April 16, 2024 • 43 mins
Embark on an inspiring journey with Dr. Samantha Vitale, veterinary neurologist and CEO of Stratocyte, as we explore the innovative world of veterinary teleconsulting. Samantha shares her voyage from hands-on clinic work to revolutionizing vet care delivery, offering an intimate glimpse into her passion for extending specialty care to pets far and wide. With Stratocyte leading the charge, we discuss the transformative effects this digital leap has on pets and practitioners in remote areas, ensuring that no companion animal goes without the expert care they deserve.
The conversation shifts to the nuts and bolts of integrating teleconsulting into day-to-day veterinary operations. Managing challenging conditions such as epilepsy or diabetes in pets can overwhelm general practitioners, but with the advent of teleconsulting, they now have a lifeline. We provide actionable insights for clinics seeking to blend this modern approach into their routines, all the while highlighting the strengthened connections with pet owners and the enhanced quality of life for their furry companions.
Finally, we turn to the bustling marketplace that Stratocyte has created, a virtual hub where general practitioners can easily tap into a wealth of specialist knowledge. This innovative platform is likened to an Etsy for veterinary specialists, where thriving communities of vets work collaboratively to bolster patient outcomes and clinic revenues. Samantha's personal experiences bring home the profound impact teleconsulting has on both the human and animal members of the family, truly capturing the heart of why we do what we do. Join us to see how the future of veterinary care is being shaped right before our eyes.
Guest Info
Samantha Vitale
samantha@stratocyte.com
linkedin.com/in/samantha-vitale-stratocyte
US only - (224) 526-7286
Outside US - (844) 947-4401 (Toll free)
https://stratocyte.com/
Host Information
Bill Butler – Contact Information
Direct – 952-208-7220
https://butlervetinsurance.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbutler-cic/
Schedule a Strategy Session with Bill – Strategy Session
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprint Podcast
brought to you by Butler VetInsurance.
Hosted by Bill Butler, theVeterinary Blueprint Podcast is
for veterinarians and practicemanagers who are looking to
learn about working on theirpractice instead of in their
practice.
Each episode we will bring yousuccessful, proven blueprints
from others, both inside andoutside the veterinary industry.
(00:28):
Welcome to today's episode.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprints Podcast,
where business ideas andentrepreneurship meet the
veterinary industry.
I am your host, bill Butler,and today.
Now I don't know when this willair, but this is our first
recording of 2024, so I'mexcited to have Dr Samantha
Vitale with us.
Professionally, samantha shinesas a board-certified veterinary
(00:54):
neurologist, but she has focusedher dedication in the last
couple years to solving someindustry challenges in the
veterinary community and that'sevident based on her belief that
veterinary professionalsdeserve the tools and resources
for world-class patient care andhelp them fulfill their careers
as healthcare professionals inthe animal health space.
(01:15):
Her own experiences as aveterinarian in remote areas
ignited her desire to ensurethat all pets, regardless of
location, can receive top-tierveterinary care.
After a successful career inprivate practice, samantha has
embraced innovation after seeingthe need in the animal health
space that's very prevalent inhuman health, and now she is the
(01:38):
CEO of Stratasite, which is astartup giving access to
veterinary specialists not justin the United States but
worldwide via teleconsulting.
So her mission is to help bringspecialty care everywhere to
every pet and pet owner andveterinarian, and today we'll
talk about some of her journeyalong with her what she sees as
some of the future forveterinary medicine.
(01:59):
So let's dive in.
Welcome Samantha.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Hi Bill, Thanks so much for having me in for that
introduction dive in.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Welcome, samantha.
Hi Bill, thanks so much forhaving me in for that
introduction.
Well, you and I connected onLinkedIn, as I'm connecting with
many professionals in theindustry like yourself, and we
wound up having a conversationabout some stuff and it seemed
like there's a need for whatyou're doing in the industry.
So why don't you, just beforewe dive into what Stratasite is
(02:27):
and what teleconsulting is forveterinarians who aren't
experiencing that, why don't youjust kind of give us a very
brief overview of you and whatyou've done to get where you are
right now?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I'm originally from Memphis,tennessee.
I wanted to be a veterinariansince I found out what a
veterinarian was, so justfocused all of my childhood on
trying to get into vet school.
I went to Mississippi StateUniversity for undergrad in vet
school, had a great experiencethere and then ended up deciding
(03:00):
I wanted to specialize inneurology during my clinical
years of vet school.
So I was fortunate enough toget accepted into a couple of
internships and then a residencyprogram which landed me in
central Illinois, in the Midwest, where I'm not at all familiar
with the concept of winter, butI'm now very familiar with Did
(03:23):
my residency at the Universityof Illinois and ended up loving
the Midwest, getting married andmoving here permanently.
So here we are.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So here you are, and so I think people look at the
Midwest and think, oh, they hearIllinois and they think Chicago
, correct, but if you drivesouth from Chicago for about two
hours, you wind up in themiddle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yes, there's a whole other state.
