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TOP STUDENTS CELEBRATED AT NOAH’S FIRST VIRTUAL PRESENTATION

Hafina John from Dechra Veterinary Products with her certificate

This year NOAH held its first ever virtual presentation on 1st October to honour the NOAH Certificate of Animal Health (NCAH) top students from 2019.The overall winner for the year was revealed by NOAH Chair, Jamie Brannan.

The NCAH qualification, accredited by Harper Adams University (HAU), helps ensure that animal medicines representatives are able to provide accurate and ethical information to prescribers and sellers of animal medicines in compliance with the NOAH Code of Practice for the Promotion of Animal Medicines.

Examinations were held at Harper Adams University in 2019, with 51 students taking the exam during that year. Overall first place went to Hafina John from Dechra Veterinary Products (pictured), second place went to Maggie Watt from Ceva Animal Health Ltd and third place was Louis Burch also from Dechra Veterinary products.

Hafina John said “It was a great opportunity to boost confidence and technical understanding but also to reaffirm responsibilities, particularly in relation to the legal framework. I am proud to have achieved the NCAH, the qualification is a testament to the high standards across the animal health industry”.

Three examination sessions were held during the year: for the May exam Maggie Watt from Ceva Animal Health Ltd came first with Elaine Hughes from Ceva Animal Health Ltd in second place.

In the July exam Louis Burch from Dechra Veterinary products came first with Karly Coates from MSD Animal Health in second place.

For the October exam first place went to Hafina John from Dechra Veterinary Products and second place went to Rosie Martin from Elanco UK AH Ltd.

Jamie Brannan said: “The NCAH is a great asset to us as an industry and needs to be more widely known amongst our customers and by the world at large. It shows the professionalism and knowledge of our teams which has been even more important in the challenging environment that you have been working in in recent months.”

Donal Murphy, Head of International and Regulatory Affairs at NOAH said that the NCAH qualification demonstrates the expertise within the industry. He explained: “It provides a solid background in animal physiology, immunology and pharmacology, nutrition and animal disease control, as well as a full knowledge of the legal framework in which licensed veterinary medicines are regulated, promoted and sold.

“The NCAH is written into the rules for NOAH company membership and is a requirement of the NOAH Code of Practice for the Promotion of Animal Medicines. It is formally academically accredited by Harper Adams University, who also host both the training courses and examinations.

“In what has proved to be a very challenging year, we are happy that we still had a way to honour the achievements of our top students for 2019. We are also pleased that we have agreed a way forward with HAU about virtual learning and qualification, for our next group of students, to start in before too long,” he added.

Notes for Editors

  1. The National Office of Animal Health represents the UK animal health industry. Its aim is to promote the benefits of safe, effective, quality products and services for the health and welfare of all animals.

  2. For more information contact Donal Murphy or Jenny George-Town: 020 8367 3131. Email: j.george-town@noah.co.uk

  3. It is a requirement of both NOAH membership and participation in the NOAH Compendium that all companies’ sales representatives involved in the direct technical selling of medicines (other than those on general sale i.e. AVM-GSL medicines) appear on the NCAH register and have taken the NOAH Certificate of Animal Health (NCAH) examination within two years of joining the industry.

  4. For more about the NCAH see http://www.noah.co.uk/services/ncah-qualification/

  5. For more on NOAH’s Code of Practice for the Promotion of Animal Medicines see https://www.noah.co.uk/services/our-code-of-practice/

  6. About the 2019 NCAH top students:

    May examination

    Maggie Watt from Ceva Animal Health Ltd

    Maggie works as a Senior Territory Manager for Ceva in the companion animal side of the business covering Scotland. Ceva specialise in areas including Feline Hypertension, Canine Cardiology and Behaviour. Maggie finds the cardiology side of the business particularly interesting and enjoys supporting veterinary practices in improving their cardiology protocols.

    Since taking the NOAH exam Maggie relocated from the south east of England to Scotland. She really enjoys the countryside and taking beautiful walks in the Perthshire countryside. She has two horses, two dogs, pigs, sheep and chickens.

