Today's Veterinary Practice

JUL-AUG 2017

Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.

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13 JULY/AUGUST 2017 ■ 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

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