Vets and Animal Health 2.0

What’s in it for the veterinarian?
We have made the observation that most animal healthcare professionals (veterinarians, (professional) animal owners, scientists) will be willing to adopt the principles of Animal Health 2.0, but only it they see and perceive real benefits from it. In this article I would like to focus on the veterinarian. Why would vets be tempted to use new media? What specific needs do vets have that (partially) could be met by the use of new media? We believe the following areas cover most of the drivers of AH2.0.

Bring money
Obviously vets are interested to see how new media can bring them money. They see the added value of better communication with clients or prospects; they believe in bringing in new customers by increasing their online presence and/or improving their reputation as individual practitioner or veterinary practice. They are interested in 3rd party contribution for content on their website or digital newsletter, since that binds existing customers to their vet. The improved communication between vets and clients (in both directions) will be the main driver for the adoption of AH2.0.

Save time
The biggest scarcity for the average vet is time. Most of the days, his or her agenda is overloaded. Not just with seeing clients and performing surgery, but also with a variety of overhead activities and practice management. A vet needs to see representatives from the pharmaceutical industry to stay abreast with the latest information on drug developments and to secure the procurement of medicines at affordable prices. She needs to take care that the practice works according to approved administrative procedures that meet formal legal, fiscal and commercial requirements. Any form of new media support that allows her to save time in all these overhead activities is welcome.

Have fun
Some of the required activities of the vet are boring. Writing and distributing newsletters is usually seen as a necessary task, but also not a very rewarding one. Dealing with all kind of simple questions on the phone absorbs much time and brings little joy. Having tools in place to assist the vet with some of these tedious tasks would bring more fun to the job of a veterinary professional.

Build skills
Always keen on honing technical skills, the average vet spends much time in reading scientific journals, browsing the web or visiting post-graduate training programs and scientific congresses. Many vets consider professional education by learning through new media as an important emerging area. Not only by e-learning as such, but also by seeing video-recordings of presentations at far-away congresses or other events. Such virtual presence saves them the time (and money) for physical participation.

Vets are human beings too and many of them want to stay connected with their (international) peers. They want to share their experiences and build a reputation in a specialized field (e.g. oncology). Social networks are platforms that enable people to link to each other and create a virtual collection of peers with the same interest and/or knowledge, or find people from which you can learn and be inspired by. Knowledge will disperse through the network and eventually benefit the entire community.

The future of personal communication

In case you have been living under a rock or just returned from your Mars trip, Apple has just launched their next iteration of personal computing: the iPad. The device is already a phenomenon from a marketing point of view, now it has to live up to its expectations.

Apple placed the bar pretty high. In a 1.5 hour presentation Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO and digital guru, exposed one feature after another. In short, the iPad is a 1.5 pounds, 9.7 inch aluminium embodied multitouch device which runs on the popular iPhone OS. Basically it’s a big ass iPod touch. Good thing is that the device will run the 140,000+ apps from the App Store out of the box. Developers can redesign their iPhone apps to make use of the screen estate, or develop apps specifically for the iPad. And now things are getting interesting.

So what does a product launch of a computer company has to do with Animal Health 2.0? For that, we need to take a step back and look at our big sister, Health 2.0.

Lack of style
The iPad -or at least we think- is trying to compete with several product categories, one of which is used pretty often in Health 2.0: the Tablet PC. The Tablet PC was already identified as a killer product by Bill Gates in 2003, but he was a bit too early. Although used a lot in human healthcare, the available devices always lacked the stylish form factor (take this one as an example) or -obviously- the polished and user friendly user interface. Some companies even designed a tablet specifically for healthcare, such as the C5 Mobile Clinical Assistant Tablet. The advantages for a tablet PC are a plenty: mobility, the ability to present something more easily, no need for a keyboard, lighter to handle.

One of the issues with common tablet PC’s is that the operating system is not really designed for touch. Most Tablet PS’s have to be operated using a stylus and interaction between the user and the software can feel a bit sluggish. Apple seems to have done their homework. As identified by MedicalTabletPC in a recent article, “it’s the Operating System, not the form factor”. They might be right. With the iPad’s multi-touch interface already field-tested by millions of users having an iPhone it sure is a breeze to use. And what about the App Store? With more than 10,000 apps for medical use in the App Store there’s no denying that the medical profession has a certain interest.

