The veterinarians of drip.vet are addressing both the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nation’s opioid crisis.

On March 30, 2020, Drip Learning Technologies, LLC (also known as drip.vet) presented a live, interactive webinar for 150 veterinarians across the nation. The topic at hand was the use and prescribing of opioids. Participating veterinarians gained significant knowledge about how they can help be part of the solution to the opioid crisis. Opioids are responsible for more than170 deaths per day in the United States and veterinarians are learning how best to do their part in stemming this crisis while also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Veterinarians in particular need to be prepared for the future due to COVID-19 resulting in new challenges in handling the opioid crisis.

The webinar featured multiple presenters including: Lance Roasa, DVM, MS, JD; Drew Olson, DVM; and Christopher Byers, DVM. Presenters answered questions from participants in real-time. Although the topic is deadly serious, the presenters kept the webinar entertaining in addition to being enlightening.

Participants earned 3 hours of RACE-approved continuing education credit. It is significant that drip.vet delivered the continuing education credits online in lieu of a seminar with live, in-person participants, which as we all know is not possible in these times.

“The traditional large conferences used by veterinary professionals to get CE credits have been eliminated because of social-distancing restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Roasa, a co-founder of drip.vet.

Drip.vet delivers online courses to more than 1,600 veterinary students and practitioners on the topics of medical record-keeping, law and ethics, diagnosing and treating endocrine disorders in small animals, financial literacy, and business-related subjects. The financial literacy course in particular is delivered to veterinary students free of  charge. That course is released to students as a not-for-profit means of giving back to the veterinary industry by Drs. Roasa and Olson.

“Drip.vet, with its various online continuing education offerings, is positioned to fill the gap created by the sudden cancellations of meetings where veterinarians and veterinary technicians typically get continuing education,” said Dr. Olson, a co-founder of drip.vet.

“Ever since graduating, I have felt the historical way of receiving CE is antiquated and never resulted in walking-around learned knowledge. Subsequently, we have confirmed this with pedagogical experts. Obviously, the COVID-19 crisis is terrible, but I feel drip.vet has been working on CE and learning in the ‘new normal’ for over three years. This is basically why we created drip.vet,” Dr. Olson said.

A stand-alone online course covering opioid use and prescribing is currently being produced that will be available to all veterinarians in Summer 2020. While COVID-19 has put a hold on all conferences, the opioid crisis is not on hold, in fact it is getting worse.  Working with state veterinary boards to gain course approval and partnering with state and local veterinary medical associations to deliver the materials, drip.vet is ready to help tackle this important issue.