Veterinary entrepreneur with a passion for CE earns Next Gen award
Dr. Luba Gancheva, a veterinarian who founded both the online journal Vets on the Balkans and an educational exchange program that allows veterinarians to work in various clinics in the Balkans, has been named by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) and Hill's Pet Nutrition as the winner of the 2017 Next Generation Veterinary Award.
Dr. Gancheva received the award this week at the WSAVA World Congress 2017 in Copenhagen.
"Millennial vets carry the future of the profession with them,” said Dr. Jolle Kirpensteijn, Chief Professional Relations Officer at Hill's Pet Nutrition. “Luba has demonstrated a strong commitment to improving the experiences and education of early-career veterinarians. She has also taken positive steps to connect these next-generation professionals with ones who are already established in the field.”
The Next Generation award acknowledges the work of a veterinarian who graduated within the past 10 years and has contributed significantly to the betterment of companion animals, the veterinary profession and society at large.
Dr. Gancheva said: “I would like to express my gratitude for the award. It is the biggest honour of my life and I am excited to be part of WSAVA World Congress this year. During my lecture, I will present clinical reports from my journal from each country in the Balkans to show that, while we may have
economic difficulties, our passion for knowledge and love for animals give us strength. When you cure an animal, you change the world for someone, so veterinarians change the world.”
Dr. Gancheva, a native of Bulgaria, currently lives and works in Romania. She graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Forestry in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2010 and worked in a small animal practice in the city for five years. She received a master of science in infectious diseases from Triaka University in Bulgaria. She then enrolled in the doctoral program at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest. She now lives in Bucharest, where she works at the Cabinet Filip Veterinarul animal hospital.
Her doctoral thesis, entitled ‘Clinical Manifestation of Brucellosis in Dogs, caused by Brucella Canis,’ was based on a study she conducted on the incidence of this disease in the Balkans. Because of her thesis, Dr. Gancheva was invited to speak at two congresses in the Balkans, where she realized how enthusiastic her colleagues in the region were to continue their professional development.
“When I visited for the first time Romanian annual congress as a speaker, I was impressed. So close to my country has another one huge veterinary world and nobody from Bulgaria knows about it. It makes me start thinking about our region and how nice would be if we know each other. If we have the opportunity to share our knowledge and to exchange our experience. Then I created the page in Facebook “Vets on the Balkans” and I am more than happy it became veterinary journal with wonderful team from the Balkans,” Gancheva wrote in her profile on Vets on the Balkans.
Vets on the Balkans, launched in 2015, has presented more than 90 cases and built partnerships with key companion animal veterinary associations in the region.
In 2016, Dr. Gancheva launched Learn and Travel with Vets in The Balkans, a program that enables veterinarians work in clinics in nearby countries. The first placements were made in 2017, supported through sponsorships and donations from 12 participating practices in Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Belgium, Italy, and Croatia.
The Balkan Peninsula extends from Central Europe to the Mediterranean Sea and includes the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and the European part of Turkey.
“Tackling the inequality of education and resources available to veterinarians depending on where in the world they are working is one of the key challenges facing the profession,” said Dr. Käthi Brunner, chair of the WSAVA’s Leadership and Nomination Committee. “Dr. Gancheva has taken some very practical steps to support the development of the profession in the Balkans, both through launching the journal and through the new “Learn and Travel” scheme. We congratulate her and hope that both of these initiatives continue to prove successful. She is a great example of a Next Generation veterinarian who is showing a very personal commitment to raising standards of veterinary care.”
Read a case from Vets on the Balkans: http://balkanvets.com/index.php/clinical-cases/
See notes from a veterinarian participating in Learn and Travel program: http://balkanvets.com/index.php/2017/09/05/learn-and-travel-stories-from-the-vets-dr-florin-cristian-delureanu-at-clinica-veterinaria-lago-maggiore/
Source: Press release from WSAVA
Photo Credit: balkanvets.com