Modern technologies in veterinary diagnostics: Addressing industry challenges

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Sponsored by Zoetis

As caseloads grow worldwide,² the industry faces a critical imbalance between labor supply and demand for veterinary services. In the US, employment challenges³ for veterinarians and technicians can be attributed to the high cost of entry, long working hours and emotional stress. Additionally, macroeconomic uncertainty and increasing value-seeking behavior of pet owners squeezes the sector.^4,5

Understaffed and overloaded, clinical staff are still honor bound to showcase compassion, expertise and unwavering commitment for every client. The US continues to see an increase in burnout among veterinarians, costing the economy an estimated figure of $1 billion to $2 billion annually.³ What’s more, the percentage of veterinarians facing mental health struggles is rising.³

Additionally, there is pressure on clinics to provide tech-enabled conveniences and solutions that reach the same standards owners may experience within the realm of human healthcare. Despite this challenging background, the pain points faced by the industry can, in fact, be addressed and eased by improved technical efficiencies through impressive technological innovations— to higher revenues and profits, alongside greater employee engagement and well-being.³

Advanced point-of-care diagnostics

While the world races to keep up with technological developments, including the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), the veterinary field stands on the brink of a transformation in how clinics operate. Advances in innovative point-of-care diagnostic solutions are being driven by the industry’s resource requirement, offering increasingly valuable and synergistic solutions for supporting veterinary staff and empowering healthcare teams.

Modern veterinary clinics benefit from the improved accessibility of tools which can expedite the diagnostics process from days to hours,⁶ as with Vetscan Imagyst® (Zoetis). As well as becoming smarter, technologies are becoming lighter, smaller, and more portable. The aforementioned Vetscan Imagyst weighs just over 8 lbs, and the AlphaTrak® 3 (Zoetis) allows both in-clinic staff and pet owners to test and monitor diabetic animals’ glucose levels while they’re at home. These tools, in collaboration with other products and services within the Virtual Laboratory by Zoetis, allow for a more efficient and holistic approach to point-of-care diagnostics and monitoring for clinicians and owners.

Navigating virtuality

Think back to the early days of the global pandemic. The concept of an online meeting or a virtual consultation seemed far-fetched. How could we diagnose without physically seeing and assessing the animal? Yet, as we were rapidly pushed into virtual scenarios, technology revealed its advantages, and we have grown to embrace the convenience offered by virtual visits with doctors, therapists, teachers and even exercise classes. In the veterinary space, the pandemic catalyzed the rise of virtual veterinary startups, aimed at enhancing convenience for pet owners and improving patient outcomes by allowing for a more efficient use of time for the clinics.

Looking upstream, virtual technology can now directly benefit vets themselves, streamlining workflows and improving professional interactions by connecting teams with a network of board-certified specialist clinical consultants and pathologists, accessible around the clock and from anywhere—via Zoom or email. The expert support delivered with the Virtual Laboratory by Zoetis also provides the assurance that only comes from a partner with more than 70 years of global leadership in animal health innovation.

By providing this access, vets can diagnose and treat with confidence, a reassurance for those waiting for specialist support as well as those looking to discuss a particular result, aiding with medical decision-making. For more complex cases, regardless of where you are in your career—from recent graduate to seasoned veterinary professional— there will be moments where you could benefit from an additional perspective on a case. The Virtual Laboratory provides additional virtual support through a network of board-certified specialist clinical consultants and pathologists to confer with, when required.

Artificial intelligence

Then, of course, there is the increasing adoption of AI—at a global level and across a multitude of sectors, including within veterinary care. With workload and time pressure cited as some of the most common causes of burnout,^3,7 the incorporation of technological resources such as AI can help staff to increase efficiency and reduce this source of pressure.

The industry has long used shallow learning AI for tasks such as equipment that assesses x-rays, ultrasound scans, blood analyzers and other diagnostic testing devices. Systems that utilize shallow learning AI are a remarkable support in this context, but they are reliant on the manual entry of a predefined set of data represented by specific features. This leads to limitations in the system’s ability to incorporate new, unseen data.

As the technology continues to rapidly evolve, we are able to integrate deep learning AI and large language models at numerous points in the workflow, from note-taking and scheduling through to AI diagnostic tools. These deep neural networks can automatically discover important patterns in raw data, meaning these systems can identify complex representations, without the need for explicit feature engineering. The result is that it can be exposed to tens of thousands of images of a multitude of “objects of interest,” such as cells, bacteria, yeast, and intestinal parasite eggs, as well as the likes of crystals in the urine. All of this allows for a comprehensive, accurate identification and robust classification, within minutes,^8-13 avoiding the aspects that challenge shallow learning systems.

Bring the expertise in-house

This development has brought new, rapid diagnostic test capabilities in-house, creating less reliance on outsourced pathologists or lab testing. A unique example is Vetscan Imagyst (Zoetis), which offers multiple applications in one diagnostics platform, including AI Fecal, AI Blood Smear, AI Dermatology, AI Urine Sediment, AI Equine Fecal Egg Count and Digital Cytology. These types of advanced AI-integrated diagnostic analyzers help expedite the time to diagnosis for a wide array of disease states and help highlight where additional expert analysis or testing may be required.

It would be remiss not to note the hurdles to greater AI adoption within the industry; the top concern has been found to be reliability and accuracy.¹⁴ To drive progress and build trust, it is necessary for established manufacturers to be committed to ethical practices, rigorous testing and maintaining field integrity. Technology is only as good as its training, and the end users of this technology deserve to possess the knowledge of how the resulting data came to be. Zoetis, for example, trained its deep-learning AI (integrated within the Vetscan Imagyst’s application) using thousands of iterations of samples and elements identified by board-certified specialist consultants and pathologists.

Conclusion

Global spending on veterinary services for companion animals continues to rise, with the market estimated to grow significantly; in the US, it is projected to reach an estimated value of $18.69 billion by 2033, a CAGR of 10.4%.¹⁵ Market growth will, at least in the short term, correlate with an increase in demand and subsequent pressure on veterinary clinics.

To meet demand and provide a more consistent level of service for better patient outcomes, the industry needs to streamline processes, which will also serve the dual purpose of relieving time pressures of stretched veterinary staff, at all levels. Utilizing the latest technology allows practice teams to maximize efficiency and streamline clinical workflows while enhancing service value, all vital components of staff well-being.

Technological innovations in advanced diagnostics and AI—like those offered under the Virtual Laboratory by Zoetis— present themselves not only as tools for the modern veterinary clinic, but also provide a new and more efficient way of working to those who embrace it. And with the industry showing no signs of slowing down, we’re likely to see continued technological developments coming to further support professionals working in today’s modern veterinary practice.

References

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