Telehealth for human healthcare has been around for over 40 years (even longer if one went by the first reference in 1950), but it did not gain momentum until 2012, when the telemedicine market grew by 60%. In 1993, the American Telehealth Association (ATA) was established to advance and advocate for telehealth in the United States. I firmly believe that everything we have seen in human telehealth will be occurring and has occurred in Veterinary medicine on a very similar timeline.
Why do I say this? Well, think about your own experience with your healthcare since the pandemic. How often do you see your physician in a face-to-face visit versus a virtual one? Separating face-to-face care from virtual visits enhances healthcare efficiency by reducing in-person wait times, optimizing provider schedules, and allowing for more flexible, timely patient access to care. Clients will expect the same level of care from their Veterinary providers as their human healthcare providers, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.
Looking back over the years since the pandemic, I see that there has been a fascinating and similar journey in the Veterinary profession for telehealth. My personal journey with telehealth started when I was on one of my first consulting assignments. New and “green around the ears” when it came to consulting in the Veterinary profession, I was assigned to expand industry partnerships by looking for major strategic opportunities in telehealth versus adding a 24/7 technician/nurse line to a policy. I can still recall the first call that came in from a telehealth service provider who wanted to pitch us on bringing telehealth in for all policyholders.
This opportunity progressed quite nicely with the culmination of a meeting at the McCormick Center in 2013 when the AVMA’s Annual Convention was in Chicago. From that point, the pet insurance company became the first to launch a product in the Veterinary space. Although there may have been a couple of smaller startups at that time, no one had a significant initiative that gained traction and was widely accepted. Since then, I’ve seen considerable advancements in telehealth, not only in providing a service for those who are insured, which is logical because all of your human insurance policies have the same service provided, but also in companies offering services for after-hours teletriage and daytime overflow.
Pet insurance companies, focused on acquiring new policies and ongoing renewals, wanted pet parents to use their policies several times a year. Adding a telehealth provider to the insurance policy couldn’t hurt because pet parents expected the same service for their pets as they were receiving for their health. With ongoing use, virtual care provides opportunities to educate pet parents and to have more access to care for the pets, leading to greater engagement between pet parents and Veterinary professionals and better health outcomes for the pet. It’s a win-win for everyone, with more companies and pet parents recognizing the benefits.
In 2020, the Veterinary Virtual Care Association (VVCA) was formed and has been a key driver and the leader in the space to help advance telehealth. I joined that organization as a founding board member in the first year. I was incredibly honored to help determine strategy moving forward with a group of talented founding board member colleagues. Mark Cushing, JD, CEO and Founder of Animal Policy Group, sees the future of Veterinary telehealth this way, “The evolution of Veterinary telehealth is not just a trend, but a necessity. With states reassessing how the Veterinary Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR) can be established remotely, telemedicine will soon become a cornerstone of care delivery. The future belongs to those practices that embrace digital-first solutions.” Today’s veterinarians need to stay updated on both medical advancements and the use of telemedicine in providing care.
The VVCA and supporting sponsors have made significant progress at the state level. The ongoing challenges involve engaging with Veterinary professionals to develop best practices, educating pet parents, and advocating for policy changes supporting quality virtual care. As more progress is made at the state level, we will, in my opinion, follow a journey similar to human healthcare and see more numerous telehealth Veterinary business models and cross-state licensure.
For example, new Veterinary practices are starting out with SOPs and workflows that incorporate telehealth services as part of their core business model. Look at BondVet, Modern Animal, or Pet Folk as examples of success in this area. The other developing market segment is telehealth providers’ after-hours and day-time overflow services. Those services are successful because they support the current goal of ensuring that pet parents stay with the Veterinary practice by bonding with the pet parent and encouraging frequent visits instead of hearing a recorded voicemail telling them to call an emergency clinic. Those telehealth providers that triage cases, sending appropriate cases to emergency facilities while having others visit their PCP the next day, help practices to maintain relationships, revenue, and continuity of care—all of which play a role in better health outcomes for pets. If your after-hours support for a client is a voicemail box that sends them to the emergency clinic, and that’s it, you are missing a huge opportunity to engage with your client.
This doesn’t mean established brick-and-mortar Veterinary practices should ignore advances in virtual care use. These practices will continue to face challenges in changing workflows for better efficiency and addressing the demands of today’s pet parents. Virtual care can complement traditional practice models by bridging gaps in accessibility while enabling the Veterinary team to be more efficient and productive. Forward-thinking clinics are integrating telehealth into their workflow, offering hybrid care models that combine in-person visits with virtual follow-ups. As policies evolve to balance accessibility with quality standards, telehealth is positioned to become a permanent fixture in Veterinary medicine. The ongoing efforts to refine regulations will ensure that pet owners can benefit from convenient, high-quality care while maintaining their trusted relationships with their veterinarians.
Looking toward the future, the rising demand for Veterinary telehealth reflects both the convenience and accessibility it offers to pet owners, especially in follow-ups and remote consultations. Platforms and apps leverage advances in AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) to enhance telemonitoring and diagnostic capabilities. Furthermore, cost savings for both veterinarians and pet owners, along with reduced wait times, have increased the attractiveness of virtual care solutions. This promising growth trajectory for 2024 to 2032 suggests that Veterinary telehealth is becoming a vital part of the animal healthcare ecosystem, providing both economic and practical benefits to providers and pet owners alike, according to Expert Market Research, Grand View Research, and Future Market Insights.
In conclusion, what do I see? I see a bright future. Whether you decide to implement virtual care in your practice or not is up to you, but the reality is that your clients are going to use it and are already using it. This is a good thing because access to care equals education, and education equals engagement.
Engagement results in better health outcomes and better visits to your Veterinary practice, so if you see the value of implementing it in your practice, that’s great, but if you do not, the service will be out there, and your clients will use it. They will become better informed and educated, bringing them into the practice, which is what you want. The future is bright, as people say, “so bright you gotta wear shades.”
This might sound corny, but let’s pull out those shades and keep working to improve the health of pets.