If you were to look through a crystal ball into the future of veterinary medicine, you’d see a common thread uniting most, if not all, of the developing trends: Technology.
Some of the veterinary technology trends show incremental steps, and some are giant leaps. But there are a couple of conclusions we can draw with a high degree of certainty:
- If you don’t adopt at least some of the emerging technologies, you’ll be left behind. The good news is that we’re at the beginning of the technology curve, so there’s still time for you to get started.
“Artificial intelligence and other digital tools won’t replace a veterinarian, but they will replace a practitioner who doesn’t use them.”
- The old saying, “You’ve got to spend money to make money,” has never been more true. You’re going to need technology in order to adopt additional technology. In other words, you won’t be able to keep pace with the trends shaping the future of veterinary medicine if you don’t have top-notch veterinary practice management software to act as mission control.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest industry trends to understand why adopting practice management software will be fundamental to success going forward.
Trends in veterinary medicine for 2024 and beyond
And why it all hinges on practice management software
Here are four trends to keep your eye on:
Low pay vs. high debt
We’ve written a lot on this topic, but since it will be one of the biggest trends driving veterinary medicine for the foreseeable future, we wanted to touch on it here. To cut to the chase, an ongoing shortage of both vets and vet techs, driven by the stresses and demands of the job, will require clinics to do more with less in order to meet the needs of clients.
Why veterinary practice management software will be essential
Veterinary practice management software (PIMS) is all about efficiency. From booking appointments to creating workflows to automating patient reminders, a PIMS can help you dramatically increase productivity, letting you see more patients while optimizing the time you spend with each one.
Industry consolidation
We’ve seen it in virtually all aspects of human healthcare, so it should be little surprise that privately owned veterinary clinics are being acquired by corporate chains at higher rates. Today, more than 50 corporate groups control about 40% of the US veterinary market. And that industry consolidation is expected to continue, to the tune of 1,000 practices per year over the next five years.
Why are we seeing so many acquisitions? Because the veterinary industry has shown consistent revenue growth over the past several years. Looking forward, a report from a Morgan Stanley study predicts 8% annual growth by 2030.
However, new macroeconomic trends (like inflation and high interest rates) are making it more difficult for corporate chains to grow simply by acquiring more private practices. Moreover, some corporations overvalued the practices they acquired, leaving them with debt instead of profits. So, while consolidation will continue, we’ll see many consolidators shifting their attention to maximizing revenue and profits from their portfolio of clinics as a whole.
Why veterinary practice management software will be essential
When the primary growth driver was via acquisitions, a lot of corporate veterinary chains chose the route of least disruption, allowing their acquired clinics to keep doing things their own way. After all, data migration and the adoption of new software can be both disruptive and quite time-consuming for clinic staff, so many consolidators chose to allow their acquired clinics to continue operating independently.
But that approach isn’t working anymore. Adopting a unified practice management system throughout all of your facilities is the one of the best ways to maximize efficiency and revenue growth for the long haul. Here are just a few of the reasons why:
- Data standardization: Adopting a unified practice management system means that everyone is entering the same information in the same way. (A simple example: Entering a client’s first and last name in one field vs. using a different field for each.) Once you’ve implemented the PIMS and cleaned up the data, you can look at your veterinary business as a whole rather than as a collection of smaller businesses.
- Business insights: Once you have standardized data, you can bring in the superpower of big data analytics. Your analysts can slice and dice all of that data to extract insights you’d never have gained by looking at one clinic at a time. The effect is even more profound if you employ AI. Not only will you be able to see what you should be focusing on to achieve maximum growth from an overarching level, you’ll also be able to see things like what poorly performing clinics have in common and what you can do to boost performance. From the patient care perspective, big data analytics can reveal commonalities in poor patient outcomes. Once you’ve identified them, you can push best practices out to all of your clinics.
- Scalability: With a unified practice management system, you can achieve economies of scale for everything from cleaning supplies to equipment. You negotiate prices based on your entire range of practice, and clinics then submit their orders through your PIMS.
Some veterinarians who built their businesses by remaining deeply focused on the personal relationships they’ve developed with their clients have no interest in selling to a corporate chain. They won’t lack for clients who want the same thing, but they’ll need to keep a close eye on business performance to help them remain competitive among corporate-owned practices. For them, a PIMS can help them increase productivity, efficiency, and revenue on one hand, while facilitating personal communication with their customers on the other.
Both corporate chains and individual practices will need to take every opportunity to improve key performance metrics. A robust practice management system provides both the foundation and the ongoing support needed to do that.
Public health and biosecurity
Scientists have known for a long time that animal health is directly linked to public health, as evidenced in the US by the Center for Disease Control’s “One Health” approach. For example, many outbreaks of e-coli in humans can be traced to meat processors. Even vegetables can be contaminated by water runoff from cattle farms.
That’s why agricultural vets monitor livestock for anything that could endanger public health. Recently, bird flu has taken center stage, as the virus has been detected in cattle – especially dairy cows – and a small number of farm workers. It’s also been detected in unpasteurized milk products.
Since the H5N1 virus strain is considered to be “highly pathogenic,” public health safety practices have been ramped up. Even the name has evolved: Biosecurity. And increased biosecurity for bird flu puts an additional layer of responsibility on agricultural vets. Currently, the federal government requires testing prior to transporting cattle across state lines, as well as mandatory reporting for positive cases. Some states have additional requirements.
