A VMX 2019 Recap for Animal Health Sales Reps
While VMX 2019 is over, the big announcements, new tools, and latest lessons from the event will help shape our industry for the rest of this year and beyond.
In case you didn’t attend the conference, we’re pleased to present the big takeaways you’ll want to know about.
Why?
The big announcements and innovations presented during VMX were also communicated to practices across the United States and the globe via email, direct mail, in the press, and on social media. This means many of your customers heard about them, too. So, it’s prime time for you to follow up and talk about the different highlights when you visit practices in your territory.
Here’s a recap of the top news for you!
Hundreds of new products
Most of the nearly 800 VMX exhibitors presented new in January. Veterinarians, veterinary nurses/technicians, office managers, and others had a chance to visit Expo Hall booths and in the New Product Gallery to see hundreds of new tools and services – everything from diagnostics, treatments, software, tools, clothing, pet gear, and much more for pet care. Quite often, these products also make daily life easier in the practice and better for clients at home as well.
A few highlights of the 2019 VMX Expo Hall included anxiety and calming medications and supplements; tartar control chews; nutrition developed specifically for hospitalized patients; an easier way to manage health certificates; new endoscopy tools; bacon-flavored heartworm preventive chews; a new lepto vaccine; an ear cleaning and wax removal formula; and chews developed to help with skin allergies.
Check with your manufacturing connections to see what’s new!
Two important new certifications
Two new NAVC Learning Academy certification programs launched at VMX, adding to their offering of Human-Animal Bond Certification introduced in 2018.
Pet Nutrition Coach Certification: This program is led by Ellen I. Lowery, DVM, Ph.D., MBA, and Kara M. Burns, MS, MEd, LVT, VTS (Nutrition) – and it’s aimed at helping every member of the veterinary team build nutritional competence and develop skills as a nutrition coach. The course is in-depth and includes these topics among many others: Navigating the Myths and Misperceptions of Pet Foods, Having that Pet Food Conversation, and The Business of Nutrition. When you’re talking to practices about pet food, you may want to bring up this certification.
“How to be a business leader” is not typically taught in vet school. Yet when veterinarians operate an animal hospital or independent practice, they need to become business managers and leaders for their team and community. With this new certification program, veterinarians can advance their business acumen with training focused on leading-edge thinking. Again, as a consulting DSR, this may be something to discuss with practices.
All-new Vetfolio technology and partnership
When you’re talking with customers, you may want to ask about their CE needs. No matter what they’re looking to learn this year, they’ll find it on Vetfolio. In 2019, the NAVC and LifeLearn Animal Health have partnered to offer the industry a completely revitalized VetFolio: one-stop access to hundreds of online veterinary courses and educational programs.
With the new VetFolio, your customers will find diverse content options for the entire team. If you’re introducing new solutions that coincide with a new and improved protocol – staff training for instance – you can show them how VetFolio’s conference proceedings, podcast library, course catalog and other premium content will round out their expertise. Plus, a technology upgrade is making VetFolio mobile-friendly, with intuitive navigation, simplified search, and administrator upgrades. You’ll find the announcement on the NAVC Press page. And, check out Vetfolio.com to see its content.
New editor and direction for Today’s Veterinary Nurse (TVN)
The big news for 2019 is explained by TVN’s new Editor-in-Chief Kara M. Burns, MS, MEd, LVT, VTS (Nutrition), VTS-H (Internal Medicine, Dentistry). She said, “We’re supplementing TVN’s peer-reviewed clinical content with additional topics to help veterinary nurses and technicians enhance their skill sets – both technical skills and ‘soft skills.’ We’re also changing the format to add more visuals and images that reinforce points of knowledge and highlight critical areas of interest. Additionally, we’ll feature trends within the profession and the impact on veterinary nurses. And, we’ll look at some of the exciting non-traditional areas that motivate our colleagues.”
Kara also noted that she’ll help to reinforce the focus of veterinary nursing across all brands, which comes full circle to ensuring that the journal presents cutting-edge content focused on the veterinary nurse’s role on the healthcare team.
New NAVC Retriever® Job App
During the conference, the NAVC rolled out its new NAVC Retriever app to make it easier for industry professionals to find a great job – or exceptional candidates.
For Job Seekers: Veterinarians, veterinary nurses, receptionists, and students can easily browse and apply for job openings. There’s even an automatic matching system once the job-seeker fills in their job search criteria, with real-time notifications.
For Employers: Practices can post permanent, temporary or student opportunities using a simple process, and let the Retriever algorithm do the rest. Qualified candidates are notified that they’ve been matched, and the practice receives a notice when qualified applicants are a match.
Why does this matter to you? Your customers may be looking to fill staff positions, and you can be the hero who shows them this awesome app. To see how it works, visit this NAVC Retriever web page.
If you’d like to know more about what happened at VMX 2019 – and to see all the manufacturers’ ads so you’re up to speed on their promotions and offers – you can access the Saturday-Tuesday issues of the Inside VMX newspaper distributed daily at the conference.
