Veterinary scene down under: A new veterinary textbook for general practitioners, plus a new digital platform working to improve patient outcomes

The Veterinary General Practice Casebook

The result of a collaboration between 2 veterinarians residing in vastly different parts of the globe, The Veterinary General Practice Casebook is a unique new veterinary textbook which celebrates the role of general practice veterinarians working amidst the busy caseloads of companion animal practice. The chapters in the book are set out not by clinical topics or individual body systems, but rather as days of the week – with each day filled with consultation examples, problems and quizzes.

Anne Quain, BA(Hons), BScVet(Hons), BVSc(Hons), MVetStud, GradCertEdStud(HigherEd), MANZCVS (Animal Welfare), Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL), PhD, from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, leapt at the invitation from Scottish professor Andrew Gardiner , VMS, Cert SAS, MSc, PhD, Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL), MRCVS, from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh, to work together on producing the book.

“[Gardiner] invited me to join him on this project, and together, we decided that the book would be more engaging if it reflected the reality of veterinary general practice. So, the book is laid out in chapters, one for each weekday. Each weekday is filled with consultations, and each consultation provides a bit of context, at least one problem, and some questions,” explained Quain exclusively to dvm360®.

“Readers can work through the answers themselves and then check these against those detailed answer sections, or they can skip straight to the answers if they want to – the good thing is no one will judge!”

For Gardiner, the idea for the book’s novel layout came from a self-assessment book he’d used many years earlier.

Andrew Gardiner , VMS, Cert SAS, MSc, PhD, Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL), MRCVS and Anne Quain, BA(Hons), BScVet(Hons), BVSc(Hons), MVetStud, GradCertEdStud(HigherEd), MANZCVS (Animal Welfare), Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL), PhD, - the editors of The Veterinary General Practice Casebook - (Image courtesy of Gardiner)

“Many years ago, I bought a small book of self-assessment color review tests on companion animal practice and found it useful. For some reason, publishers stopped covering general practice in this way and instead brought out books focused on individual clinical disciplines. But general practice is not like that - you see an orthopedic case one moment, an ophthalmology one the next, an oncology after that, all jumbled together in your working day,” said Gardiner.

“With this book, we’ve compiled over 100 cases and over 200 full color illustrations. We’ve sought to present a selection of cases representing common problems seen in general practice. Aside from clinical cases, each chapter also contains questions regarding safety and well-being.”

The Veterinary General Practice Casebook will appeal to a wide audience – from undergraduate veterinary students to new graduate veterinarians, and those veterinarians who may have been working for years, or be returning to clinical work, and wanting to brush up on their knowledge.

“Our answers are particularly comprehensive since two of our core readerships are students and new graduates, although we think the book will appeal to all and the feedback, we have had so far confirms this. All cases are illustrated with photographs as well as diagrams and tables where relevant,” explained Gardiner.

“With so few textbooks written about veterinary general practice or primary care, the feedback we’ve had so far is that people find it a ‘friendly’ book useful not just for veterinary students, but also for those returning to work, plus experienced vets too. We talk about things like animal welfare, error disclosure and decision making, particularly in the context of financial constraints.”

The book includes cases from over 30 contributors around the world, including from the United States, to ensure that it reflects a variety of geographical contexts.

“The process of putting it together was wonderful. It was truly a celebration of all of those so-called ‘little’ things we do each day to improve the lives of animals, clients and colleagues - and the nice thing when working on a project like this is that it adds an extra dimension to every case you see. Suddenly its not ‘just’ a wart, but a chance to review the literature on these complex and fascinating lesions,” shared Quain.

“We’ve sought to provide thought provoking questions, and we’ve provided references and further reading for those who want to take a deeper dive. And of course, our appointment schedules should also contain breaks – so we’ve included some recipes to cover those too! If you want the fully immersive experience, you can read the book and work through the questions, but also work through the recipes. We are waiting for readers to send proof that they’ve attempted contributor [Jude Bradbury, BVSc] phenomenal ‘cheesecake challenge’!”

The Veterinary General Practice Casebook is published by Routledge and available via its website.

Get your paws on Pawl

Improving the client experience after they’ve left the veterinary hospital is the goal of Pawl, a new veterinary digital platform aiming to improve patient outcomes by reducing complications and recurrence of disease, whilst also helping to boost customer loyalty and vet clinic revenue.

“Pawl is a platform that delivers post-intervention plans - think post-op and post-diagnosis. Essentially, we cover the time from when the client leaves the veterinary clinic to when their pet’s condition has either resolved or sufficiently stabilized. We provide daily check-ins, dynamic and personalized information and accessible resources such as rehabilitation videos tailored to the patient,” explained Bronwyn Orr, BVSc, PhD, MSc, MANZCVS, GAICD,CF, chief executive officer of Pawl, to dvm360.

Bronwyn Orr, BVSc, PhD, MSc, MANZCVS, GAICD,CF, chief executive officer of Pawl (Image courtesy of Orr)

“Pawl plans are revenue-positive for clinics - instead of a monthly fee, we instead charge clinics nothing to offer Pawl plans and share in the revenue only when plans are sold, so there is no added cost and burden to clinics.”

Veterinary hospitals which use Pawl will have access to a dashboard that allows veterinary practice staff to see which clients are on active plans and how patients are tracking, as well as receiving alerts when a significant ‘red flag’ health event is reported to Pawl, such as if the patient is showing signs of a post-operative wound infection.

“Even just by offering our prototype, we expect partner veterinary clinics to generate several thousand a year in additional profit, all while delivering better customer service. We expect to have our first prototype available – designed for cruciate surgery post-operative recovery, in the coming weeks,” said Orr.

“We are in active conversations with several veterinary clinics, both large and small to trial our prototype and we've had some exciting conversations with Practice Management System providers regarding integration to make selling Pawl plans even easier. We welcome any interested parties to get in contact, as we are growing rapidly and will have a suite of post-intervention plans available by the end of this year.”

With the veterinary technology field rapidly expanding and new entrants entering the market every week, Orr said that Pawl is one of the only platforms offering a revenue-positive solution at no cost to veterinary clinics.

“I recently completed a Churchill Fellowship which involved travelling around the globe meeting with veterinary organizations and leaders to explore the workforce challenges facing the veterinary profession – and during my travels I had the idea for Pawl, as I saw how digitized and connected other aspects of the economy were, particularly the consumer economy, and how little we had of that in veterinary medicine,” shared Orr.

“I wanted to improve patient outcomes by empowering pet owners, all while keeping them connected to the 'lighthouse' of animal care - the veterinarian. We are trying to make something that will benefit everyone - patients, clients and veterinarians. I was also keen to avoid adding to the costs of a veterinary clinic's technology stack - the various apps and services we pay for currently, particularly during a time of reduced revenue for a lot of clinics. By developing Pawl plans as a product, it means clinics can improve patient and client outcomes as well as increasing revenue for their business,” she concluded.

More information about Pawl is available on the company’s website.