There is a well-worn frustration in veterinary practice: the research that should inform clinical decisions is often written for the people who conducted it, not the people who need to use it. Dense methodology, unfamiliar statistical framing, findings buried in discussion sections that assume you already know the literature — it is a real barrier, and it has real consequences for how quickly new evidence reaches the exam room.

Taylor & Francis announced on June 15 the publication of the first Plain Language Summary of Publication (PLSP) in veterinary research, a format that has been increasingly adopted in human medicine since 2023. PLSPs are open-access, standalone, peer-reviewed summaries written by at least one of the original study's authors, in plain prose with easily understandable supporting graphics. The inaugural veterinary PLSP covers a study identifying a SLAMF1 gene variant that meaningfully increases the risk of canine atopic dermatitis in French Bulldogs and Boxers, two breeds already overrepresented in dermatology caseloads.

The volume of veterinary research is growing faster than most practitioners have bandwidth to process, and the gap between published evidence and clinical practice contributes to poorer health outcomes for patients. Human medicine adopted PLSPs gradually and found that accessibility improved how practitioners engaged with new findings. Veterinary medicine has been slower to catch up. A peer-reviewed summary that a busy clinician can read between appointments is not a lesser version of the science, it is how we can do our jobs better.

At first glance, new graduates entering equine medicine appear to carry lower DVM debt than their classmates. And technically, they do. The AVMA's Chart of the Month for June shows that 2025 equine graduates reported average debt of $148,061, compared to $176,391 for all other graduates. Part of that difference comes from a higher proportion of equine graduates finishing with no debt at all — 25.2%, versus 17.4% for their peers.

However, more than 1 in 3 equine graduates still carried $200,000 or more in DVM debt, and about 1 in 6 reported $300,000 or more. More importantly, roughly 88% of new equine graduates pursued internships in 2025 (which is more than three times the rate of other graduates) where the average stipend was just under $50,000. That is $50,000 of income against a six-figure debt load, in a specialty that requires vehicles, emergency availability, and years of experience before it becomes financially stable. The debt number looks manageable until you put it alongside what equine graduates are actually earning in their first year.

This is why state and federal programs matter so concretely for equine medicine. The USDA's Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program offers up to $120,000 in loan relief for service in designated shortage areas, but demand has consistently outpaced available funding. The AVMF opens scholarship applications each fall, and the AVMA flags both as essential tools for keeping equine practice accessible to graduates who would otherwise do the math and walk away. With Grad PLUS loans eliminated for new borrowers as of July 1 and federal loan caps tightening, that math is about to get harder — in the specialty the rural food supply depends on most.

“What is an AI agent and how is it going to impact vet med?”

Most of us have now used an AI chatbot. You type a question into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. It gives you an answer. Perhaps you ask a follow-up question. The conversation continues. Sometimes it continues a little too long and becomes too sycophantic.

An AI agent is a slightly different creature.

Instead of simply answering a question, an agent is given a goal and access to “tools”. You can think of tools as software that the AI can use. It can potentially search for information, organize files, monitor an inbox, update a spreadsheet, or complete a series of steps. It may keep track of what it has already done, decide what to do next, and ask for approval before taking an important action.

While the lines are becoming blurred within the products offered by frontier labs, the distinction is still an important one. Especially because agents will start to make their way further into veterinary practices.

Still a bit unclear? It may be easiest to understand with an example.

If you are using a chatbot you can ask: “What information should I include in a follow-up email for a diabetic patient?” It would answer and you would have to find the patient in your system, draft the email and send it.

An agent on the other hand could have access to your PIMS, it could identify diabetic patients who are overdue for monitoring, draft personalized messages based on their records, place those drafts into a review queue, and flag the cases that may require a phone call instead.

Now, none of that means that clinics should immediately unleash autonomous computer systems into their practice-management systems. The more an AI tool can do, the more carefully its permissions need to be considered. A useful agent should have clear limits, an audit trail, and a human checkpoint before it sends a message, changes a medical record, or makes a decision that affects patient care.

But these are all things that are coming. The shift towards agentic software is occurring and your practice management software may look drastically different in a few years.

-RBA

Have an AI question you would like answered? Reply to this email or send it to [email protected]

Here are some of the other stories that caught our eye and we're following this week from around the veterinary world and animal kingdom: