🤔 Has vet med lost it's soul?

Hello 👋 This is Weekend Rounds. The weekly newsletter that's like a belly rub for your brain.Here's is the latest from around vet med:🖥️ An AI powered veterinary assistant🌏 The veterinary rescue efforts in Syria and Turkey🦅 Unsettling taxidermied drones🤔 Has vet med lost it's soul?🐕 The best doggone boy you'll ever see

🖥️ An AI powered veterinary assistant

We're almost two months into 2023, and artificial intelligence continues to take over. For now we mean taking over public discourse, but we're not ruling out the possibility of it actually taking over. And as new products continue to roll out, veterinary medicine and AI continue to become the best of friends. The latest innovation comes from from VetPawer - an AI-powered chat service named AVA that clinics can use to answer phones day and night. The service can automatically schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and take simple time-consuming tasks off the to-do list of the real humans in clinics. The typical argument against AI is that as it gets better, it could take paying jobs away from qualified workers. But in a profession facing a worker shortage and high burn out rates, if AI can streamline workflow in clinics to help veterinarians provide better healthcare in less time... it might be worth looking into. However, in other areas - namely diagnosis and treatments - questions continue to be raised and debated as to the to ethics of AI intervention. In fact, if you’re headed to WVC this week, be sure to catch Obi Veterinary Education co-founder Ryan Appleby speaking on Monday evening about reasons why diagnostic AI systems are still in their infancy and the hard questions veterinary professionals should ask of AI systems. 

🌏 The veterinary rescue efforts in Syria and Turkey

When disaster strikes or war breaks out, time and time again veterinarians across the world jump into action. Over the last 12 months we've covered vets working tirelessly on the front lines in Ukraine and after Hurricane Ian. And now our attention is on the aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria earlier this month. The the psychological support that pets can provide after a traumatic events is well documented. But  treating and reuniting displaced farm animals can also create a steady source of food for a people largely cut off from international trade in rebel-controlled Syria. As the Washington Post covered this week, Ernesto's Sanctuary for Cats is the only organization in northwest Syria focused on finding animals and has brought in roughly 35 animals to the sanctuary in Idlib city and treated dozens more in the region.The resiliency of the veterinarians and clinic staff is astounding. Ernesto’s was started in Aleppo in 2016 at the height of Syria’s civil war. Across the country, animals were being left behind by the millions fleeing their homes or the hundreds of thousands who were killed in the conflict. After the sanctuary was bombed and gassed in the civil war, it relocated to Kafarna, near the Turkish border, only to be bombed once again. They finally built the facility that would be their home in Idlib city and now have roughly 2,000 cats, 30 dogs, five monkeys, three donkeys, a horse, a fox, a chicken and a goat, saved from deserted homes or ravaged villages. 

🦅 Unsettling taxidermied drones

If you've ever seen a dead bird and thought, 'I bet I could make a drone out of this bird' - you're not alone. A project out of New Mexico Tech is creating flapping-wing drones out of taxidermied birds in hopes of creating new ways to snoop on wildlife... or humans.  

“Instead of using artificial materials for building drones, we can use the dead birds and re-engineer them as a drone,” says Mostafa Hassanalian at New Mexico Tech.

Our take: It's a bit creepy, but it's a cool idea. If the only purpose was to be able to get closer to wildlife in their natural habitat without disturbing their behavior for research purposes, that would be one thing. But the last thing we need is more human spying and surveillance. Plus, there are way too many people who already think birds aren't real. This is not going to help.

🤔 Has vet med lost it's soul?

In an op-Ed for VIN news service Dr. Mark Helfat argues yes, yes it is. Why you ask? The death of the small practice. And by small practice Helfat means those grossing $500-900k a year. These are 1-2 doctor practices in small towns. According to Helfat the advantages of a veterinarian buying and working at these practices are numerous including:

• being your own boss

• running a profitable business

• holding a recession-proof job

• more wealth

• paying down student debt more quickly

• creating tangible equity

• choosing your own schedule

• hiring family

• amassing a sizeable IRA/401Kbecoming a community partner

• mental well-being derived from personal stability and achievement

• saving the soul of veterinary medicine

Not a bad list, and much of what Helfat says resonates with us. However there are a few areas where he loses us, such as when he talks about how corporations provide benefits like providing state of the art equipment like an MRI. But this isn’t the reality on the ground. Where small clinics fall short is investing in important equipment short of an MRI and not investing in modern facilities. It’s an absence of things like point of care ultrasound that are tough for young professionals. Let's face it, no GP is putting in an MRI no matter where they work.

But Helfat does have a point. There needs to be a balance between finding ways to maintain small practices and allowing larger clinics the space to thrive.

🐕 The best doggone boy you'll ever see

At Weekend Rounds, we're big fans of Ripken the Bat Dog. He's usually patrolling the field and retrieving bats for the Durham Bulls, but this weekend Ripken traded in his baseball cap for a hockey helmet and absolutely stole the show at the NHL Stadium Series in Raleigh. 

Ripken gave both teams high-fives as they walked to the ice, played a little goalie, and even dropped the ceremonial face off before the game. We just love to see it, and if you need a smile today we highly recommend checking out Ripken in action.