Veterinary medicine is part of a large and rapidly growing global animal health market. From delivering medical care to animals, to developing public policy and making biomedical discoveries, today’s veterinarians need business acumen to operate successfully in increasingly complex organizations and competitive business landscapes. The Center for Veterinary Business & Entrepreneurship offers students a variety of educational experiences including the new Certificate in Veterinary Business Management, designed to build competence in financial and organizational management skills; while activities like the Animal Health Hackathon give students an opportunity to practice problem solving and innovation under the mentorship of experienced professionals.

Certificate in Veterinary Business and Management

The Cornell CVBE's Certificate in Veterinary Business and Management resolves to recognize those CVM students who pursue a framework of professional development through advanced education within the veterinary business and management space. While CVBE distribution courses are available to all CVM students, those who complete specific educational requirements within defined Focus Areas (financial literacy, personal development, professional development, financial management, organizational management, and entrepreneurship) can qualify for consideration into the CVBE's Capstone Experience Project to pursue achievement of the Cornell CVBE Certificate in Veterinary Business and Management. The CVBE's certificate works synergistically with the student VBMA certificate, and our business-minded students are encouraged to pursue both.

Detailed information can be found within the Certificate in Veterinary Business and Management program details document. Students can track their progress through the Certificate Map and Schedule of Distribution Courses.

Cornell CVM News published an article announcing the Certificate launch on Nov. 1, 2022.

Animal Health Hackathon 

This CVM-sponsored annual event unites students, colleges and institutions to explore current trends and expanding new market opportunities in the animal health sector. Co-sponsored by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, the Cornell Animal Health Hackathon has student teams compete to devise innovative tech solutions to pressing animal health issues. Please take a look at our 2024 Animal Health Hackathon Annual Report for a more in-depth look at the three-day event. 

Curriculum

The Center for Veterinary Business & Entrepreneurship offers dedicated coursework for students interested in building their management and innovation skills.

VTMED 6749  Agile Innovation

The course focuses on the challenges and opportunities related to animal health entrepreneurship and innovation. Students gain a broader perspective of both the challenges (e.g., organizational and institutional) and opportunities (e.g., unmet customer needs and possibilities for future ventures) in this sector. Students learn and apply team innovation processes, business model innovation, design thinking, creativity management, product pitches, data analysis, critical thinking, and product innovation.

Offered: Spring - A Block; 1 credit
Instructors: Dr. Wesley Sine and Dr. Jorge Colón
Enrollment limited to: first, second, and third year veterinary students; no prerequisite, must participate in Animal Health Hackathon as part of course

VTMED 6770 Veterinary ePortfolio

This asynchronous course intends to help DVM students learn the skills required to create an ePortfolio that documents their personal and professional development through the veterinary educational curriculum and provides a source of professional and personal differentiation. The ePortfolio will document the student's four-year personal and professional development as supported by reflections on key knowledge and skills acquired through specific curriculum courses, demonstration of competencies and sub-competencies achieved under the curriculum framework, applied practical experience obtained through internal and external opportunities, integrated experiential learning achieved through research collaborations, and self-assessment of developmental achievements among others.

Offered: Spring - A Block (lec 001), B Block (lec 002), C Block (lec 003), and D Block (lec 004); 1 credit
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: first, second, and third year veterinary students.

VTMED 6771 Personal Finance

This course intends to teach essential financial skills regarding personal debt management, budgeting, and savings, with an emphasis in the formulation of financial decision making strategies that effectively utilize acquired financial competence to increase the student's level of financial literacy. Topics include financial planning, budgeting, managing / paying off student and personal debt, goal creation, strategy and decision making, understanding consumer credit and investment products, interest rates, simple and compounding interest, time value of money concepts, opportunity costs, savings and planning for the future, savings vehicles, salary and wages, employment benefits, value of complete compensation packages, and income taxes among others.

Offered: Spring - AB Block; 2 credits
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: first, second, and third year veterinary students.

