From the Nominator

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Animal Health Topics website was created as a way to link animal owners and caretakers with UC Davis experts to provide the most advanced and up-to-date information about a variety of common health subjects of concern for pets and livestock. The ultimate goal is to be the “Mayo Clinic” of veterinary medicine—an online source where people can confidently access the most up-to-date information for their pets’ health and welfare.

Entries range from behavior issues to infectious diseases and are the result of collaborative efforts with UC Davis experts. Entries are linked to UC Davis departments that can provide additional information and services. 

The original site needed a new look, updated content, and search optimization. A new site was created in June 2019 to address these needs. Existing content was updated and new images added. In 2020, efforts focused on adding new content to the database. 

Forty-eight new entries were added in 2020, for a year-end total of 177 health topic entries across five categories (cats, dogs, horses, livestock, and exotics).

From the Judges

We viewed this communication improvement as brave and ambitious, with a sharply focused vision and a great skill of execution. The team that envisioned this communication improvement set an ambitious target and adeptly achieved it. They are to be commended for their great communication improvement. The requirement to have “world leading” faculty expertise at the level of the “Mayo Clinic” (as described in the submission) to deliver on such a communication improvement limits the potential for this project to serve as a model for many other institutions. However, those institutions with such faculty would be well advised to consider this model to effectively bring their knowledge and expertise to communities and audiences beyond their traditional stakeholder groups.