What Certification Represents

The founders of the ABVP felt that all specialty boards should exist for the benefit of the patient and the public. By raising the quality of veterinary service available to the public and the veterinary patient there has been even greater utilization of discipline specialists such as surgeons and ophthalmologists.

ABVP certifies practitioners with exceptional knowledge, skill and competency in the care of the "total patient". Referrals were never the goal of the founders. Rather it was self- improvement of individual veterinary clinicians and then through the process of recertification, the maintenance of competency.

ABVP Diplomates are certified in Clinical Practice for the species in which the certification was granted. Clinical Practice as it pertains to veterinarians is the art and science of applying medical knowledge to animals for their care and the alleviation and prevention of their diseases.

Most veterinarians who are performing broad based clinical practice are not board certified. So how do ABVP Diplomates differ from them and how do discipline specialists differ from a non-boarded veterinary practitioner who may limit their practice or claim to have a special interest or expertise in a certain discipline ?

The answer to both is in the depth of knowledge and competency in their field and the level of veterinary service the board certified veterinarians are able to provide and the fact that they have demonstrated this by completing the certification process by a recognized specialty organization.

The ABVP board certified veterinarian has demonstrated by the certification process that they are capable of providing a level of clinical practice that is clearly superior to the norm of the profession. It is the goal of the ABVP that practitioners who excel in the art and science of clinical practice would seek certification.