February 26, 2024
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The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into veterinary medicine is often met with concern about its impact on the profession. However, the true essence of AI's role is to support veterinarians, enabling them to focus more on what matters most: the care and well-being of their animal patients. This post aims to demystify the role of AI in veterinary practices and highlight how it actually creates opportunities rather than threats. The TL;DR is that AI is here to support veterinary professionals in reducing the amount of time spent on tedious or repetitive work.
Truth: AI is not here to replace veterinarians but to support them. By handling data-heavy tasks, AI allows veterinarians to dedicate more time to the critical aspects of care that require their unique expertise and emotional intelligence, such as surgery, patient interaction, and complex decision-making. Being able to delegate these repetitive tasks to AI will unlock time for veterinary professionals to attend to patients and other tasks.
Truth: AI is creating new roles within veterinary medicine, not eliminating them. In most clinics that are already using AI within their processes, we have seen no reduction in work force, instead a reallocation. By moving away from tedious and redundant tasks, people there have a greater work satisfaction by doing work that truly matters. This might mean technicians that had been acting as scribes, spending their time with patients or veterinarians being able to see more patients in a day. Ultimately, the demand for veterinary professionals has never been higher, AI is simply helping meet that demand.
Truth: Although AI can monitor and analyze some behaviors, it cannot replace the nuanced understanding veterinarians have of animal behavior and well-being. Veterinarians interpret behaviors within a broader context, including the animal's medical history and environmental factors, ensuring personalized and compassionate care. AI can help point out trends based on data, but the diagnosis and decision comes down to the veterinarian.
Truth: Like any technology, AI has limitations and relies on the quality of the data it has been trained on. Veterinarians are essential for evaluating AI-generated insights, combining them with their professional judgment to make informed decisions about animal care. We believe that as AI becomes a more central part of the veterinarian profession, there are opportunities for veterinarians to help improve AI models.
AI in veterinary medicine is a catalyst for enhancing the veterinarian's role, not diminishing it. By automating and refining diagnostic processes, AI allows veterinarians to concentrate on the aspects of their job that require a human touch—diagnosing, treating, and forming meaningful connections with their animal patients. Far from being a threat, AI is a powerful ally that empowers veterinarians to provide even better care, making the profession more rewarding and impactful than ever.
At VetRec, we are building that future with veterinarians around the world. With VetRec, we automatically record and transcribe your consultations to write your SOAP and discharge notes, as well as extract insights from your consultations. VetRec, reduces the chance for mistakes by safeguarding the responses based on your consultation information. Get started today for free at https://app.vetrec.io or book a demo with us to show you what VetRec can do.
