Telehealth & VetTriage / dvm360 Fetch conference / Charolette North Carolina / March 15 2024

Roca RY, et al. Impact of Telemedicine on the Traditional Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship. Top Companion Anim Med. 2019 Dec; 37.
Traditional care DVMs agreed with telemedicine 82.4% of the time.
Greg T. Bishop, et al. Owner satisfaction with use of videoconferencing for recheck examinations following routine surgical sterilization in dogs. JAVMA. November
Pet owners equally satisfied with recheck examinations by videoconference & in-clinic. Most owners with a post-surgical recheck exam by videoconferencing prefer this for future use and 88% declared that the video/audio qualities were clear. The results of this study showed that 100% were comfortable with using the technology, 94% documented that they would use this modality again, and 82% of dogs were deemed more comfortable with videoconferencing. In 2021 it was determined that 66.2% of pet owners reported little/no difficulty in adopting videoconferencing and 45.2% reported telemedicine took less time.
Arindam Basu, et al. Telehealth as a Component of One Health: a Position Paper. Yearb Med Inform. 2023 Aug;32(1):19-26. doi: 10.1055/s-0043-1768728.
Telehealth within a One Health framework to develop effective inter-sectoral communication may be essential for the mitigation and addressing of zoonoses, food security, food borne infection containment and antimicrobial stewardship. More research is needed to substantiate and investigate this model of healthcare.
Svenja Springer, Thomas Bøker Lund, Sandra A Corr, Peter Sandøe. Seeing the benefits, but not taking advantage of them: Dog and cat owners' beliefs about veterinary telemedicine. Vet Rec. 2023 Sep 20:e3312. doi: 10.1002/vetr.3312.
This study described a questionnaire that was performed, showing that although owners are aware telemedicine risks something being missed, they see great potential for follow-up appointments or improving access to a specialist. In fact, 12% of dog owners and 6% of cat owners have used telemedicine, and 25% of owners who have never used it would be willing to use it in the future. Owners with a larger number of recent veterinary visits were more likely to have used telemedicine. This raises questions about current availability of telemedicine and increased veterinary professionals' understanding of its potential benefits in veterinary practice
Julie Melsted Birch, Ken Steen Pedersen. Comparing video examinations with physical clinical examinations using finishing pigs with umbilical outpouchings as a model. Acta Vet Scand. 2023 Jun 24;65(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s13028-023-00689-8.
The agreement between a physical clinical examination and a clinical examination using recorded video of the same pig varies from poor to almost perfect, depending on the clinical sign and the executing veterinarian.
Björn Becker, Jan Ehlers, Christin Kleinsorgen. Veterinarians' perspective on telemedicine in Germany. Front Vet Sci. 2023 Feb 15:10:1062046. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1062046.
Digital approaches were used by veterinarians and the usage was enhanced by the COVID-19 crisis. The lack of a clear legal framework may be a significant barrier for further implementation amongst veterinarians in Germany.
Sarah M A Caney, Natalie J Robinson. Veterinary surgeons', veterinary nurses' and owners' experiences of feline telemedicine consultations during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Vet Rec. 2022 Sep;191(5):e1738. doi: 10.1002/vetr.1738d=35661164).
This paper described responses from 242 veterinary professionals & 98 owners with experience of telemedicine. Monitoring and advice consultations were felt to be most suited to telemedicine. There was reduced stress for owners/cats, seen as an advantage of telemedicine. The lack of clinical examination and the perceived risk of misdiagnosis were viewed as disadvantages. Overall, 85.7% of owners & 67.4% of veterinary professionals felt practices should offer telemedicine.
Deborah Butler, Lois Upton, Siobhan Mullan. Capturing Beneficial Changes to Racehorse Veterinary Care Implemented during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Animals (Basel). 2021 Apr 26;11(5):1251. doi: 10.3390/ani11051251.PMID: 33926093
The trainer-vet relationship is predicated upon a good working relationship. Little or no change in the DVM-trainer relationship occurred during the first "lockdown" period. During COVID-19 restrictions, more remote consultations took place using images or videos as well as telephone consults, viewed favourably by both trainers and DVMs. Connectivity and image/video quality is dependent on a novel proprietary video platform housing an internal development team.