In the shadow of Singapore’s standing as 12th in the World Index of Health Care Innovation, pet healthcare remains a backwater. Despite a significant uptick in pet ownership in Singapore in recent times, pet owners’ knowledge of pet healthcare remains quite inadequate.
A local survey of more than 1,000 cat and dog owners showed that the concern that almost every owner had was chronic health issues with their pets. However, despite such a concern, “more than two-thirds of pet owners had little or no knowledge of key health issues such as parasite infestation, chronic kidney disease and heart disease that might affect their cats and dogs”.
When they did try to seek out information on their pets’ health, 35 per cent turned to the internet, while 26 per cent looked at YouTube and TikTok videos instead of turning to the real expert: a veterinarian!
So, what is driving this phenomenon? And can technology provide some solutions? We explore these questions in this article.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
As the old saying goes, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’. This wisdom directly relates to the health care of our pets.
Let’s focus on dogs as an example. People often say that one year of a dog’s life equates to seven human years, but this is an oversimplification. The truth is, one calendar year for a dog may equal up to 15 human years, depending on the breed. Since dogs age faster than humans, they should see their doctor more often than we see ours. If they only visit their vet once a year, that is akin to us getting a general check-up every four-five years!
Dogs (even when healthy) should be examined by a veterinarian, preferably twice a year. As your dog ages, more frequent visits may be necessary as the rapid ageing process of dogs makes preventive healthcare even more important.
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Hence, it is concerning to see that in the same survey, nearly 40 per cent of pet owners either prefer to self-diagnose based on internet research, delay vet visits until symptoms worsen or worse of all, not take their pets to a veterinarian at all. This can often aggravate health issues due to misinformation.
Addressing the problems
A big driver of the lack of veterinary visits is the existence of several pain points faced by traditional veterinary care providers, which in turn lead to pain points for pet owners seeking veterinary care. The corresponding spike in patient volumes at veterinary practices that have come with the rise in pet ownership in recent years has caused many clinics to be fully booked and oftentimes overwhelmed.
This is made worse by the shortage of labour in the industry. Consequently, veterinary practices find themselves having to turn down clinic appointments and being unable to provide after-hours care.
Serious lapses in care have also occurred, unfortunately. For pet parents, this means they often have to grapple with difficulty with getting an appointment, long waiting times and limited 24-hour and emergency vet services.
Even if they can get an appointment, they often have to deal with the lack of pet-friendly travel options, not to mention the stress of travelling to and being at the clinic for their pets are subjected to. All these pain points discourage pet parents from taking their pet to see the veterinarian as regularly as they should.
An all-in-one digital solution
Now, imagine an all-in-one digital platform where veterinarians can connect with their clients and patients online anytime, anywhere, enabling them to extend care beyond the physical limitations of their clinics. Moreover, if telemedicine is unsuitable for a pet’s condition, they can refer the case to a clinic for a physical examination.
They can also digitally issue and deliver prescriptions to pet parents (instead of having unnecessary human traffic in their practice from medication top-ups). Veterinary practices can receive and organise physical appointment requests online, which, aside from offering pet parents a lot of conveniences, eases the administrative burden on their staff.
Taken together, the platform enables them to handle a large volume of cases digitally rather than having every single case – big or small – come into the clinic. This allows clinics to focus on complex cases in person, which undoubtedly maximises their in-clinic capacity.
Most importantly, such a platform enables veterinarians to be the first responder and advise on the best course of action whenever pet owners face a health situation with their pets. No more having to turn down appointments and say hello to round-the-clock veterinary care!
For pet parents, instead of having trouble accessing expert advice and turning to the internet for the wrong answers, they can now simply consult a veterinarian online anytime, anywhere. When their pets’ condition is unsuitable for telemedicine, they are seamlessly referred to a clinic for a physical consultation. They can also book an appointment online for an in-clinic consultation directly (instead of the archaic way of calling the clinic).
Also Read: What telemedicine and Health Tech holds across SEA amidst COVID-19
Following each consultation, they are issued digital prescriptions for their pets and simply get them filled and delivered via the platform (no more trips to the veterinary clinic just to top up long-term medications, too!).
Last but not least, owners can now store and update electronic health records of their pets in a single complete digital platform (versus receiving a loose copy of the medical report for each veterinary visit). All-in-all, this eliminates all the hassle of seeing a vet the traditional way.
Such convenience should encourage pet parents to practise preventive healthcare by increasing the frequency of check-ups for their pets, boosting their chances of survival when illnesses are diagnosed early on.
Telemedicine has been commonly practised in healthcare for humans, but adopting such technology for pets is still relatively new. As with human telemedicine, telemedicine for pets is not intended to replace physical in-clinic care but rather complement it by providing on-demand access to veterinary care for pets with non-emergency conditions such as minor concerns, surgical reviews, palliative care or behavioural changes, etc.
However, amazing as it is, telemedicine as a standalone service is inadequate as access to in-clinic care is important when telemedicine is insufficient for a pet’s condition. More importantly, when there is a need for any teleconsultation to be referred to a vet clinic, there must be continuity of care such that the in-clinic veterinarian receiving the referral can access beforehand the medical history of the patient and be prepared to provide the necessary diagnostic or treatment plan. Thus, this requires a centralised digital depository of pets’ medical records.
As both pet parents and veterinary medicine providers, all the considerations set out above were of utmost priority when we were developing Pawlyclinic, a complete pet healthcare platform that comprises two portals: the Owner Portal and the Vet Portal, in a unified ecosystem.
The motivation to start Pawlyclinic was crystallised after seeing first-hand the pain points for both pet parents and veterinary care providers in the traditional veterinary practice. We believe technology and innovation can systematically address these pain points and make veterinary care omnipresent, simple and efficient for all pet parents.
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