{"id":75382,"date":"2023-12-01T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T05:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/todaysveterinarybusiness.com\/?p=75382"},"modified":"2024-05-17T13:55:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T17:55:22","slug":"veterinary-ai-1223","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navc.sitepreview.app\/todaysveterinarybusiness.com\/veterinary-ai-1223\/","title":{"rendered":"Unleashed Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine a world where spays and neuters are performed by robots. Where pet owners with questions and concerns can engage with virtual employees 24 hours a day. Where medical records are generated automatically after each appointment. Where each veterinarian has a digital version of themselves handling mundane, time-consuming tasks while the human spends more time with patients and clients, sees more pets, and gets home earlier to enjoy a healthier work-life balance.<\/p>\n

It might sound like science fiction, but all this and more could be possible someday for a veterinary profession incorporating artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Dr. Cody Creelman, CEO of the Alberta, Canada, veterinary practice Fen Vet, has prepared for the paradigm shift. Launched in 2021, Fen Vet was built on a foundation of innovation \u2014 something Dr. Creelman said has been part of any industry that\u2019s been reimagined.<\/p>\n

To illustrate his point, he told a story about the business of ice:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years, men cut ice off lakes and shipped it around the world to be put into iceboxes or used in manufacturing or factories. Then, someone discovered that ice could be made in a factory by pumping ammonia through pipes and pouring water over the top. Suddenly, you had a whole bunch of men standing on a frozen lake saying, \u2018There\u2019s no way this is going to take off because my product is the best.\u2019 And what happened to those men? Their business disappeared. Then someone discovered you can make ice at home, and all the people in the factories making ice were saying, \u2018There\u2019s no way people are going to make ice at home. That\u2019s crazy.\u2019 But the business of making ice in factories was done. Those paradigm shifts were caused by innovation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan veterinary school in 2011, Dr. Creelman would go to sleep every night full of anxiety and a singular thought: \u201cHow am I going to be on the other side of that shift? How am I going to ensure I\u2019m not the guy standing on the lake?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Creelman believes that if you\u2019re actively looking for that paradigm shift, you\u2019re less likely to be left standing on the lake. He stays at the forefront of emerging tools and technology to constantly find the best way to do things. \u201cAnd there\u2019s some really great AI-enabled technology that allows us to execute on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What Is AI?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, artificial intelligence is the capability of computer systems or algorithms to imitate intelligent human behavior. Generative AI is capable of generating new content, such as images or text, in response to a submitted prompt, or query, by learning from a large reference database of examples.<\/p>\n

OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT<\/a> is an example of generative AI. You can ask it to write a client email and then have it edit the response so the text sounds friendlier and more approachable. You can tell ChatGPT it was wrong about something, and it will respond with something along the lines of, \u201cYou\u2019re right. I\u2019m sorry I missed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engaging with ChatGPT isn\u2019t like engaging with a computer. It feels like communicating with a human \u2014 an extremely smart, fast-typing human.<\/p>\n

Reports have emerged of high school and college students submitting papers written entirely by artificial intelligence. One pet owner\u2019s Twitter thread went viral when he claimed AI saved his dog\u2019s life after a veterinarian couldn\u2019t diagnose her correctly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis stuff is on the same level of innovation as search engines, broadband internet and smartphones,\u201d said Dr. William Tancredi, a veterinarian and the owner of Old Ridge Veterinary Hospital in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. \u201cIf we ignore it, we\u2019re going to be like the folks who refuse to send emails or still have a fax machine in their office. It\u2019s the way the ground beneath our feet is shifting, and we don\u2019t have a lot of say about it. We can either get the hang of it and use it or get knocked to the ground as it moves.\u201d<\/p>\n

While AI\u2019s capabilities are impressive, there are concerns about it being used nefariously and its potential impact on human jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you start diving deeper into the engineering side of things, you\u2019ll see that AI isn\u2019t built to replace humans,\u201d said Sebastian Gabor, the founder of Digitail, a cloud-based practice management software that incorporates AI to automate backend processes throughout a pet owner\u2019s journey with a veterinary practice. \u201cHowever, someone using AI will replace someone not using AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabor, a tech professional who spent 12 years building platforms and apps for the likes of The Walt Disney Co. and Hasbro, launched Digitail in 2018 after an unfortunate experience with his puppy Neo\u2019s veterinary clinic. Today, practices in 16 countries use Digitail software.<\/p>\n

How Veterinary Practices Can Use AI<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1. Client Communication and Engagement\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did some research, and 80% of the inbound phone calls to the front desk are the same 20 questions,\u201d said Dr. Steve Merchant, a New Zealand veterinarian and the founder of Virtual Vet Nurse. \u201cSo, we thought, \u2018Why don\u2019t we just script those 20 questions and create a digital assistant that\u2019s there to purely work for the team and take some of that load off?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Virtual Vet Nurse is an AI-powered conversational chatbot, or digital assistant, that allows clients to engage with their veterinary practice 24\/7 while freeing up staff time to engage in clinical responsibilities. Virtual Vet Nurses are at work in clinics in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Southeast Asia and Canada. Each practice\u2019s digital assistant is customized with a name, gender and persona. The virtual assistant automates and streamlines front-desk tasks, including scheduling appointments, ordering refills, obtaining pre-visit histories and information, and conducting post-op follow-ups. The scripts are specific to the veterinary practice, so Virtual Vet Nurse knows how to answer client questions the way the practice prefers.<\/p>\n

Dr. Creelman\u2019s Fen Vet team uses Digitail. He\u2019s excited about what\u2019s soon to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the very near future, someone will call our phone service, and the Fen fairy, Tails, will answer the phone,\u201d he revealed. \u201cThe customer will have no idea \u2014 they\u2019ll have a great conversation, their appointment will get booked, and their estimate will get sent over.\u201d<\/p>\n

ChatGPT also can be used for translations in person or via email or text. Dr. Creelman had a Ukrainian client whose dog was diagnosed with an ear infection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked ChatGPT to tell the pet owner that his dog had a bilateral ear infection caused by \u2018this\u2019 and that we\u2019re going to treat it with antibiotics,\u201d Dr. Creelman said. \u201cI quickly reviewed ChatGPT\u2019s response and then asked it to translate into Ukrainian, which it did instantly. Then I turned my computer screen to the client. He read it and smiled. He fully understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Creelman\u2019s team also uses artificial intelligence to generate post-visit appointment summaries and discharge notes for clients. One doctor on his team is \u201ctaking it to the extreme by extracting a bit of personalized information from the visit and getting AI to generate a custom-made client communication that incorporates the information in a whimsical sort of story,\u201d he said. \u201cIt still includes all of the pertinent information, but it\u2019s written almost like a message from your best friend who\u2019s trying to make your day a little better. It adds a layer of creativity, and clients love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, AI can automatically survey clients after certain types of visits to help build your online reputation, conduct post-op follow-ups so you don\u2019t play phone tag, and write email and social media copy to help market your practice.<\/p>\n

THE POSSIBILITIES<\/p>\n