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JULY/AUGUST 2017
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TVPJOURNAL.COM
INSIDE NAVC
Attend a conference, pick up a trade publication, or
simply talk with other veterinarians and one word keeps
coming up again and again: telehealth. The term is as
misunderstood as it is polarizing. It promises to open
up new markets by catering to millennials and threatens
to displace the veterinarian's place at the center of care.
An issue that causes so much concern and presents
so many opportunities calls for an industry-wide,
collaborative approach. In January 2016, the
Veterinary Innovation Council (VIC) was formed
to tackle the largest challenges and opportunities
facing the profession. Spearheaded by the NAVC,
the VIC includes stakeholders from across veterinary
healthcare ( navc.com/veterinary-innovation-
council/our-team/ ). Its first mission is to make
sense of telehealth so that veterinarians can sidestep
its impediments and capitalize on its benefits.
The VIC has been working with telehealth providers
( Box 1 ), veterinarians, state boards, pet owners, and
industry stakeholders to develop success models and best
practices that will be shared with the profession. The VIC
seeks to delineate between cases for which telehealth is
appropriate and those for which it is not. We are pairing
clinics with telehealth providers and learning where
and when telehealth tools are most effectively used.
So far, we have learned that:
• The term telehealth is ambiguous.
• Many veterinarians, companies, and
pet owners already use telehealth.
• Appropriate uses for telehealth include
pre-existing business models.
• There are easy ways to begin using telehealth tools.
• Telehealth can be used without violating the
veterinary–client/patient relationship (VCPR).
WHAT IS TELEHEALTH?
To start with, a few definitions may be useful:
• Telehealth: The overarching term that encompasses
all uses of technology geared to remotely deliver
health information, education, or care.
• Telemedicine: A subcategory of telehealth that is
a tool, or use of a tool, to augment the practice of
veterinary medicine (eg, using Skype or an app to
communicate with a client and visualize the patient for
a postoperative follow-up examination and discussion).
• Teleconsulting: A subcategory of telehealth that occurs
when a general practice veterinarian uses telehealth
tools to communicate with a veterinary specialist to
gain insights and advice on the care of a patient.
Mia Cary, DVM
NAVC Chief Collaboration
Officer, Veterinary Innovation
Council Executive Director
Aaron Massecar, PhD
Veterinary Innovation Council
Telehealth Project Manager
INSIDE NAVC
Veterinary Telehealth: What Is It,
Where Are We, and What's Next?
BOX 1. Veterinary Telehealth Providers
• Activ4Pets: activ4pets.com
• Fetcha.Vet: fetcha.vet
• PetDesk: petdesk.com
• Petzam: petzam.com
• Televet: gettelevet.com
• VitusVet: vitusvet.com
• WhiskerDocs: whiskerdocs.com