Sandy Baird, Senior Clinical Scholar specialising in equine orthopaedics at the Weipers Centre, University of Glasgow, was recently awarded The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship Award in the animal welfare category.

The Fellowships are made to enable people from all walks of life to acquire knowledge and experience abroad that will enhance their effectiveness at work and their contribution to the community on their return.

Sandy's particular area of research and expertise is an overlap between current human medical welfare developments and veterinary medicine, in this case telemedicine.

The underlying principle of using information technology to support and transform the delivery of healthcare is at the very heart of the NHS's eHealth strategy.

As Sandy explains: 'With telemedicine, it is important to look at how technology can be used to make treatment better and more effective for the patient, and help clinicians deliver that treatment quickly and safely.

When those patients are actually animals, located in rural areas around Scotland, the challenges becomes even greater.'

Sandy plans to use his travel grant to visit Michigan in the USA where, given the huge distances between cities and rural outposts, telemedicine within the veterinary profession is already well developed.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

For further information, please contact Mike Findlay at the University of Glasgow Press Office on 0141 330 8593 or Sandy Baird on 0141 330 5999.

First published: 15 March 2004