Zoetis Virtual Laboratory: AI results backed up by the experts
Discover how the Zoetis Virtual Laboratory offers a full suite of diagnostic products and services
Sponsored by Zoetis
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA
Sounds like it's wonderful Dr. Penn that, you know, we have these offerings to hospitals, especially in areas where access to care is a really big concern. So, it's equally important to provide customization to our clients as well. So how has that landscape provided an opportunity for greater client communication and patient outcomes?
Cory Penn, DVM
Yeah, I think...thank you for the question, Dr. Christman. I think when we think about this, and we think about the Zoetis virtual laboratory, we have really as an organization said, "Hey, here's the challenges that veterinarians face every day, and really try to alleviate some of those challenges or help with workflow efficiency, consistency, those types of things. So, there's always a virtual laboratory as an umbrella, has the, the VetScan Imagyst, has our point of care diagnostic analyzers, has our ZoetisDx platform, which includes trending those results and, you know, access to clinical specialists for a complimentary consultation. And we really, when we think about the VetScan Imagyst, the VetScan Imagyst is sitting right there, it's a scanner that has the...it's really your window to artificial intelligence, which is kind of a buzzword right now. But you can do fecal analysis, you can do AI dermatology, cytology, skin impression smears, ear swabs, skin swabs, you can do AI blood smear to add that qualitative information to that quantitative information. And that's that kind of expert level AI that is there to provide those results that are comparable to results that a clinical pathologist would provide. But in addition to that, it's always backed up. That whole slide image is always able to be evaluated by an expert by a clinical pathologist, by a parasitologist, if you wish to add on that expert review, or if you've got some sort of sample, like a fine needle aspirate, a lymph node aspirate that you would like to send into it to a clinical pathologist, you can do that. So not only do you have the artificial intelligence, which provides you results for certain types of tests in 10 minutes, it's always backed up by the expert, you have the ability to send that whole slide image of really any tissue, any fluid, you can put on a slide from any veterinary species, send that to a clinical pathologist, and have those results back within hours. So, it really is just absolutely amazing. And it all feeds in, you know, we know that the presentation of this information is not only important for us to be able to trend those results, but also for our clients to be able to really say to that pet owner, here's exactly what we tested today. Here's what we saw on that on that microscopic slide. And here's kind of our plan moving forward. So, we get that presentation that we can provide that value to be able to communicate, to be able to educate to help with compliance. And that next step, if we say, hey, we want to have access to a specialist, the Zoetis virtual lab and can take care of that.
Lisa Hann, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)
Yeah, so our consultation service, we have also taken the approach of really wanting it to be personalized, so the veterinarians that are using our service have access in a way that's convenient for them. So, we do offer both email consults, as well as Zoom consults that can be done via phone; they can phone into that. So that really can be about their time, that's so valuable, that they can really individualize. You know how that consult happens, so that it's convenient for them. But they're still getting that access to quality, additional resources. And then beyond just them having more control about the form of the consult, the timing of the consult, also providing reports so that they have that physical evidence to provide to the pet owner, so that that everyone is aware or a part of kind of understanding the next possible steps that can be involved. And so that really is a complimentary service that we are really trying to provide to our customers. So, they have that extra support in their busy practices.
