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Dr. Concannon graduated from the University of Missouri veterinary school in 1987. He followed this training with an internship at the University of Pennsylvania and then a residency in anesthesia and critical care at the University of California-Davis. He is board certified as a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiology. Since his residency he has held anesthesia faculty positions at the University of California and NCSU schools of veterinary medicine and a research position at Duke University Medical Center. He worked as a full-time emergency clinician for three years after VSH opened and is a founding partner in the hospital. Currently Dr. Concannon serves as the hospital director for the Cary facility. |
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Surgery
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Dr. Spodnick is a board certified surgeon who was one of the original veterinarians and founding partners at VSH. He earned his veterinary degree from Oklahoma State University in 1985. His work took him to Massachusetts where he practiced in a large general and specialty practice for three years. He completed a surgical residency program at Tufts University and then joined the faculty at the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine, where from 1991 to 1997, he worked first as a clinical instructor and then as an assistant professor of surgery. At VSH, he performs both general and orthopedic surgery and has special interest in oncologic and reconstructive surgery. Dr. Spodnick is the Chief of Surgery at VSH Cary. |
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Dr. Lee, a specialist in surgery, joined VSH in 1999. Dr. Lee graduated from veterinary school at the University of Tennessee and then completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Cornell University. He came to North Carolina to first complete an anesthesia and then surgical residency at the NCSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Lee works with all types of surgical patients including those with orthopedic, intestinal, oncologic, thoracic, and neurologic diseases. One of his primary interests is orthopedic disease and his goals involve expanding the range of techniques offered by VSH in this area. |
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Dr. Cindy Eward graduated in 1996 from the Ontario Veterinary College located in Guelph, Ontario. Her professors thought so well of her that she stayed an additional year to complete an internship in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery. She moved to Auburn, Alabama and to Auburn University for her surgical residency. Once again she stayed an additional year after the training program ended, and this time she filled an assistant professor position at the veterinary school. Prior to joining VSH in 2005 she worked in Vermont as a surgeon in private practice. Cindy's husband, Will, is a veterinarian and MD with a position at Duke University. In the recent past, they've worked with several VSH patients undergoing tumor resection to evaluate an imaging device being developed by physicians at Duke and engineers at M.I.T. In 2011-2012, she spent a year in Canada and worked at the Central Toronto Veterinary Referral Centre. |
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No stranger to VSH, Dr. Brian Trumpatori has returned to join the surgical team at VSH's Cary and North Raleigh locations. He previously worked at VSH on a rotation during his residency at NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine, where he also received his veterinary degree. Dr. Trumpatori completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Colorado State's Veterinary Medical Center. He also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in surgery at the Comparative Pain Research Laboratory and Department of Clinical Sciences at NCSU. Brian has advanced our wound care capabilities by introducing negative pressure wound therapy to VSH This is a new technique for the management of acute and chronic wounds which pose challenges to closure and healing. The therapy was developed in the early 1990’s to treat chronic, non-healing wounds such as diabetic ulcers, venous stasis ulcers and pressure sores in humans.
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Dr. Elaine Holmes received her veterinary degree from Michigan State where she also completed a general internship at Texas A&M before her surgical residency at the University of Pennsylvania. She obtained her certification and became a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Surgery in early 2012. She has a keen interest in progressing the capabilities of the surgical team and was integral in starting weekly rounds and discussions between the oncologists and surgeons as well as among the surgical specialists. Dr. Holmes has a particular interest and aptitude in minimally invasive surgery and has increased the number of patients we have helped through these techniques. Arthroscopic procedures are the main use for our minimally invasive equipment but we are also doing increasing numbers of laparoscopies. |
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Will Eward
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Dr. Will Eward is a rare individual who has a foot in both human and animal medicine possessing both DVM and MD degrees. He received his veterinary degree from Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2000 and followed that with an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, Ontario. After his internship, he returned to Auburn for a clinical fellowship in small animal sports medicine. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine in 2006. Will moved to North Carolina to complete a residency in orthopaedic surgery at Duke University and completed a clinical fellowship in musculoskeletal oncology at the University of Toronto in 2012. He is currently an assistant professor of orthopaedic oncology at the Duke Cancer Institute. Will's medical interests involve reconstructive surgery after tumor removal as well as comparative aspects of surgical oncology between humans and animals. He works part-time at VSH with the surgical and oncology teams to provide unique surgical treatments for our oncology patients. Will provides access to new techniques, equipment, and research studies which is unique to the profession. If his last name is familiar, it's because he is married to Cindy Eward, a long time surgeon at VSH.
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Oncology
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Dr. Waddle is one of a small group of veterinarians who hold board certification in two specialties. His specialties are oncology and internal medicine with greater than 95% of his caseload at VSH being oncology patients. Dr. Waddle graduated from The Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1981 and spent three years in private practice. He completed an internal medicine residency at The University of Pennsylvania in 1986 and then stayed on for seven years as a faculty member in oncology and internal medicine. In 1993 he came to North Carolina for a faculty position in oncology at the NCSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Waddle was in private practice in Durham before becoming one of the founders of VSH in 1997. He is the Hospital Director for the north Raleigh VSH location. |
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Dr. Ruslander’s primary specialty is radiation oncology, but he is board certified in medical oncology as well. Prior to joining VSH in 2004, Dr. Ruslander had worked primarily in an academic environment with many publications to his credit. He graduated with a veterinary degree from Cornell University in 1988 and started his career as an intern at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Canada. Dr. Ruslander developed an early interest in oncology and he completed a medical oncology residency at the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. He first came to North Carolina in 1992 as a Visiting Assistant Professor at NCSU in the medical oncology department. A desire for continued learning took him to the University of Zurich in Switzerland where he worked as an oncologist and received training in radiation oncology. Dr. Ruslander was on the faculty at Tufts from 1997 to 2000 and then at NCSU from 2000-2004 before joining VSH. Dr. Ruslander is a past president of the Veterinary Cancer Society.
