals Through Mobility ManagementRACE-approved 1.5 CE credit course will educate veterinary teams on how to help manage and monitor the mobility of their canine patients with OA. Led by Robin Downing, DVM, MS DAAPM, DACVSMR.
Mobility Matters: Nutritional Management of Joint Disease: The five 0.5 CE credit, RACE-approved CE courses are designed to educate veterinary healthcare teams on how to get patients with OA moving again. This series will review the states of OA, the veterinary team's role, nutrition as a management tool in joint disease, along with a multimodal approach to Osteoarthritis. Led by Kara M. Burns, MS, MEd, LVT, VTS (Nutrition), VTS-H (IM, D).
SonoPath: Members can join our new online education platform. It’s free to join, they can access additional virtual courses and network with others who love all things ultrasound.
Assisi Animal Health: Assisi Animal Health is honored to offer free live CE webinars from some of the greatest minds in the industry. Topics run thegamet from pain to inflammation to opiods to behavior topics to felines. Be sure to check out the growing list of live webinars.We offer classes each week during the day and in the evening.
Vet Show Academy: Using Vet Show Academy, you will gain access to hundreds of courses from previous Vet Shows around the world. That includes educational CE, inspirational speakers with practical knowledge and plenty of topics to choose from that are all accessible from your home or practice! regularly offers free online CE. Use the password “Nutra” for the veterinary technician specific presentations.
Hill's Pet Nutrition: 40+ hours of free RACE CE, compliments of Hill's Pet Nutrition
Royal Canin: Royal Canin will be broadcasting free live virtual continuing education webinars. The topics and times will vary each week andwill be adapted in the future, based on content and times that are in the most demand.
VetBloom: Rooted in the training needs of a specialty and emergency veterinary group in New England and using industry experts, VetBloom has developed a variety of curricula, Continuing Education, and skill protocols that have, in turn, effectively contributed to the growth of a wide audience of veterinary professionals.
VetCheck: VetCheck is a time-saving client communication platform designed for busy veterinary teams. With over 1400 beautiful templates, videos and diagrams, VetCheck has you covered when it comes to client education, treatment plans and discharge instructions to increase compliance and improve patient outcomes. Simply share targeted content to individual pet owners straight to their mobile phone, on social media, in newsletters or automate through your practice management and online appointment systems.
Learn with VetCove: Learn with Vetcove CE offers free, on-demand, RACE approved modules to turn you into the inventory master of your clinic! The modules span various topics in inventory covering everything from inventory basics to optimizing profit.
NCSU CVM: NCSU CVM offers many programs throughout the year with CVME opportunities for veterinarians and veterinary technicians.
Support4Support: Who helps the healer? Veterinary medicine is a demanding field and support staff face a variety of challenges what sometimes only another colleague can understand. Support4Support is a group of veterinary technicians supporting veterinary technicians. Provides on-demand training that is real, useful and never boring. For less than $30/month, your entire team can have unlimited access to engaging and useful HD videos, RACE approved lectures, articles and blogs featuring practicing veterinary professionals at DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital.
American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA): Established in 1933 by leaders in the veterinary profession, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) is best known for its accreditation of companion animal practices, but AAHA also provides a variety of educational programs and resources designed to help practices grow and thrive. Its team-focused philosophy allows AAHA to offer educational benefits for every hospital team member, from free workshops and web conferences to distance learning opportunities and practice management seminars.
NAVTA Events Calendar: Other CE events can be found on the NAVTA Events Calendar. Members can add events to the calendar at anytime.

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