SAN ANTONIO — The use of artificial intelligence has exploded over the past few years and is used in a variety of medical settings, including to improve the health and life of pets.
AI is now being used by local veterinarians – not in the form of robots to check the vitals of cats and dogs, but to streamline visits and allow doctors to spend more time with pet owners and their furry friends during an appointment.
“It’s been six weeks since her surgery on her leg. She has some orthopedic issues,” said Cassandra Perez who is visiting Thrive Pet Healthcare with her 10-year-old german shepherd Twiggy.
Perez said she supports using AI at the vet.
“We spend more time talking about the issue rather than us having to take a break and the technician or the doctor needing to kind of remember what we’re talking about,” Perez said.
”The doctors don’t have to spend 20, 30 minutes going through years and years of patient charting. They get all the information summarized right up front,” Joe Mazzarella, the general manager of AI vet software Vetspire said.
The process is similar to having a court stenographer. The Vetspire program listens to everything the doctor says, so time during and after appointments don’t have to be wasted with endless transcribing.
“Because it’s doing my notes at the same time, I can talk to the client for a longer period of time and go into more depth and more detail and really spend the time to make sure they understand things,” Dr. Lauren Grilley, a veterinarian with Thrive Pet Healthcare in San Antonio said.
The American Hospital Association says AI minimizes time veterinarians spend on administrative tasks, gives them more time for patient care, ensures a higher degree of accuracy, identifies potential errors in real time, and facilitates better care and follow up.
For those that aren’t all that keen on AI, Perez says it’s worth it.
“In this situation it’s a powerful tool that’s being used correctly and for efficiency purposes,” she said.