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Article: Companion animal industry's digital revolution is being sped up by coronavirus
02 June 2020
This is article is taken from our animal health platform
dated 27/05/20.
While the trend of digitally focused business in animal health
started to grow before COVID-19, the companion animal sector is now
witnessing an even greater uptake of technology.
We can expect to see a revolutionary shift towards a digitised
approach led by what the millennial generation wants from animal
health.
Early indications suggest up to 40% of primary consultations
will be undertaken remotely or electronically in the future. This
will be hastened by the role of COVID-19, where pet owners have had
to get used to not going to the vet and instead consulting 'Dr
Google' or engaging with the plethora of new telehealth
platforms.
In fact, we can quite quickly expect to see the development of
all the different tele-advice, tele-triage, tele-consulting and
telemedicine-type platforms.
I'm currently reviewing over 30 leading telehealth providers in
the animal space in Europe and the US. They offer a bewildering
array of services now, from multi-person video conferencing through
to integration with pet wearables. No two are the same and, when
you look at what they offer combined in their entirety, you could
wonder why you'd ever need to take your pet to a bricks and mortar
vet clinic.
Obviously, pet owners will still need to make a visit to a
professional as there are some conditions that require direct
contact with a vet, including the administration of vaccines and
surgery. But there are a host of other areas that lend themselves
to some form of telemedicine. Certainly, first opinion
consultations, tele-triage and some specialisms such as
dermatology, for example, could easily utilise remote medicine
techniques.
We are also going to see a dramatic change in all other services
that accompany telemedicine. For example, there are apps that can
identify lameness in dogs much better than the human eye.
There are also 'smart' litter trays that, every time the cat
goes in, monitor how much it urinates and defecates,
differentiating between the two. Using a digital camera, it can
also observe the facial expressions of a cat to determine whether
it is in pain. This is important when you understand cats are only
likely to display these behaviours when they're in a secluded place
like a covered litter tray. The information can then be transferred
to your phone and straight to the vet's clinic.
The hardware is developing quickly, with future models
anticipated to include a thermal imaging or doppler - allowing the
remote assessment of vital signs, such as body temperature and
heart rate.
There are lots of opportunities for change to remote medicine
when looking at digital approaches to monitoring and treating
companion animals. So, who is going to drive these changes? Is this
coming from the animal health companies, many of which have now
dipped their toes into this sector?
Zoetis, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, MSD Animal Health,
Ceva Santé Animale and Vetoquinol all have a digital platform or
means of digitally interacting with customers and animal owners.
Zoetis has just launched a new pet insurance agency and pet care
company called Pumpkin with what it calls a "best-in-class
technology platform" to help pet owners ensure their cats and dogs
get timely treatments.
There are also the animal health distributors who won't want to
be cut out of this growth sector. We know a digitisation can
shorten supply chains - we've seen the dominance of Amazon and
similar platforms in this sector.
So, what are they going to do to defend their
market?
They have strong relationships with veterinary clinics and the
drive to innovate, helping their customers to maintain a close
relationship with the pet and pet owner. We know from the livestock
sector that technology, especially where professional advice
benefits the interpretation, increases the stickiness of owners to
the vet channel.
We shouldn't ignore giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon
either. They are all looking at the sector in some way. They've
probably determined it's too small a sector to deploy a huge amount
of resources but anything they can easily grab a market share of,
they probably will.
With technology an even more constant companion than our pets,
it makes sense to use it effectively to look after our companion
animals. Many great solutions are already available and you can be
sure there's more to come.