It's very, very different fromChicago.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
There's Chicago and then the rest of Illinois.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, exactly, and so you know, going to to doing my
residency at the U of I inChampaign, we were about three
hours South of Chicago, about anhour and a half from Indy and
about three hours from St Louis,and we were the only veterinary
specialty center in the centerof the state, really South of
(04:18):
Chicago.
So we had people from all overIllinois Southern Illinois,
Bloomington, Peoria, Springfield, kind of the whole central and
south part of the state drivinghours to see any of our various
specialists.
So that kind of started helpingme recognize that there is a
little bit of a geographicalissue.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, planted a seed right.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Exactly Like.
People want to seek certainlevels of specialty care, but
when they're having to drivethree hours one way just to see
a specialist for an appointment,that is an inconvenience, it's
a hardship, not everyone can dothat and it adds to the overall
cost of the veterinary.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And then I, because I lived in the Midwest and I
moved to Springfield.
There's no veterinary specialtyhospitals in Springfield, so I
ended up working as a locumneurologist actually.
So every other week I flew toSouth Florida and worked at a
large specialty hospital inSouth Florida, which was fun, Um
.
And then when I wasn't working,I was kind of working behind
the scenes.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Especially in like January February.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
That was great yes.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Left my poor husband with the dog and the chicken.
So good luck, go to the beach.
We have a couple of emergencycare facilities that have
board-certified cardiologistsand board-certified you know
small animal and board-certified.
You know neurology as yourspecialty, but if you drive an
hour in any direction from youknow Minneapolis-St Paul
(06:00):
International Airport, you aregoing to be in a cornfield and
so you know for for for that petowner or that veterinarian
specifically, when you, when youtalk about trying to provide
care, you know, I think that the, the level of care that's
available now for for pet owners, specifically, you know,
(06:20):
companion animal, is just somuch different than it was 20
years ago.
And I, you know I I wasn'tinvolved in this 20 years ago,
but I just even in the five orso years that we've really been
active in the veterinarycommunity with my industry, it's
changing quite a bit and so, um, so you've you saw that change,
(06:40):
you saw a need, like there'sjust areas of the country where
where pet owners don't haveaccess to specialty care and and
so talk about some of theevolution, or you know, okay,
you identified this issue.
What did, what did you thinkwas kind of a next logical step
for veterinary care from fromyour viewpoint, cause you're
(07:03):
still in middle central Illinois, right.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yes, yep, I'm still in central Illinois and I still
don't have a day job at aspecialty hospital, which is
fine because I really like myday job running this company.
Yeah, so there's always goingto be a place for in-person
veterinary referral.
There's always going to be aplace for in-person veterinary
referral.
There's always going to be asurgery that you need to do a
(07:29):
residency to train to do.
There's always going to bediagnostic equipment that it
doesn't make sense for a GP tohave in their practice.
There's always going to be theneed for a veterinary specialist
to put their hands on an animalto do a procedure, to have that
in-person consultationexperience.
But just because there's a needfor that doesn't mean that
(07:51):
there is always the opportunityor ability for that pet to get
to that specialist.
For whatever reason, eithergeography, the pet owner
physically can't or won't driveto see someone.
Wait times, even in like NewYork City where you know where
there's tons of specialtyhospitals we're seeing wait
times of months just to get into see a specialist.
(08:13):
Maybe they can't get in, butthey don't want to wait two
months to see someone abouttheir dog's cancer, or maybe
they're just, you know, forwhatever reason that pet is not,
maybe they're not stable enoughto travel to another hospital.
So there's always going to bereasons why pets that would
benefit from seeing a specialistin person are not going to get
(08:34):
to see a specialist in person,at least not right away, and we
wanted to create a plan B forthat pet.
That was better than like sorry, like it's all or nothing you
know.
So having the opportunity toconsult remotely with a
specialist and have theirexpertise weigh in and be able
(08:56):
to make the most of whatresources that veterinarian
who's caring for that pet has intheir clinic is a great option
for those pets that can't travel.
And then there's also specialtycases that don't necessarily
need to go see the specialistbut could still benefit from
their management, their input,their expertise on a remote
basis.
And when we're dealing with aspecialist shortage, not only
(09:18):
because of geography but justbecause there's like there's
only 450 board certifiedveterinary neurologists in North
America there's not there'sobviously not enough to go
around to every city.
So there's just, we're spreadthin and the ones that are in
practice full time need to bedoing the procedures, need to be
(09:38):
seeing the cases that need thatadvanced, those advanced skills
and those advanced thatadvanced equipment, and maybe
the ones that just need aconsultation or the owner just
wants their opinion before theythink about making the drive.
There's a lot of indicationswhere remote consultation can
take the place of an initial oran in-person visit.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So you know, as as far as in in my family we
actually just kind of wentthrough this right.
So if you're a pet owner, youknow putting on the pet owner's
hat right A lot of times whenyou need to see that specialist.
It's really that kind of oncein that pet's life's decision of
(10:20):
are we going to proceed downpath A, which is a course of
treatment you know thinkingabout, you know you had
mentioned cancer, right, and soI think for that pet owner it's
one of those things where thegeneral practitioner can give
some of that quality of life,like, okay, if you decide not to
treat, you know, the cancer,this is what's going to happen
(10:42):
over the next probably two tosix months.