Horse manure
What about Animal Health? Are tablet PCs used here too? No doubt some forward-thinking veterinarians are making use of these devices, but to our knowledge this is a minority. Also no activity can be seen on a more commercial level, such as companies developing Tablet PC functionalities for Animal Health. This is strange, because such a device can have a significant value for the profession. Take a veterinarian for example. Many veterinarians have a rather mobile existence. Especially livestock veterinarians who sometimes drive many, many miles to a customer. Diagnosing or helping with farm management often requires access to information via a computer. But conditions are not always optimal. In a stable there are low light conditions, it can be cold and sometimes a lot of things are happening. Just popping out your new Dell laptop just doesn’t do it. Ever seen horse manure between your keys on your keyboard? But may be a iPad without keys might do the trick at those situations. But also showing the farmer the latest results of a lab test while the guy is walking around the premises would be a bit easier when you carry around an iPad.

Learning smarter, communicating better
And what about education? The iPad is already slated for the ‘next big thing’ for the K12 market. Having iTunes U (lectures in video and/or audio from many universities) within the hands of a veterinary student, instant access to the internet, specific apps for the curriculum and having all the study books on one device will have a profound impact om the way we learn.

Next up, the industry. No doubt the iPad will have to find its place between the commonly used laptop and the mobile phone. Will it cannibalize on the laptop or will it be a new product category, just as Steve Jobs is predicting? From a personal communication point of view -something the industry uses to sell their product or service- I can not think of a better device to convey a message to a customer than the iPad. Think of it as a brochure on steroids: interactive, multimedia and flexible. What else could you wish for? It’s common knowledge that the human pharmaceutical industry is exploring the use of iApps, such as J&J for example, and I have no doubt that the veterinary pharmaceutical industry will follow suit.

Talking pills – is there an App for that?
Finally a few words on the potential use of the iPad on the world of science (thus also veterinary science). It takes only a bit of imagination to realize that the ecosystem of the iPad, with the possibility to design specific apps for just about anything, will also spur innovation in this area. Many, many apps for science are already available on the App Store and more will follow now there’s more screen to use. In a recent article in the Economist Novartis invested $24 million to secure exclusive licences and options on drug-delivery technologies developed by Proteus Biomedical, a Californian start-up. According to the article the company has technology “which enables pills to relay data about a patient back to doctors after they have been swallowed”. And that data is being read by mobile devices, such as the iPad.

I personally believe the possibilities are endless. Just two days after the announcement of the iPad the nay-sayers are abundantly present. And albeit the iPad is not perfect yet, it’s pretty clear where this technology is taking us. Many clones will follow, and that’s good for innovation. I was listening to a podcast the other day, discussing the launch of the iPad. One of the guys made a remark that stuck with me: “Since this week, we officially entered the Star Trek-age”.

Here are some more articles on the use of the iPad in the health environment. Let it inspire us for the use in Animal Health.

Apple iPad: Promising Features For Healthcare Use and Medical Education

Five Lessons Apple must learn from current Healthcare Tablets if the Apple Tablet (iPad) is to Succeed in the Medical Industry

How the Apple Tablet (iPad) Could Transform the Way Patients Experience Healthcare

Why do we need Animal Health 2.0?

The veterinary profession is a noble one and many vets feel a passion for what they do. Even in modern times, with all the daily hectic and increasing economic pressure, most vets have a high intrinsic motivation to cure sick animals, prevent them from becoming ill and advise animal owners on all aspects of keeping their animals in the best possible health condition.

In many countries, veterinarians hold a high societal standing and are seen not only as the first-line professionals to deal with animal health, but also as the gatekeepers of animal welfare, food safety and public health (especially in relation to diseases that can be transferred from animals to human beings).
The important societal role of the veterinarian would benefit significantly from modern ways of communication. Several Web 2.0 communication tools may reduce the distance between the vet and his client and facilitate a free flow of information between them, strengthening the trust between both parties. But the reality of today shows that many vets consider good client communication as cumbersome. They were not educated on topics like marketing communication; they were not trained to convey their message and their added value in a professional manner and they simply lack the time to study the specifics of the ever growing number of digital media at their disposal.