Why veterinary practice management software will be essential
Biosecurity for farm animals is an important issue with a lot of moving parts. Fortunately, some new tools can help veterinarians in the fight against bird flu:
Sensors and remote monitoring
Sensors that can monitor an animal’s temperature, heart rate, and activity levels can be the first sign of ill health. Sensors designed specifically for dairy cows can monitor feeding habits and measure both quantity and quality of milk production, another signal of a cow’s overall health.
While sensors can collect vast amounts of data, they’re useless without a way to transmit, store, and analyze the data. That’s where a robust veterinary practice management system comes in. You can use integrations or open APIs to incorporate sensor data into your PIMS.
In addition, as the link between animal health and public health attracts more attention, you may face increasing pressure to provide proof that you’re maintaining data and following safety rules. Recording your activities in your PIMS could prove very important down the road.
Workflows
Humans can act as virus vectors between one farm and another as well as between different livestock cohorts at a single farm. While not yet required, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other agencies have issued biosecurity protocols to protect herds, the people who work with them, and the people who consume beef and dairy products.
If you work with livestock, you can use recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create your own safe workflows in your practice management system.
This is a situation where a PIMS with the ability to create custom workflows really shines. It makes sure you don’t forget an important step, and it’s also easy to update when recommendations change.
Education
Farmers are the ones on the ground every day. They know when their animals are sick, but they don’t necessarily know the cause. And they don’t know which illnesses are contagious. They’re also aware that some of the recommended disease prevention protocols would be costly to implement.
Again, this is where a PIMS can be indispensable. Here are some things you can do:
- Create pages on your clinic website with links to educational sites that focus on best practices and the latest data on disease activity as well as the latest quarantine and reporting requirements.
- Use your website to provide highly visible links to government resources designed to help farmers offset the costs of adopting biosecurity standards.
- Use your PIMS to send email and text updates when there’s new information from government agencies.
You can also use a PIMS template to create printed educational materials that you can leave with your clients when you visit.
Emerging technologies
New technology is transforming veterinary medicine just as it is every other industry. Here are some of today’s trending tech:
Mobile apps
Younger customers tend to prefer texts or chatbots to phone calls, and they like the one-stop-shopping offered by mobile apps. So before adopting a mobile app, make sure it offers the same functionality as your website and integrates seamlessly into your PIMS.
Telemedicine
While telemedicine has been used for years in the field of human healthcare, it’s relatively new to veterinary medicine. There are three primary reasons to consider adopting it:
- Younger pet owners prefer it.
- It provides better access to people who live in rural or other underserved communities, including clients who have health or mobility issues.
- It can be especially useful when it comes to triaging a patient to determine whether they do, in fact, need to be seen in person (which can also reduce the number of unnecessary visits, thereby freeing staff for pets who do need to be seen in person).
As a bonus, telemedicine can reduce the number of unscheduled texts or phone calls that interrupt your rare time off! And if you do choose to be on call for telemedicine, you can make sure you’re compensated by running those appointments through your PIMS just like in-person visits.
In the US, almost all states require an existing veterinary-client-patient-relationship (VCPR) before a veterinarian can make a diagnosis, prescribe medication, or give patient-specific advice via telemedicine. There are other considerations as well. For example, when providing telemedicine to a patient who lives across state lines (even if it’s an existing client who normally comes to your clinic), you may need to be licensed in both states.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is pushing for the standardization of telemedicine regulations across states. For now, research the regulations in your state before adopting telemedicine. You should also check with your insurance provider.
Wearables
Wearable devices (usually collars for pets) contain sensors that can monitor things like activity level, temperature, pulse rate, respiration, and calories burned. It’s not necessary for every pet, but it can be very useful during post-op recovery or for pets who have chronic conditions that need to be monitored. When the sensors detect anything outside of established parameters, the device sends an alert to both the pet parent and the veterinarian.
Artificial Intelligence
Compared to other industries, AI is still in its infancy in veterinary medicine. But as its revolutionary transformation in other areas has proven, AI isn’t going away. Instead, its adoption will be unavoidable. Not every implementation will be right for every clinic, but you’d be smart to keep an eye on emerging technologies and start thinking about whether it’s a good idea for you and your patients.
For now, here are some simple AI applications to consider:
- Using a recording of the conversation between a vet and a client during an appointment to automatically generate appointment notes and update patient records (AI tools can even recognize errors and omissions and signal the vet to review the document.)
- Helping with difficult cases by sifting through vast databases of clinical records and research findings, and comparing that information to your patient’s symptoms to suggest possible diagnoses
- Using historical data to warn you when a standard course of treatment might be contraindicated for a particular breed
Why veterinary practice management software will be essential
Regardless of how a clinic uses emerging technologies, incorporating them will require integration with a PIMS that provides regular updates as well as new capabilities.
Key Takeaways
Whatever form it may take, the future of veterinary medicine is in technology. And implementing emerging technologies effectively can only be accomplished via a robust PIMS with a long list of integrations as well as an open API for clients who want to create their own. Ideally, look for one that offers frequent updates as well as new features.
Want to learn more? Read about Provet Cloud’s features and integrations, and schedule a demo to find out if it’s the right solution for you.
