How VetTriage's Spanish-speaking DVMs are improving spectrum of care

Shadi Ireifej, DVM, DACVS, VetTriage founder, owner, and chief medical officer, told dvm360 in an interview about his telemedicine company and how it works with brick-and-mortar veterinary practices to help triage emergency cases.

In honor of Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month, Dr Ireifej also discussed how VetTriage features an option for Spanish-speaking pet owners to be matched with a veterinarian who also speaks Spanish to improve the patient's veterinary care.

The following is a partial transcript of the video.

Shadi Ireifej, DVM, DACVS: VetTriage is a 24/7, video telehealth triage platform. The idea is to have Doctors of Veterinary Medicine live on video with a pet owner, globally, any animal type, to decide whether or not their pet constitutes a true medical emergency. We find that well over 80% are not emergencies. They can spend as much time with the client on video live as they need to with our doctors. They'll get peace of mind, they'll get education, they'll get advice, monitoring parameters, treatment options, what to look out for, until you can see your family veterinarian at their next availability.

So, for the Spanish speaking doctors, they either are bilingual (speak English and Spanish) or they only speak Spanish, depending. It doesn't matter either way, because the system and the platform allows a pet parent to select what language they want. And so they can click English or Spanish. We also have a Spanish specific VetTriage website.