Telemedicine brings specialists to vets

Jan 22, 2001, 12:00am EST

 

Joni Strandquest

 

 

 

Ever wonder who really cares if a 110-pound rat is healthy, if a man-sized poisonous snake has liver problems, or whether a killer whale is pregnant or has cardiac disease?

Bill Campbell, president of Remote Veterinary Consultants Inc., does. Thanks to the increasing availability of technology and the growing field of veterinary telemedicine, he is helping provide specialist diagnoses to small, large and exotic animals around the world.

Telemedicine is especially useful for vets. In human medicine, radiologists and other medical specialists are on almost every street corner. But in veterinary medicine, specialists are scattered.

"Within the United States there are only about 200 veterinary radiologists," Campbell said. "Atlanta doesn't have one. We do have a number of internal medicine doctors, but to the best of my knowledge, Atlanta doesn't even have a certified veterinary cardiologist or oncologist."

For veterinary clinicians who use his company's services, telemedicine levels the playing field and brings the expertise of specialists into the general practitioner's office. The costs of veterinary care are reduced because diagnoses are made quickly, treatments can start in the early stages of a disease process and the patient outcome is better.

Telemedicine can also minimize travel. Local veterinarians' capabilities of diagnoses and treatments have been limited until recently, forcing pet owners, with ill animal in tow, to head to university research hospitals as far away as Athens and Auburn, Ala.

Not having to make that journey "is a huge relief to the animal physically and psychologically," Campbell said. "And telemedicine offers benefits to the veterinarian, timewise and emotionally."

 

Using ultrasound

 

Campbell, who is a registered diagnostic medical sonographer, began his career in ultrasound 30 years ago in human medicine. But after performing his first veterinary ultrasound in 1972, Campbell said he became hooked on the idea of using ultrasound as a diagnostic tool for animals and taking it to the masses.

"The biggest thing RemoteVet has accomplished is the empowerment of veterinary practices to move into the dynamic field of ultrasound for diagnostic purposes," Campbell said. "Veterinarians are able to move into this quickly because with telemedicine they can now have a boarded specialist look at the work they do."

"Cardiac disease is probably the most common disease diagnosed via ultrasound," Campbell said. But other diagnoses can also be made when board-certified veterinary specialists view microscope images, skin lesions and X-rays via telemedicine.

Veterinarians can purchase ultrasound equipment, hardware and software -- ranging from $1,400 to $52,000 -- to connect into the RemoteVet telemedicine system. Through the use of online training and coaching, doctors are taught how to utilize the equipment and transmit digital images via the Internet for the purpose of reading and diagnosis by veterinary specialists throughout the world. The fee passed down to the patient could be as low as $50 or as high as $300 depending upon the types of tests conducted and specialists consulted.

With approximately 750 sites installed nationwide, RemoteVet expects about $4 million in revenue this fiscal year. At present, Campbell estimates about 4 percent of veterinarians in North America use telemedicine as a way to offer clients better care and increase revenue.

 

Part of tech explosion

 

Education also is a big part of the telemedicine movement. Through the utilization of antennas and satellite links, RemoteVet offers high-resolution images in conjunction with online teleconferencing for discussion of diagnoses or for continuing-education purposes.

"It's a store-and-forward technology which allows talking heads and streaming video eight times faster than what DSL offers," Campbell said. "There may be nearly as many vet offices hooked to true telemedicine as there are human offices, and I'd like people to know that their veterinarians are very much a part of the technological explosion of what's going on out there."

"Veterinary medicine is not only keeping pace with human medicine; in some instances it is outgrowing it," Campbell said.

Larry Tilley, an internal veterinary medicine specialist and the founder of VetMedCenter (formerly known as VetExchange Inc.), said he believes technology is a great gift to the veterinary profession. "Utilizing telemedicine, I've been able to give expertise to help the veterinarian, the pet owner and the pet. It's upgraded the profession and offered better care."

For diagnostic purposes, Tilley looks at anything that can capture images -- from photos taken with a $600 digital camera, electrocardiograms, blood test results and radiographic images.

"The fee we charge the vets is right around $40," he said. "We can make it pretty cost-effective because the technology makes it smooth to generate the data and do a [consultation]. They dial us up at vetmedcenter.com, and they don't have to have the software stored on their computer."

Not all vets are convinced that telemedicine has a place in their practices.

"We've been outsourcing to specialists," said Thomas H. Hyatt III, DVM, with Loving Touch Animal Center P.C. "Specialists have their place with both hands-on and surgery."

But if a vet is using telemedicine to look at diagnostics through ultrasound or cytopathology, "then I can speak more knowledgeably to my client," he said. "And that is a good thing."