There Are Animal Spirits in This Health-Care Business

The animal health industry has many difference facets and each of them is fascinating. Working and understanding the various sectors of animal health is what makes my job so interesting.

Here are some highlights form an interesting article:

“57% of U.S. households owned a pet in 2016, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association—but dogs and cats are also living longer and are being treated more like humans by their owners in terms of medical care”

“Last year, U.S. pet owners rang up an estimated $15.5 billion on over-the-counter medicine and supplies, more than double $6.2 billion in 2001, says the American Pet Products Association”

“The global animal-health industry is projected to grow at a 5% compound annual rate from 2017 to 2023”

“Health care for animals has certain advantages over health care for humans. The industry doesn’t have to contend that much with pricing pressure from insurance companies, as most medical expenses are paid out of pocket. Although more pet insurance is becoming available, it’s not widely used just yet “

“The livestock business boils down to feeding more people as they become wealthier and eat more meat”

“The livestock side of animal health, meanwhile, hinges on protein production, whether it is milk, cheese, beef, poultry, pork, or fish. It’s tied to global population growth and evolving palates, as the middle class expands, particularly in developing markets. “

One Health the importance of cooperation and collaboration

“Improvements in surveillance and data sharing for prioritized zoonotic diseases and enhancements of laboratory testing and joint outbreak response capacities in the human and animal health sectors will create and strengthen the mechanisms necessary to effectively detect and respond to emerging health threats, and thereby enhance global health security”

Officials Step Up Swine Fever Checks to Protect U.S. Hog Industry

“A deadly virus that has decimated Chinese hog herds has prompted buyers in the world’s largest pork market to purchase more of the meat from U.S. producers for the first time in a year.

Now U.S. officials are enlisting sniffer dogs and other heightened monitoring efforts to help protect that hog-market rally. They are inspecting shipments of live hogs, frozen meat and other goods into the U.S. for evidence of African swine fever”

Why measuring outcomes is important in health care

This is my latest perspective paper on JVIM on value based care.

“Use of patient-reported outcomes is an essential aspect for improving clinical care, because it

enhances the connections among doctors and with patients. Designing and implementing

owner-reported outcomes in veterinary clinical practice will lead to an understanding of the

effects of treatments on outcomes and quality of life (QOL) of our patients from the owner's

perspective, a key way to assess a veterinary patient's QOL”

Nobody Wants a Waiting Room

As a proponent of value based health care in veterinary medicine, I am always intrigued by ways we could improve patient care learning from the human side.

Organizing the health care team around the patient’s clinical condition, with follow up throughout the whole cycle of care is a key component for value based care.

I found this article on eliminating waiting rooms in a health care organization very interesting. Their thought process is that by eliminating waiting rooms, they would improve health care team collaboration and patient experience. Furthermore, it could improve infection prevention.

I have not seen a vet hospital with no waiting room. Could we in veterinary medicine learn from this?

“The waiting room is nothing more than a temporary stock room, or intermediate warehouse for patients with billable conditions that feed exam rooms every 10–15 minutes …. No health care provider I know actually views patients as a packaged revenue opportunity, but the fee-for-service system has incentivized this warehousing behavior. “

“Rather than delivering patients serially to one exam room after another, each owned by a different provider, we made the patients the owner of their own rooms, and instead, circulated the providers to the patients.”

Antibiotic Stewardship

“Preventative medicine and responsible use can help protect antibiotics for future generations. “

1. Strong biosecurity & Infection Prevention to stop pathogenic microorganisms from ever entering facilities

2. Vigilant disease monitoring (surveillance & point of care diagnostics) so that a health issue can be treated as soon as possible before it becomes more serious

3. Follow veterinarians' advice and treatment, and complete all necessary follow ups

The importance of vaccination and One Health

Vaccines can:

- Prevent pet disease, meaning lower risk of illness throughout animals' lives

- Protect your family: people and animals share some common infections

- Reduce the need for antibiotics or other treatments

When It Comes To Precautions During Disease Outbreaks, Don’t Forget The Farrier

“As EHV-1 outbreaks continue to dominate the horse care news cycle, managers and horsemen are asking what they can do to minimize the risk of this and other communicable diseases. Most farms have a protocol that visitors and personnel must follow, but sometimes a farm overlooks its farrier when it comes to biosecurity. “