Small Companies, Big Utility

There's a lot of cool stuff going on in Vet Med right now. Here's some of it.

I’m an incorrigibly curious person. I’m impatient to know things. I also assume everyone else knows everything and I’m just learning things, which heightens the impatience.

But there are some folks doing cool stuff out there, and I think a lot of clinicians would be better off if they knew about it.

So here are a few cool things and the people doing cool things in veterinary medicine. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but it’s stuff I wish I’d known about sooner.

Stratocyte

Dr. Samantha Vitale’s specialty consultation website Stratocyte is a godsend for the general practitioner.

It’s not a unique idea, but it is a well-executed one. Dr. Vitale, a neurologist, has collected an impressive bunch of specialists in just about every specialty you can name. The wait times are short and the quality is excellent. I’m partial to the radiology service, where Dr. Ciepluch writes genuinely helpful reports and seems to have a level of skill that borders on the preternatural.¹

I appreciate that this stuff is available on a smaller and less public scale than VIN. I like VIN, I admire Paul Pion, but sometimes my questions are sufficiently dumb as to not need be voiced for the general public and a private consultation is more comfortable.

Dr. Vitale agreed to add me as an expert in AI on Stratocyte. If I get consults, I’m happy to help answer what questions and solve what problems I can about AI for veterinary practice.²

I use the IDEXX consult line a lot, and this doesn’t replace that, it’s just a broader group of specialists. It also has the advantage of being used asynchronously, which can be more convenient for everyone.

GPT-4o, essay as prompt

VetMaite

This summer, the American Bar Association put out a statement that said, among other things, that if lawyers are going to use or deal with artificial intelligence, it’s the attorneys’ responsibility to know what they’re doing.

I feel approximately the same way for veterinarians. We need to take the time to learn what it is, how it works, and how we can apply it.

Dr. Petra Harms’ startup focuses on educating veterinarians on the fundamentals of artificial intelligence.³ Dr. Harms’ work focuses more on the basics of AI function and utility, which I appreciate.

There are also some discussion forums on there which are, as yet, lightly attended. I think they’ll pick up though, and Dr. Harms and I are planning to use some of my “How To” articles as discussion forum topics.⁴ ⁵

If you’re looking to get yourself or your team started on the basics of artificial intelligence, and get some CE in the process, VetMaite is a great place to start.

VetRec

I saw someone’s lecture on AI scribes last week at Fetch Long Beach. It wasn’t my lecture, but the doctor gave a solid run-down of how much AI scribes help his practice. I think mine was better researched and had more scientific evidence, but I can’t deny this other veterinarian had me beat by miles for presentation and charisma.

Nonetheless, at the end of his talk, he asked the audience how many were interested in trying AI scribes. Maybe 10% of the audience raised their hands—an absurd number to me.

If you’re not using an AI scribe, I have to assume that you’re A) not allowed, B) an inveterate Luddite, or C) have a deep love of writing medical records.⁶

This is a technology that saves hours of time every day. It takes one of the worst parts of the job away from us. I’ve written about their value at length and ad nauseum. I’ve written about this stuff as far back as April 2023.⁷

I generally use Digitail, my PIMS, for AI scribing. But when I’m alone with the client in the exam room,⁸ making calls, or working a relief shift, it’s nice to have a mobile-friendly alternative, and I use VetRec for those circumstances. It’s straightforward, it’s intuitive, and it’s customizable.

Hearing that someone doesn’t use a scribe gives me the same feeling I get when I hear that someone doesn’t have internet or uses only oil lamps for light.

Conclusion

It’s a short list of companies today and I have an interest in all of them being successful. Not from a strictly financial perspective, just a “these things are good for me as a clinician” perspective. It’s hard for me to extricate “this is good for the profession” and “this is good for me as a clinician” from something that’s also good for me personally. If consults, education, and medical records get better, it’s a personal windfall for yours truly.

I doubt that this will be the last one of these that I write, so if you’ve got a cool company to share, let me know and I’ll write about it.

1. On a radiograph of a feline patient, Dr. Ciepluch correctly identified the site in the bladder as evidence of a cystocentesis I’d performed just minutes before. That was impressive.

2. I do consider myself one of the world’s leading experts on AI use in veterinary medicine even if that title occasionally feels a bit like being the best break-dancer from Australia.

3. Which is, of course, a crazy idea. Anyone who believes that AI will have a significant role in shaping veterinary medicine, let alone any other part of the world, is obviously out of their mind.

4. I need to write more of them, of course. Which was much easier before my wife and I added a sleepless, feral primate to the family. He’s really great, but he. Does. Not. Rest. I assume he gets his relentless energy and general stubbornness from his mother.

5. He actually does. I’m the easy-going one. Really!

6. In which case I will refer you to the aforementioned Dr. Vitale, a neurologist, who almost certainly knows someone who can get you a surreptitious fMRI. It’s for your own good.

7. If you’d used AI to save yourself 20 minutes a day from the original publication date of that article, you’d have found more than 100 hours free by now.

8. Or on a house call, or in a parking lot, or whatever other unpredictable circumstances this profession offers.