Veterinary Vertex
Veterinary Vertex is a weekly podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the clinical and research discoveries published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) and the American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR). Tune in to learn about cutting-edge veterinary research and gain in-depth insights you won’t find anywhere else. Come away with knowledge you can put to use in your own practice – along with a healthy dose of inspiration to remind you what you love about veterinary medicine.
Veterinary Vertex
Trailblazer in Veterinary Research: A Conversation with Journal Award Winner Shirley Kot
Join us in celebrating the triumph of our AJVR Journal Award winner, Shirley Kot, as she takes the center stage in this episode of Veterinary Vertex. Shirley is blazing a trail in the research realm, all the way from Hong Kong. Hear her recount the electrifying moment of her win and express her heartfelt gratitude to her mentors and the selection committee. Get ready, because this episode is a peek into the journey that led to her incredible achievement.
Turning the page to the next chapter, Shirley unravels the impact of the award on her career path. Her story is a testament to the power of recognition and its ability to build confidence and fuel passion. Balancing her role as a clinician in Hong Kong and a research affiliate of UC Davis, she highlights the significance of staying in stride with the latest research trends. Listen closely as she shares her words of wisdom for aspiring veterinary residents planning to publish manuscripts and underlines the paramount importance of understanding one's motivations for research involvement. This is an episode you don't want to miss!
Full article: https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.22.03.0043
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You are listening to Veterinary Vertex, a podcast of the AVMA journals. In this episode we chat with one of our Journal Award winners, shirley Cot.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Veterinary Vertex. I'm Editor-in-Chief Lisa Fortier. I'm joined by Associate Editor Sarah Wright. Today we have Shirley joining us, and it's 4 AM in Hong Kong, so thank you, Shirley, so much for getting up before your busy workday and being with us here today. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Hello everybody, I'm Shirley, nice chatting with you all, all right, let's dive right in.
Speaker 1:Shirley, you are a resident award winner for your HAVR article Biomechanical Evaluation of Locking versus Non-Locking. 2.0 millimeter malleable L-Mini-flate Fixation of Simulated Caudal Mandibular Fractures in Cats. What was your reaction when you found out that you were nominated and then when you found out you had won? So when you found out you were nominated, what was your original reaction?
Speaker 3:Well, I felt very, very honored and glad that I got nominated for the award. Getting a research published is not easy, and then publishing in a journal with high impact factor like AJVR is a great accomplishment. And now receiving the award just brings another highlight. And I remember I was working in the laboratory practicing on some procedures for upcoming surgeries, and then there came my supervisor, Boz RZ, and then she showed with me that oh, you got the award and I was so delighted and excited.
Speaker 3:And the same research indeed won the Outstanding Small Animal Research Study Award at UC Davis Health Officer Research Symbolsium a few months ago. And it's just a solid piece of evidence that the research itself and the team effort got recognized at a national level. And I'm very, very grateful that I received unfailing guidance and support from my supervisor and also my mentors in the project, who are all the giants as well as the experts in the field. And of course, I'm very, very thankful to the selection committee that I was granted the award. It means a lot and also brings encouragement to young researchers like me.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic, shirley. Congratulations again. I didn't know about your Davis Award as well, so dual congratulations, Thank you. We were so excited to implement this initiative for journal awards in JAVMA and AJVR to recognize and encourage, as you just said, growing clinicians and researchers. For you specifically, how is winning this award affected your outlook on your career path?
Speaker 3:Well winning the award itself. It gives me confidence to conduct impactful research and it definitely further strengthens me to dedicate to scientific exploration and to bring advancement to the field. And it just makes me realize I love research, I really like it. And also, this journal award brings credibility and open store to new opportunities. So now I'm currently practicing as a clinician in Hong Kong, but I remain as a research affiliate of UC Davis. So these two positions. It allows me to practice evidence-based medicine every day and be on top of most of the updated research and conduct research for collaboration with scholars. And besides, the award provides recognition from my peers and colleagues. This is evident by the fact that I was selected as the American Veterinary Dental College, the AVDC, outstanding Candidate this year, with one of the selection criteria based on publications as well as the research. So to conclude, winning this award, it brings a lot of positive impacts to my career path and again I'm very, very grateful and honored to be one of the award winners.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, too, on your American Veterinary Dental College Award. Look at you, you're sleeping in the award circuit this year.
Speaker 3:Well, all started with the AJVR Journal Award. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, we're happy to hear that. We're hoping that these awards do help to propel young clinicians and researchers along their career paths. So that's great to hear, thank you. And then, as someone who just graduated a couple of years ago, I can relate to the many amazing career paths in our veterinary profession. What advice would you share with veterinary residents that are hoping to publish manuscripts?
