Welsh Enterprise Awards 2025/ 22 Best Veterinary Training Provider 2025 Ultrasound training is extremely variable, and sadly, often inadequate across the veterinary sector, leaving many primary care veterinarians no choice but to educate themselves, rely on limited focal target scanning, or avoid using ultrasound due to a lack of confidence in the equipment and the real fear of error. Aspire Ultrasound Consultancy Services (UCS) strives to change that, leveraging more than 70 years of combined clinical and teaching experience to transform both clinical confidence and commercial outcomes throughout the veterinary sector. We heard more from Co-Founder and CEO Angie Lloyd-Jones below, as Aspire UCS is named in the Welsh Enterprise Awards 2025. Based in Caergwrle, Aspire UCS is a pioneering Welsh enterprise dedicated to revolutionising the role of diagnostic ultrasound within first opinion veterinary practices. The business was founded in 2017 by Angie Lloyd-Jones and Julie Burnage, former Diagnostic Medical Sonographers now working as dedicated veterinary imaging experts. Today, Aspire UCS stands at the forefront of sustainable, practice-based ultrasound delivery, offering a distinct blend of personalised training, hands-on mentorship, and the strategic integration of ultrasound into daily practice workflows. The company offers a comprehensive range of services rooted in clinical excellence, including in-practice ultrasound training for vets and nurses, tailored to each practice’s case load and equipment; remote community-based mentorship and case review, enabling continuous development beyond the classroom; ultrasound service development consultancy, helping practices design, implement, and grow their own internal imaging systems; revenue pathway modelling, supporting clinics in generating long-term, sustainable income through improved imaging; and online learner content and video-based resources to enhance accessibility and long-term skill retention. “We bring all our expertise to the table, drawn from teaching multidisciplinary medical teams in both clinical domains and within formal Higher Education ultrasound programmes,” said Angie, “ensuring our clients really do understand the rationale for various system controls, how ultrasound interacts with various tissues, and how to perform a wide range of flexible, systemic, and methodological scan techniques.” Perhaps most crucially, Aspire UCS understands that ultrasound is widely recognised as the most operator-dependent form of imaging. As such, it believes that there is a need for, and a duty to, continue supporting clients long after the practical and online learning components have been completed. Practices working with Aspire UCS report not only improved patient outcomes and reduced referral dependence, but also significant increases in practice revenue, client satisfaction, and team morale. At Aspire UCS, ethical innovation is equally important as clinical excellence. During the COVID-19 lockdown, its Directors authored the world’s first-ever global veterinary guidelines for small animal abdominal ultrasound, setting a new standard for the profession. Leveraging clinical guidelines adapted from human healthcare practices set by British Medical Ultrasound Society, these guidelines have been instrumental in raising the bar for veterinary imaging on an international scale. “The publication of this document by BMUS, endorsed by The European College of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging, has helped us to establish some authority within the profession, despite not having formal veterinary qualifications,” Angie told us. “We were initially met with resistance when we entered the field, and it is fair to say we’ve made some waves along the way! Now that we have great advocates, we are about to collaborate with Clarius – a well-known ultrasound system provider – on a series of online classroom lessons, videos, and live events that teach our unique systematic approach to abdominal ultrasound.” What’s more, Aspire UCS has also developed the Lillie Canine Ultrasound Phantom Training Kit, a world-first, ultra-realistic canine ultrasound model that further reinforces the company’s commitment to ethical innovation. Designed in Wales and now used by veterinary schools across the UK, this pioneering tool provides an ethical, economical, and sustainable alternative to cadavers and live animals in ultrasound education. Through the Lillie Canine Ultrasound Phantom Training Kit, Aspire UCS is effectively reshaping how ultrasound is being taught, offering a practical, repeatable, and entirely humane solution to students and educators alike. After recently being listed as a finalist in the 2025 ProManchester Trailblazer Tech Awards – earning a worthy position as the only nondigital tech finalist – Aspire UCS now has its sights set on expansion. The company is now preparing for its commercially scalable innovation to enter international markets through a European global distribution partnership – promising to position both Aspire UCS and Wales as global leaders in sustainable veterinary education technology. As Angie aptly stated: “This innovation represents the very heart of what makes Aspire UCS award-winning: pioneering change with purpose, from Wales to the world.” This is an exciting opportunity for Aspire UCS, enabling the company to inject ingenuity into an underserved sector whilst continuing to deliver practical workshops, ongoing support, and ethical innovation to clients across the country – maintaining its well-deserved status as the Best Veterinary Training Provider 2025. Contact: Angie Lloyd-Jones Company: Aspire Ultrasound Consultancy Services Ltd Web Address: www.aspireucs.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==