    Elaine Hughes from Ceva Animal Health Ltd

    Elaine joined Ceva Animal Health UK after having worked in general practice as a veterinary nurse and found it was a great opportunity for her to continue using her knowledge and skills developed in practice.  With a great range of products, as a sales territory manager, Elaine is able to help small animal practices go above and beyond for the animals under their care providing a range of products from the Ceva portfolio.

    Feline hypertension is a particular passion of hers and she loves helping others understand how important it is to spot the disease early with routine screening.  For hands-on hypertension training, Herbie her dog joins her and helps others build their confidence in measuring blood pressure.  When Elaine is not working she can usually be found at the gym or walking with Herbie around the beautiful seaside town where she lives.

    The certificate gave Elaine the opportunity to increase her knowledge of animal health and legislation. Both of which are key in fulfilling her role as a territory manager.

    July Examination

    Louis Burch from Dechra Veterinary products

    Louis lives in Southport and covers the Northwest territory on the small animal side for Dechra Veterinary Products, with the main focus on A&A, endocrine and dermatology products. Louis is a people person so really enjoys the role as well as regularly socialising with friends and family. Louis also enjoys learning new things and found the course really interesting and enjoyable and over a year later now he can still remember a lot of what he learnt.

    Karly Coates from MSD Animal Health

    Karly works for MSD Animal Health as a Companion Animal Account Manager, covering Worcestershire, Warwickshire and the Birmingham territory. She joined the business in 2018 and her role focuses mainly on the Vaccine, and Ecto/Endo parasiticide product portfolios within MSD’s extensive range.

    Karly lives in Worcestershire with her husband, son, working Labradors, horses, chickens and rabbits. With such a menagerie, animal health has always been important to her and as such she loves working in the veterinary industry.

    Coming from a non-clinical sales background, it has been a great opportunity for Karly to study for the NCAH certificate and Karly is extremely proud to be part of the awards presentation. The course has increased her industry and technical knowledge giving her extra confidence out in the field with her customers.

    October examination

    Hafina John from Dechra Veterinary Products

    Hafina is a member of the Veterinary Technical Services team at Dechra Veterinary Products. The technical services team support veterinary professionals with product enquiries/problems and cover the full range of Dechra’s pharmaceutical portfolio.

    Hafina studied for an honours degree in Bioveterinary Science at Harper Adams University. During her degree, Hafina undertook a placement year working for Dechra in the Marketing team, it was in this role that her interest in the veterinary pharmaceutical sector was confirmed. After graduating from her degree with a First, Hafina returned to Dechra as a member of the technical services team.

    Outside of work, Hafina is an active member of her local Young Farmers Club, participating in various competitions and events throughout the year.

    When asked about the NCAH qualification Hafina said: “It was a great opportunity to boost confidence and technical understanding but also to reaffirm responsibilities, particularly in relation to the legal framework. I am proud to have achieved the NCAH, the qualification is a testament to the high standards across the animal health industry”.

    Rosie Martin from Elanco UK AH Ltd

    Rosie started her veterinary career as a kennel assistant in a busy hospital in SW London way back in 2008. She trained first as an animal nursing assistant and then as a vet nurse at MYF college and qualified in 2014. Rosie has worked in several practices in SW London and her favourite patients are old cats and trauma patients. In 2016 after 8 years in practice Rosie decided to take the leap into industry, starting the next chapter of her career with Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Rosie joined Bayer Animal Health in 2018 who are now part of Elanco Animal Health UK ltd.

    Outside of work Rosie trains in Olympic Weightlifting, she loves computer gaming and recently started hiking although she’s not sure her feet agree with this plan. Rosie has an 8 year rescue cat called Obie who has recently battled cancer and won.

    Rosie is extremely proud of being part of an industry that handled the pandemic and lockdown with such strength, passion and  energy to maintain the highest standards of veterinary care and is looking forward to seeing what the new normal will look like for vet practices – she thinks we are pushing forward into a new era of using modern technology to enhance patient and client care, and is excited to see how this will shape the industry.

     

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