Telemedicine is the future in veterinary practices. It has been a growing trend, especially since the lockdown in 2020. But, do you know what telemedicine is and how you can implement it in your clinic?
In this article, we will go over the definition of telemedicine in veterinary practices, its benefits and talk about how you can improve your telemedicine services with wireless devices.
What is Telemedicine in Veterinary Practices?
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, telemedicine is “a subcategory of telehealth that involves use of a tool to exchange medical information electronically from one site to another to improve a patient’s clinical health status”. To implement telemedicine, vets often use a video call platform, such as Zoom or Skype, to observe the patient.
When can you use it? Here are some ideas: it can be profitable to improve your follow-up consultations, offer preventive medicine services, or to answer questions that pet owners might have about their pet’s behaviour.
Benefits of Veterinarian Telemedicine
Telemedicine in veterinary practices has different advantages, for the patient, the pet owner, and the veterinarian.
For the veterinarian, it is an opportunity to offer an innovative service that sets the clinic apart from their competition. It also allows collaboration with other veterinarians or specialists in case it’s necessary.
For the pet owners, it helps strengthen their trust in the veterinarian, and allows them to have access to quality, personalised information about their pet’s health. New pet owners in particular might feel anxiety about their pet’s health. It can also be useful for the client to know when a visit to the clinic is totally necessary.
For the patients, telemedicine can be very beneficial for two main reasons. First, they can avoid the stress caused by going to the veterinarian clinic. Second, if the veterinarian can use a wireless device to monitor their health, it’s possible to follow up and detect any irregularity while they stay at home.
Which Devices Can You Use to Improve Your Telemedicine Service?
Wireless devices can be a great way to sort out the main problem of telemedicine, which is that the veterinarian is not available to do a direct examination of the patient.
Due to devices like wireless harnesses, it is possible to improve the quality of veterinary telemedicine, especially in post operational cases, for the following reasons:
- The veterinarian can have relevant, accurate information about the patient’s health and vital signs.
- It is possible to detect some anomalies in a patient, like a change in behaviour.
- The veterinarian can create alarms and receive notifications if something goes wrong.
In short, it helps monitor patients while they are at home and can detect changes that will improve the final diagnosis.
Veterinarian Telemedicine in the Future
Will veterinarian telemedicine be relevant in the future? We think that this is the most likely scenario for several reasons.
First, having a pet is becoming more and more common, and pet owners are more concerned about their animal’s health now than they were a few decades ago.
The most significant fact that you should consider is that millennials and Gen Z are growing up, and they are very used to technology. In fact, according to AVMA, “more than two-thirds of millennials say they would be likely to use technology to keep track of their pet” and that “60% support the use of telehealth options”. In other words, telemedicine is growing and, in the future, it might be an indispensable tool for your business.
And which is the key to success? Even though technology will be significant in the future, it will also be essential to take care of the human aspect of your consultations and make sure that your clients know you as “their veterinarian”.
We hope that you enjoyed this article, and that you have learned a bit more about the future of veterinarian clinics. Would you like to know more? We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, where we share the latest trends and news in vet tech.
