In response to growing demands for veterinarians with public health experience, Iowa State has collaborated with the University of Iowa to become one of the few universities to offer veterinary students concurrent doctor of veterinary medicine and master’s of public health degrees.

“There are only three schools in the country where you can get the two degrees in four years,” said Radford Davis, assistant professor of veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine.

The idea for the dual degree arose when the Center for Food Security and Public Health wanted to hire veterinarians and agreed to pay them to earn their master’s in public health, said Davis, coordinator of the master’s program.

“There are veterinary medicine people in the state that are interested in public health, and there are relevant issues in public health that require veterinarians,” said Mary Aquilino, University of Iowa assistant dean and director of the master of public health program.

Once the veterinarians started taking classes, Iowa added more distance learning classes, Davis said. This allowed current veterinary students to start taking public health classes while still working toward their doctorate degrees.

“When you graduate with a vet degree, part of your obligation is to address public health,” he said. “The MPH focuses more on the human side of public health.”

Jean Gladon, junior in veterinary medicine, said she has been working toward her master’s degree for about a year and a half.

She is interested in infectious diseases and said a master’s will open doors for her career.

“Vets are uniquely qualified to help out in these areas,” Gladon said.

The master’s degree is from Iowa rather than Iowa State because Iowa has a college of public health.

“We don’t have the expertise in some of the fields,” Davis said. “All the credits you need to take to fulfill this degree are offered through distance learning.”

Davis said the distance learning is provided in several ways. Some courses are offered over the Iowa Communications Network or the Web, he said.

A popular method of taking classes is with Polycom, Davis said. Students interact with professors from Iowa through webcam, utilizing audio and video over the Internet.

“Right now, we have 12 of the concurrent DVM/MPH students,” Davis said.

The first person to graduate from the program will do so in the summer of 2005.

These students will be full-time students year-round for four years to complete both degrees, he said.

They begin taking classes for the master’s degree the summer after their first year of vet school. The first students started taking classes the summer of 2003, he said.

After their first year of vet school, students can take one class for their master’s each fall and spring semester for free, Davis said.

They pay tuition to Iowa for their summer courses.

“A few of the vet students have had financial aid paperwork problems,” Davis said.

He said it was hard to distinguish the two programs at two schools for financial aid.

Another problem some students face is not having their bachelor’s degree.

“U of I requires either a bachelor’s degree or 126 credits toward a bachelor’s degree,” Davis said.

Because some students get into vet school after only three years of undergraduate work, they don’t meet the requirements to get into the public health program. They must take more undergraduate courses before beginning the program, Davis said.