Prosumers are coming
At the same time, pet owners and professional animal care takers are spending more and more time on the web. They are familiarizing themselves with new ways of building know-how through digital channels. They acquire information on the health of their animals that wasn’t available to them 10 years ago. They educate themselves on all kind of veterinary topics and prepare themselves towards asking the right questions during the next visit to (or from) their vet. More and more consumers are interested in using digital media to communicate with their vets. Making an online appointment for a vaccination, asking questions on certain clinical signs, following a pet that needs to stay in the clinic for a surgical treatment, keeping record of the treatments that their animals have received and the resulting effect, and many, many more possibilities are emerging as applications of digital communication tools. Driven by the needs of animal owners, veterinarians will begin to recognize how much value can be created in the relationship with their clients by deploying some of these new technologies.

Web 2.0 technologies
We believe that veterinarians in general are open-minded towards using new technologies, but simply lack the time to really learn and understand how to do so. When given the tools to adopt those technologies in a concise and digestible way, vets will be able to use newly emerging media much more effectively and efficiently. They will see that expanding their communication toolkit will not only improve their business, but also safe them time. This blog hopes to contribute to that process of increasing the awareness and adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the veterinary market.

In next blogposts we will be exploring what these new technologies are, the pros and cons and how they are used in similar areas. We will start with the basis and work our way through these digital communication tools. Heck, we might even attempt to find examples in the animal healthcare of these technologies. Have a suggestion? Leave a comment.

Animal Health 2.0 has finally arrived!

In human pharma, the term Health 2.0 is gaining momentum rapidly. Driven by the enormous popularity of the internet in gathering health related information, consumers are becoming increasingly more knowledgeable about their own personal health status. Physicians are confronted with a new generation of patients that behave like “prosumers”, a term used for non-professionals with a significant amount of internet-derived knowledge. In animal health, this phenomenon is still waiting to happen. But also animal owners (be it in a professional setting or as private pet owner) start finding their way onto the internet and start educating themselves on the health of the animals that depend on them.

Trends in animal health
This increasing digital awareness amongst animal owners will trigger the need for more interaction within a wide and diverse array of people, all dealing with the health of animals. Veterinarians will want better tools to talk to their clients, and the other way around. Scientists will see the benefit of discussing directly with animal health professionals or even pet owners in the field, potentially identifying unmet needs. Professional animal care takers will see new opportunities to have easy access to their animal’s medical folders or to interact 24/7 with their own veterinary doctor or other vets all over the world.

In addition we see an ever increasing trend towards the improvement of animal welfare. People are becoming more aware of their social responsibility, the way they use the resources of this planet and how we treat the animals that are part of our food chain. Whether you agree or disagree, fact is that people eat animals. Fortunately it’s becoming public understanding that these animals should be treated the best way we can.

Transparency
New media will expand beyond the current borders of social media and will increasingly be used to communicate and share information between parties in animal health, that so far were largely confined to geographical territories and continents. If your dog shows itching, you can find the differential diagnosis on a wide variety of blogs, fora or online communities from anywhere in the world. Just like new media are enabling the citizen to become an active and responsible partner in his/her own health and care pathway, so will they facilitate the free flow of information in the animal health industry and markets. We envision that transparency is key in this new world. Transparency that will enable stakeholders in animal health to have insight in each other’s knowledge, tap into it and use it to improve this important area.

Why this blog?
This blog aims at capturing knowledge and expertise on the use of digital media within animal health with the intention of sharing and thus truly collaborating in animal care. We believe that in the near future, animal health will no longer be the exclusive territory of veterinarians, but the product of shared interests in a wide network of players in this market. Whether people simply want to make an online appointment with the veterinarian of their choice or acquire more extensive knowledge on the potential disease of their animal, Animal Health 2.0 will be here to stay.

This blog will cover all existing or emerging technologies, that can improve communication between animal lovers and veterinary professionals or that can open up new ways of collaboration, always aimed at the well-being and health of our domestic animals.

In future blogposts we will be exploring the changes that Animal Health 2.0 will bring us and how those changes affect the actors that are involved in this play. We invite you to participate, comment or add suggestions to all of our posts. You’re most welcome.