Dr. John Chandler, a veterinary surgical specialist at WestVet, a veterinary emergency and specialty center located in Boise, Idaho, wanted to develop a comprehensive iPhone application to be used by veterinarians, veterinary students and veterinary technicians to simplify many of the day-to-day, and sometimes less routine, medical calculations used in the veterinary profession.

Realizing the need for such an application, Dr. Chandler’s next step was to find a company to write the app. His search was proving to be unsuccessful until April 29, 2010 when he picked up a copy of The Idaho Statesman and on the front page was an article featuring a gifted local high school student, Cody Brown, a self-taught programmer in Objective-C, who has written his own iPhone application, “Messier,” and is currently working on two more. Dr. Chandler set up a meeting to chat with Cody. He came away from this meeting amazed and impressed with Cody’s knowledge and ability to perform the required advanced math, as well as his understanding of medical terminology and processes.

Besides being a self-taught iPhone app developer, Cody Brown, a Treasure Valley Math and Science Center and Kuna High School student, has a few other talents and accomplishments in his repertoire. At the age of 12, Cody achieved the level of Master Scuba Diver, authored a book titled Scuba for Kids at the age of 13, was a monthly columnist forNorthwest Dive News magazine for three years, currently holds a black belt in Kenpo Karate and is a student in Jiu-Jitsu under Mitch Coats. Cody is employed part-time at the Boise Scuba Center.

“Making the choice to hire Cody was not only an easy one for me to make, it was exciting,” said Dr. Chandler. “After meeting with Cody, I knew I had found the right guy to build the app and he was practically in my own backyard! Cody is one of those full ride scholarship kids.”

The iPhone application, DVM Calc, is now available for $4.99 on the Apple App Store. DVM Calc is the most comprehensive small animal veterinary medical calculator available for veterinarians, veterinarian medical students and veterinarian technicians. The app contains 26 practical calculators, 15 specific constant rate infusion calculators, ten toxicity calculators, a useful “Notes” page and a basic calculator.

About WestVet–WestVet is one of the Northwest’s most progressive and innovative veterinary hospitals. Specialties range from surgery and internal medicine to ophthalmology and emergency/critical care. WestVet is also associated with a complete veterinary diagnostic laboratory, which includes both clinical and anatomical pathologists.

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