Speaker 3:Well, I do have several pieces of advice to share, so I'll go by one by one. So first is ask yourself, why. So why are you involved with the research project? So one needs to know the reason you want to publish and be a personal driver, so that one can have a basic point. Conducting research is not easy and can be challenging. We all know about it, especially during residency. Well, how packed the residency schedule can be like, we all know. So by reminding oneself of the reason and staying focused, you'll be amazed how far those can lead you to.
Speaker 3:Second, read more articles and discuss them during the journal cups will definitely help the fundamental research skills and, most importantly, critically analyzing them so that you gain the critical epistle skills. So one, the skills are required are acquired. The resident should be able to review his or her own research to determine his usefulness and applicability and also the readiness for publication. Third, appreciate the value of quality mentoring. So I'm very, very fortunate to have numerous experts in the field as my mentors, and mentors should be able to build a man's capacity by sharing their skills, the knowledge as well as their experience, which are all invaluable. And a good mentoring relationship supports a strong research team improve the work efficiency as well as enhance the productivity. So therefore, if you do not have a mentor, find one. That said mentees. They have the responsibility to perform the research activities and then seek feedbacks on the performance and be willing to take criticism. So these are all the advice that I have for the future residents who want to publish articles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, shirley. All really really good points. One thing I would also add to that that I can clearly hear in your voice and I know your mentors, so it's passion. You clearly have a passion for research, and not just research our profession and helping make our patients better.
Speaker 3:Of course I kind of agree with that many more. Very true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, congratulations again. And as we wind down, we like to ask one of our most favorite little bit of a personal question Shirley, what is the oldest or the most interesting item in your desk drawer?
Speaker 3:Well, what a question. So I have a travel bear, very, very tiny little teddy bear that basically has been with me for more than 20 years. So that is the most interesting and literally the piece of toys, it's piece of something that I share with everybody. My mentors, boas, frank, they all know this bear because I bring this bear all around the world In Australia, in Canada, in the States. I would basically, I would say everybody in Davis know about this bear as well because basically I took pictures of it in front of Davis, the VMTH hospital, and then it was with me all the time. So it's just a little me and then remind myself that, yep, I like bear, I like animals, and that's the reason, one of the reasons why I'm studying veterinary medicine and be part of it.
Speaker 1:Very cool. You ever heard of flat Stanley?
Speaker 2:No, what is it? I see Lisa knew what I thought of Sarah, who was like that's flat Stanley for Hong Kong.
Speaker 1:I think it's based off of book. Is that correct me so?
Speaker 3:it is Okay, I need to read something like more about that, but thanks for letting me know Flat Stanley.
Speaker 2:Kids get in about first or second grade and it's a way to teach them about geography. So it's literally like a paper doll. Okay, you send it to one of your aunts or a niece or a cousin or a friend or somebody, and that flat Stanley doll then, whoever you send it to like, if you sent me your flat Stanley, I would take it up to the barn and take a picture with it. I'd take it to a hockey game and take a picture, and so you learn about the local geography of someplace. And sometimes they fly with a flat Stanley. It's actually really it sounds very similar to your bear Interesting.
Speaker 3:Good to know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really fun, but it's nice to have like a monto too that we can take with us on our travels and just really shows us to how far we've come. So that's pretty special.
Speaker 3:Exactly so, just like there was a time I was traveling in Yellowstone and then there was a sign saying watch out for bears, and then I just like literally brought up my bear. I always travel with one, it's okay.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I was living in Vancouver, british Columbia, for a year and during bear season I try to take some of my friends hiking and all the trails I wanted to go to were closed because of bears, so I didn't have a little bear with me, but I sure saw the signs and we saw two bears on the highway, which was very interesting and also very terrifying at the same time. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 1:And just thank you again, Shirley, for being here with us on the podcast and for submitting your manuscript to AJVR and for being an incredible award winner. We look forward to seeing how your career progresses.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, Lisa and Sarah, for inviting me to join the podcast. Really enjoy chatting with you too.
Speaker 1:And congratulations to all of our Journal Award winners. To our listeners, if you have a student, intern or resident author who is an author and Japhma or AJVR and you like to nominate them, nominate them today. Please see our website for further instructions. You can read Shirley's manuscript and AJVR on our journal's website. I'm Sarah Wright, joined by Lisa40A. We wanna thank each of you for joining us on this episode of the Veterinary Vertex Podcast. We love sharing cutting edge veterinary research with you and we wanna hear from you. Be sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen to. We'll see you next week on phone.
