Streamlining administrative tasks with AI tools

With many veterinary practices facing staffing shortages and the demand for animal health care outpacing the incoming veterinary professional workforce, new strategies to combat workloads may be needed to keep clinics in business. Even with the new veterinary graduates expected to begin working in the profession over the next 10 years, a shortage of up to 24,000 companion-animal veterinarians will likely still exist by 2030.¹

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one way to streamline clinic tasks and offload work from staff members. Joining this effort, Modern Animal has updated its software system, Claude, to now have AI capabilities. Claude is designed to streamline administrative tasks and is already integrated across 20 clinics nationwide.

The initial phase of this software includes the following functions²:

• Patient overview: Instantly provides veterinarians with a concise summary of a patient's entire medical history, ensuring they are well-prepared before appointments.
• Visit summarization: Converts appointment notes into an easy-to-understand summary for clients. This summary is reviewed by the veterinary professional before being shared through the Modern Animal app, which clients can then access.
• Interpretation and summarization of lab work: Automatically generates an initial analysis of diagnostic results for the veterinarian’s review. Approved findings for clients are also translated and shared via the Modern Animal app.

"With AI streamlining tasks like records review, lab result interpretation and post-visit summary generation, our veterinarians can now dedicate more time to what truly matters: caring for pets and their families," Christie Long, DVM, chief medical officer of Modern Animal, said in a news release.² "This newfound efficiency enables veterinarians to deliver care they feel proud of while also enhancing clinic productivity and, most importantly, their own quality of life."

AI-generated snapshot of a patient's medical record by the Claude software. (Photo courtesy of Modern Animal)

Modern Animal's technology team collaborated with nearly 40 clinicians to review beta-tested features, provide feedback, and participate in shadowing, where Modern Animal tech team members could observe and identify real-time areas of improvement. Claude demonstrated it could save veterinary professionals up to 2 hours daily by handling administrative tasks.² This time savings can help create more manageable work hours, improve veterinarian-pet owner relationships, and address the burnout faced in the veterinary profession.

With the initial success seen with the first phase of Claude, Modern Animal is looking to expand the software’s capabilities to support veterinarians with more clinical needs beyond administrative tasks. Founder and CEO of Modern Animal, Steven Eidelman, stated, "The early investment we made to build our technology platform from scratch has uniquely positioned us to rapidly iterate and learn about AI's potential on our own terms. While so far we've used this advantage to augment our team's administrative efficiency, we have started to envision a world where AI becomes a reliable collaborator that increases confidence in medical decisions for doctors at all levels. I look forward to the continued impact of this important work on our network of practitioners and beyond."²

At this time, Claude is only available for Modern Animal veterinary clinics.

References

1. Tackling the veterinary professional shortage. Mars Veterinary Health. August 2023. Accessed January 30, 2024. https://www.marsveterinary.com/tackling-the-veterinary-professional-shortage/
2. Modern Animal unveils AI-assisted tools, roadmap for next generation of veterinary care. News release. Modern Animal. May 22, 2024. Accessed May 23, 2024. https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/news-releases/modern-animal-unveils-ai-assisted-tools-roadmap-for-next-generation-of-veterinary-care-302153167.html