Veterinary Telemedicine: A System Dynamics Case Study

Abstract

Veterinary telemedicine has existed since the late 1990s. Various scholars have predicted its growth, others its decline. We constructed a system dynamics model of a veterinary telemedicine company providing services in one specialty in the industry. The model showed that severe shortages of specialists would limit growth in that, even with extensive marketing efforts. This limitation is likely to hold in other aspects of veterinary telemedicine. The paper concludes with recommendations for the company and the industry.

Seeing the benefits, but not taking advantage of them: Dog and cat owners’ beliefs about veterinary telemedicine

“…The questionnaire content was developed based on a transnational questionnaire study revealing veterinarians' attitudes towards a variety of aspects of modern small animal practice. [28][29][30][31] In relation to specific questions that address the use of telemedicine, a literature review was conducted 2,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]19,20 and served as the main basis for the development of items. Detailed information about the development of the survey in the three different languages and stages of pre-testing can be found in Supporting Information S3.…”

“…The possibility of this has gained increasing attention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] From a client perspective, telemedicine offers various benefits, including avoiding transporting the rely on owners' descriptions because they cannot physically examine the patient, which may increase the risk of mistakes in diagnosis and subsequent patient care. [19][20][21] With this in mind, veterinary organisations emphasise that telemedicine can only be provided in an appropriate way if a veterinarian-clientpatient relationship has already been established.…”

“…Telemedicine can be offered in a variety of formats, such as telephone, video call or web streaming, 3,4 allowing clients to have a consultation with a veterinarian without having to bring the animal to the clinic. The possibility of this has gained increasing attention in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic 3,5–14 …”

Dynamics of the welfare of dairy cattle affected by podopathies as support for veterinary expertise

“…Esta metodologia vem sendo usada na etologia aplicada para avaliar a complexidade das relações homem-animal integrando o conhecimento multidisciplinar em busca de soluções práticas para problemas subjacentes (Costa et al, 2021;Toledo et al, 2018). O uso da Dinâmica de Sistemas na prática dos médicos veterinários é encorajado por Groves (2018) e vem sendo aplicada em várias áreas da pesquisa veterinária (Voyer & Jordan, 2018;Wilson et al, 2017).…”