Veterinary Telehealth

Veterinary Telehealth

Veterinary telehealth is the practice of veterinary medicine which might be consultation, diagnosis of a disease, or treatment from a distance using telecommunication, where animal owners can easily contact a veterinarian. Telehealth can be better defined as a practice tool of medicine that involves sharing health status information regarding a patient’s health through electronic methods. Telehealth is just an alternative to traditional medical consultations in person, it can be opted as a complementary tool. There is a compulsory requirement of valid VCPR, i.e., veterinary-client-patient relationship. Additionally, all the other regulatory document requirements like the informed consent form must exist. The ownership of all valid documents can allow a veterinarian practitioner to consult a patient through telecommunication. The basic animal type that can receive telehealth benefits includes canine, feline, equine, bovine, swine, and others. They can avail services of telehealth through telemedicine, teleconsulting, telemonitoring, and others. Several factors, including a surge in the incidence of zoonotic illnesses, osteoarthritis in dogs due to obesity and chronic diseases in the kidney, and increased usage of the management systems are driving the growth of the market during the forecast period.

The Veterinary Telehealth Market is expected to grow at a steady rate of around 18% owing to the increased prevalence of animal illness incidences globally. Several factors, such as the adoption of sedentary lifestyles by pets like dogs, unnatural habitats for survival, rising preference for management devices and others are leading drivers of veterinary telehealth globally. According to World Health Organization (WHO) data for the year 2021, zoonotic illnesses cause approximately 1 million cases of sickness and about a million deaths every year, whereas zoonotic diseases cause roughly the majority of new illnesses globally. Apart from this, the Internet of Things(IoT) is driving this market of telehealth at a steady rate. Pet owners of this era are more concerned about the health of their pets, they need regular consultations at ease of sitting at their homes. Governments of multiple states have revised their guidelines regarding telehealth for veterinarians. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) also released guidelines for the use of telehealth in veterinary practice in January 2021.

• Based on animal type, the market is segmented into canine, feline, equine, bovine, swine, and others. The canine segment held the maximum share in the global market of veterinary telehealth. This segment majorly consists of dogs. Dogs have become the most preferred pet by the majority of people across the world. Nowadays, pet owners are much more cautious about their pet’s health. For the same reason, pet owners want a means through which they can stay in touch with vet specialists constantly. For example, in March 2021, an incidence came from San Francisco where a pet healthcare company named Fuzzy Pet Health, saw a 15% rise in monthly customers and a 75% rise in the usage of pet health tracking tools for keeping in check their pet’s health raising $18 million since it launched its mobile app service.
• On the basis of service type, the market is categorized into telemedicine, teleconsulting, telemonitoring, and others. The teleconsulting segment is dominating the market due to the prevailing dependency of humans on devices. Depending on teleconsulting saves physical efforts, transportation charges as well as additional costs of reaching out to a specialist in person. Teleconsulting also saves the long hours of waiting to consult your specialist. It provides ample amount of opportunities to pet owners to keep their pet’s health in check without facing the hurdles of the real world. In January 2023 Petnow Inc. which is a South Korea-based company presented the world's first cat biometric recognition service which was added to the Petnow app at CES 2023. The artificial intelligence-driven app automatically scans unique identifiers of dogs called "nose prints". Such innovations will boost the growth of teleconsulting in the coming years.
• For a better understanding of the market adoption of veterinary telehealth, the market is analyzed based on its worldwide presence in countries such as North America (U.S., Canada, Rest of North America), Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, Rest of Asia-Pacific), Rest of World. North America dominated the market in 2022 due to the rising number of investments in animal healthcare by pet owners. People in developed nations such as North America are happier to spend an extra penny for their pet’s well-being For example, a U.S.-based company Petfolk whose focus was to provide tech-enabled veterinary care reported raising USD 14 million in August 2022. Over the forecast period, this is expected to increase demand for veterinary telehealth devices in this region.
• Some of the major players operating in the market include TeleTails; Activ4Pets; BabelBark, Inc.; FirstVet, Inc.; TeleVet; Vetster, Inc.; VitusVet; airVet, Inc.; PawSquad; GuardianVets, Inc.