A familiar face returned to the Ontario Veterinary College earlier this year when Dr. Andrea Sanchez joined OVC’s Clinical Studies department and the Health Sciences Centre’s anesthesiology service.
She completed her DVM at the University of Murcia, in Murcia, Spain, followed by a few years in private practice focusing on anesthesia and critical care.
After meeting Dr. Alex Valverde, anesthesiologist in OVC’s Clinical Studies, at an international conference, Sanchez visited the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College for three months and “I fell in love with the place, the people and the opportunities here and decided I wanted to apply for a residency in anesthesia,” says Sanchez.
She completed her DVSc in anesthesiology at OVC in 2015 and followed it up with a stint in private practice, splitting her time between three Toronto clinics as a primary anesthesiologist.
In addition to clinical teaching, Sanchez who achieved board certification with the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia in September, is looking forward to exploring research that improves life, particularly related to pain management.
Her DVSc studies focused on pharmacokinetics and pain management, a “field that really holds my attention.”
She is especially interested in pain management for cancer patients and feels fortunate to be working closely with OVC’s Mona Campbell Centre for Animal Cancer. “I’m interested in targeted anesthesia and how it works with specific diseases, such as osteosarcoma. If we can find the mechanism of pain, I feel we can get better at managing it and maybe also discover translational benefits.”
She is also looking forward to the new anesthesia and surgical facilities currently under construction in the Health Sciences Centre.
In addition to the research opportunities at OVC, Sanchez especially enjoys the teaching aspect of her role. When students came on externships to the private practices where she was working, Sanchez realized how much she missed the day-to-day teaching contact with students.
“Clinical teaching is one of the things I enjoy the most – those one-on-one conversations on particular cases in real life scenarios, knowing that you are helping students to be prepared for clinical practice” she adds.