Statement of Professional Practice
SafetyCall International (SCI) and its Pet Poison Helpline® (PPH) division is an independent, multi-disciplinary, 24/7 animal and human poison control and adverse event management center headquartered in Bloomington, MN, and licensed by the Minnesota State Boards of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, and Pharmacy. It is privately owned and operated by a partnership that is primarily composed of veterinarians, physicians, and pharmacists (PharmDs) whose founders began working together in 1982. Our practitioners are internationally recognized by veterinary and human medical professionals, regulators, and professional and trade associations throughout the world for their knowledge and expertise in clinical toxicology, product safety, and adverse event management.
As a multi-disciplinary poison control and adverse event management center, Pet Poison Helpline® and SafetyCall are staffed with experts in clinical veterinary and human toxicology, emergency medicine, internal medicine, forensic toxicology, adverse event management/reporting, regulatory affairs, and pharmacovigilance. Collectively, our experts have managed more than three million adverse event, product safety, and poisoning cases, positively impacting the safety of products, animals, and people worldwide. Our veterinary team includes diplomates of the American Board of Toxicology (ABT), the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology (ABVT), the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM), and the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care (ACVECC), as well as more than 100 certified/licensed/registered veterinary technicians, including American Veterinary Emergency Critical Care Technicians (AVECCT). Our human medical experts include physicians with board certification in Emergency Medicine, Preventive Medicine (Occupational and Environmental Medicine), Addiction Medicine and Medical Toxicology, as well as pharmacists (PharmDs, including many who have completed residencies and fellowships in Clinical Toxicology), nurses, pharmacy technicians, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, several of whom are Certified Specialists in Poison Information (CSPI). Our professional staff are the core of PPH/SCI and our most valued resource. To maintain and advance our expertise, and to help our staff grow professionally and personally, we are committed to supporting their pursuit of specialty certification and continuing education.
Pet Poison Helpline® and SafetyCall have a long-standing history of academic and scholarly work focused on teaching, committee service, research, and policy development. This includes a formal affiliation with the University of Minnesota’s College of Pharmacy, which began in 1982. Today, multiple partners and staff have full and adjunct faculty appointments at the College of Pharmacy where they teach courses in Clinical Toxicology, Addiction Medicine, Toxinology, Herbal and Medicinal Therapeutic Agents, and others in the Graduate School. Partners and staff also have faculty appointments at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where they team-teach Veterinary Toxicology as part of the core curriculum and participate in population medicine courses. To foster experiential training and student mentorship outside the classroom, we also offer formal clerkships and clinical rotations to veterinary and pharmacy students.
The development of expertise is one of our enduring core values. To advance the specialty of clinical toxicology, we have also fully funded multiple clinical residencies for veterinarians (2) and pharmacists (7) in partnership with the University of Minnesota (UMN) College of Veterinary Medicine as well as the UMN College of Pharmacy and Regions Hospital, a teaching hospital and Level 1 Trauma Center in St. Paul, MN.
As experts in the field of clinical toxicology and leaders in adverse event management and poison control services, PPH/SCI is actively engaged in scholarship and research with the goal of advancing knowledge within the discipline, for fellow veterinary and medical professionals, and for the public. We have been invited to lecture at many major North American veterinary, medical, and regulatory conventions, many veterinary colleges, and regulatory agencies including FDA, EPA, and Health Canada’s PMRA. Collectively, we have published hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific articles, abstracts, and textbook chapters, and edited multiple textbooks.
Driven by our desire to educate, we also provide complimentary scientific webinars on veterinary toxicology, adverse event management, and product safety, that are attended by thousands of professionals each year and archived in our online library. To keep veterinary practitioners informed on emerging trends in toxicology, we publish quarterly newsletters with materials valuable to them, their staff, and their clients. We also maintain an online, publicly available ‘poison directory’ detailing more than 300 individual toxicants and providing information on species risks, expected severity of poisoning, clinical signs, photos, and more.
As credentialed experts with multiple decades’ experience in adverse event management and post-market surveillance, PPH/SCI staff have advised, consulted, and worked in collaboration with industry and US and Canadian regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA).
Pet Poison Helpline® and SafetyCall are active members in more than 20 professional and trade associations including the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the Household and Commercial Products Association, the American Herbal Products Association, the United Natural Products Alliance, the Natural Products Association, the Animal Health Institute, the Personal Care Products Council, the American Botanical Council, the American Society for Quality, the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society, the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business (SOCAP International), and the American Association of Poison Control Centers. We are also a preferred supplier for the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC). Participation in these organizations allows us to remain at the forefront of professional and industry knowledge and policy which contributes to our expertise and benefits our clients. We also encourage employees to be active in these associations as it helps them grow and develop into creative thought leaders committed to acting and delivering on their responsibilities.
Over the past decade, we are grateful and humbled by the accolades and awards received in recognition of our contributions. However, none are more meaningful than repeatedly being named a Top Workplace in Minnesota. This award, organized in partnership with the Minneapolis/St Paul Star Tribune newspaper, is based upon feedback from an employee survey regarding company leadership, culture, communications, career opportunities, workplace environment, managerial skills, pay and benefits. Over 2,000 organizations were invited to participate in the survey, and over 140,000 employees shared their views. Other notable recognitions include the Herbal Industry Leader Award (2021) from the American Herbal Products Association which recognizes companies or organizations that work to move the industry forward by exceeding the standards of normal business practices; along with individual recognitions from the Household and Commercial Products Association including the Chairman’s Award (2013) and volunteer recognition awards (Pest Management Division, 2018; Air Care Division, 2019).
Collectively, our mission is a simple one: to make the world a safer place for people and animals. We have worked toward that mission for over 35 years and, through thoughtful planning, cultivation of new leaders, experts, and educators, have set the stage to continue on for the next 35 years.