VTMED 6772 Managerial Accounting and Inventory Management

This course intends to teach essential concepts of managerial accounting and lean inventory management by pairing classroom deliveries with guided exercises. We will define the components of financial statements, investigate the inter-relationship between them, and explore their use for strategic decision making. We will also define the costs associated with purchasing, ordering, and holding inventory and apply learned concepts through exercises based on veterinary practice case scenarios. Topics include profit and cash flow, forecasting, budgeting, proforma statements, leverage, capital, funding, activity-based costing, capital expenditure analysis, time value of money, discounted cash flow analysis, practice valuation, purchasing, ordering and holding costs, ABC analysis, sales and demand management and forecasting, ordering strategies, safety stock, re-order point, economic order quantity, distributor specials and promotions, management performance analysis, and value creation.

Offered: Spring - AB Block; 2 credits
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: second and third year veterinary students; no prerequisite. This course is a prerequisite for the VTMED 6776 Practice Ownership and Management course offered during CD block in 3rd year.

VTMED 6773 Services Marketing

This course intends to teach essential concepts of services marketing with an emphasis on helping develop customer service skills that lead to customer satisfaction and business success / growth. We will explore quality improvement processes and strategies to maintain high quality of service. Concepts include customer service skills, assessment of customer satisfaction, market segment, target market, positioning strategy, market mix, service recovery system, marketing opportunities and research tools, and administration / analysis of customer surveys for business decision making among others.

Offered: Spring - C Block; 1 credit
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: third year veterinary students.

VTMED 6774 Veterinary Contracts and Negotiation

This course intends to teach essential legal concepts surrounding veterinary employment contracts as it relates to salary, employee benefits, taxation of compensation packages, and enforceability of contract line items, specifically around termination, restrictive covenants, and liquidated damages. It will explore the art and science of contract negotiation, including the legal components of the negotiation interest list and the general process of contract negotiation within the veterinary profession.

Offered: Spring - C Block; 1 credit
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: third year veterinary students.

VTMED 6775 Medical Records and Informed Consent

This course intends to teach essential legal concepts surrounding the business and legal reasons for proper medical records and the type of documentation that creates proper medical records. It will explore the regulation of veterinary licensure by state board licensing authority, the requirements for obtaining and maintaining veterinary licensure, and the concepts surrounding compliant behavior and consumer complaints. Students will explore the laws impacting drug use within veterinary medicine, including the use of legend, compounded, and extra-label-use drugs. The course will additionally explore the legal requirements to obtain informed consent from owners before treatment.

Offered: Spring - D Block; 1 credit
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: third year veterinary students.

VTMED 6776 Practice Ownership and Management

This course intends to teach essential concepts of establishing and managing a veterinary practice by pairing classroom deliveries with guided exercises exploring realities of veterinary practice. Topics include practice ownership models and pathways, types of business organization, business ownership, financial and organizational management, risk management, operational efficiency, market analysis, services and fee structures, financial analysis, forecasting, budgeting and proforma financial statements, asset needs, decisions on capital and funding for equipment / facilities, leverage, activity-based costing, service marketing, lean inventory management, capital expenditure analysis, time value of money, management of human capital, and practice value creation among others.

Offered: Spring - CD Block; 1.5 credits
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: third year veterinary students; VTMED 6772 is a prerequisite.

VTMED 6778 (Part 1 - Fall term) and VTMED 6779 (Part 2 - Spring term) Capstone Experience Project

This two-part course intends to create an individual project-based experience in veterinary business that expands and incorporates the knowledge acquired through prerequisite courses that focus on financial literacy, personal and professional development, financial and organizational management, and entrepreneurship. Students who meet capstone course prerequisites will apply for course enrollment directly to the instructor through the submission of their capstone project proposal. Course students will develop a project in collaboration with a CVBE stakeholder and will finalize their capstone experience through an executive summary report, a poster presentation, and other deliverables. Students who complete their capstone project by satisfactorikly completing both course terms will be awarded the CVBE Certificate in Veterinary Business and Management.

Offered: 6778 in Fall and 6779 in Spring; 0.5 credits per semester
Instructor: Jorge L. Colón '92, DVM '95, MBA
Enrollment limited to: fourth year veterinary students; by instructor approval.