To read the Tar Heel of the Week profile on Dr. Ruslander in the News & Observer as well as a client's letter in response click here.
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Dr. Angie Kozicki graduated from the Michigan State University College of veterinary medicine where she developed a passion for oncology. Due to a limited number of openings each year and a large number of applicants, oncology residency programs are very competitive. Dr. Kozicki dedicated herself to obtaining advanced training by first completing a general internship followed by an oncology internship with two different groups of specialists in Detroit, Michigan. A one year fellowship at the University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center preceded her acceptance to a residency program at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. She became certified by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine as a medical oncology specialist in June of 2008. Angie is involved with oncology studies through Animal Clinical Investigations, a clinical research organization. This relationship allows VSH to offer potentially promising, new treatments to our cancer patients.
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Karri Miller
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Dr. Karri Miller is a Florida native who attended the University of Florida for both her undergraduate and veterinary degree. As residencies have become more competitive through the years, many doctors are completing two years of internship training after veterinary school to increase the chances of getting into a residency program. Dr. Miller first went to the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine for a general internship and then to a private specialty practice outside Washington DC for an oncology internship. She returned to the University of Florida for a combined masters and residency program which she completed in 2009. Dr. Miller worked from 2009 to 2012 in two, small referral practices. Karri spent several weeks at VSH while a resident to gain exposure to radiation oncology and expressed great interest in returning to VSH to be part of a diversified group of specialists. Dr. Miller also consults with Lap of Love, a group of veterinarians across the country who operate mobile practices which provide home, hospice care.
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Critical Care
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Dr. Scott Wells joined VSH in October of 2007 to start a weekday critical care service. Scott is a 1999 graduate of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. He spent his first post-graduate year in a general practice before discovering his passion for emergency medicine. Four years of working at emergency hospitals made him realize that he wanted to take his training beyond what he could learn on his own. He decided to move to Boston to take a residency position at the New England Animal Medical Center. This three year residency in emergency and critical care was done under the supervision of critical care specialists and alongside specialists in internal medicine and surgery. The goal of weekday critical care service is to get patients into the hospital quickly and have greater flexibility in responding to the rapidly changing status of very sick animals. Dr. Wells is also the head of the internship program which has been in place since July of 2008. |
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Emergency/Critical Care Medicine
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Dr. Piner is a 2003 graduate of the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. She traveled to Portland, Oregon after graduation to pursue an internship at the Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital. Dove Lewis is a unique hospital offering 24 hour emergency and critical care services only. The facility is staffed by interns, emergency doctors, and critical care specialists with the specialists responsible for the overall quality of care and training of the interns. Kim joined VSH in July of 2004. |
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Dr. LoGuidice graduated from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2000. She then completed a one year internship in emergency and critical care at the Animal Emergency and Critical Care Center in Bridgewater, Mass. where she worked with specialists in the areas of critical care, surgery and internal medicine. Her interest and experience in critical care led to a staff position in emergency medicine at a specialty practice in Charlotte, NC and then to the Veterinary Specialty Hospital. Dr. LoGuidice has been with VSH since January of 2003 and currently serves as the Director of Emergency Services for our hospitals. |
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Dr. Leigh received her undergraduate degree from Florida State University and followed this with a veterinary degree from Purdue University. Dr. Leigh returned to Florida to complete an internship at Florida Veterinary Specialists (FVS) in Tampa. FVS is a large multi-specialty hospital and her internship rotations included emergency, surgery, and internal medicine. The interns at FVS work closely with criticalists and experienced emergency doctors while working in the emergency service. Sarah started working at VSH in December of 2005. |
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Amy Melendy
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Dr. Melendy is an experienced emergency doctor who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1994. Her experiences after graduation were varied with time spent at both general, academic, and emergency practices. She gained her emergency experience in Rhode Island working at two different hospitals over four years. She worked closely with veterinary specialists to manage the challenging cases associated with referral medicine. Dr. Melendy came to the Triangle area in 2001 and first worked part-time at VSH while pursuing a Masters degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is currently employed full-time at our Cary location.
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Christine Klippen
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Dr. Klippen obtained her veterinary degree from Colorado State University and had some unique medical experiences even before entering veterinary school. She has a BS in nursing and has worked as a nursing tutor and a registered nurse in a pediatric unit at a human hospital. Dr. Klippen has always had a strong interest in emergency medicine and comes to us from San Antonio, Texas where she worked at several locations of the Emergency Pet Centers. She rotated through their three locations which handle emergencies for a large area of south Texas and worked closely with daytime specialists.
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Dr. Allen graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Veterinary Medicine although she is a long time NC native. She grew up in Greensboro and Charlotte and completed her undergraduate degree at Duke University. Dr. Allen most recently completed a post-graduate internship program at the Virginia Tech College of Veterinary Medicine. We are happy to bring her back to NC as part of our ER team.
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