I mean realistically.
You know I had a cat that was18 years old, had a lymphoma and
it was okay.
We're going to do some sub-Qfluids.
You can do these at home.
If the cat gets bad you cancome in and we might be able to
do some stuff, but it's probablynot worth doing anything.
So it's managing the quality oflife for the animal until it's
(11:05):
too far gone.
But if you're going to make thatdecision as a pet owner, it's
okay.
Are we going to go down path A,which is a treatment protocol
which is potentially thousandsor tens of thousands of dollars,
thousands of dollars, and ifI'm going to do that, the
general practitioner might wantit's, it's the one-time consult
(11:29):
with the oncologist to say thisis what you're going to do and
this is how long it's going togo on this, this is what it is,
versus just the generalpractitioner going well, if you
want to do that, it's this, butbut, um, helping that pet owner
make that, make that kind of Aor B decision, Like if we're
going to go down this path, it'sthis, if we're not going to go
down that path, it's that.
Is that I mean?
Does that accurately describesome of those decisions that you
need to make up front of thatcourse of treatment?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, that's one really good indication is
sometimes when you're initiallyfaced with a complex diagnosis
and you're wanting to help thepet owner make those decisions
Should I pursue surgery?
Should I try chemo?
Should I try X, y and Z?
There's a new treatment but Ihaven't had a chance to use it
yet.
I don't have any personal basisof how this is going to affect
your pet.
Having that specialist withexpertise in that area come in
(12:14):
and say these are your threeoptions, these are the studies
and my own personal experiencethat support your expected
outcomes for each of these threeoptions, because we, as
veterinarians, I mean it'simpossible to keep up with every
single study.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
This is when that comes out.
So having someone that's sayinglike, oh yeah, no, I wrote that
paper, this is actually what wecan expect in this situation
can be very helpful.
I think.
The other indication for thatis when you have chronic cases
that are complex and needlifelong management.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
When you have chronic cases that need lifelong
management and are maybe notroutine.
So when you have a patient withepilepsy, a seizure disorder,
and the seizures are verydifficult to control, they're
not responding to medicationsthat you're comfortable
prescribing.
When you've got a diabeticthat's not very responsive to
therapy, when you've got a casethat is very difficult to
(13:08):
diagnose, sometimes being ableto bring the specialist in, have
that kind of collaborative carein your practice, can be a lot
more accessible and affordablefor the owner than if they have
to drive three hours every timethey need to recheck their
diabetic patient's blood glucoseor something like that Sure, I
mean, I even think about my momwith her, with her dog, they had
(13:30):
a Gordon Setter and you know,for her to need to go to the
specialty clinic, you know, justfor an oral exam, was was an
hour and they may have been ableto do, and that's even in the
Twin Cities, right.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
That's you know.
Even if you think about Chicago, if you're trying to go see a
specialist from the north sideof Chicago to the south side of
Chicago, like you know, thatcould be a four-hour drive
depending on the day and roadconstruction, and so you know
having accessibility to notnecessarily that in-person, as
you mentioned, there will alwaysbe a place in the medical
profession, whether it's animalor human health, of that
(14:07):
in-person, hands-on.
Hey, let's see the, the animal,walk across the floor or what's
their.
You know what's theirdisposition in person versus
here's how they're presentingwhat do you think?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
specialist yeah, and the nice thing about, you know,
at least with our platform, iswe do have video capabilities so
the specialist can do someextent of the exam with the
general practitioner so they canwatch the animal you know,
observe them in the exam room,observe them in the environment.
(14:40):
They can also, you know, sendand receive videos of the exam
that the specialist is doing.
So we do have a lot of ways tokind of have that specialist be
part of the exam process.
So we try to mitigate thatdistance as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So that kind of leads me to a question that I have
about for a busy generalpractitioner and I'd say every
general practitioner out thereis probably busy, whether you're
you know a solo practitioner,you've got five associates
working for you.
You're probably busy.
How can they incorporateteleconsulting into their
practice If they're notutilizing this now and they're
(15:16):
just referring to the you know?
Hey, here's this emergencypractice that has you know Dr
Samantha's four hours away inSpringfield.
You're in you know Champaign orsomething.
How would I incorporate thatinto my practice?
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think it's something thatwould be great to have a plan in
place and discuss with yourteam ahead of time, because it
is very hard when you're in themiddle of a busy day and you're
like man, I do not know what todo next for this patient's
diabetes.
Oh yeah, maybe I should loginto my StrataCite account and
try to.
Even if it's a relativelyintuitive, easy to use thing,
(15:54):
it's very hard to adopt a newskill and habit in the middle of
your busy workflow.
So I encourage people to try tobuild, using teleconsulting,
into your existing SOPs, intoyour existing plans for how you
work up and manage cases.
And we're doing things like thisalready, right?
If you have digital radiology inyour clinic, you're taking
(16:17):
x-rays digitally, you're morethan likely, at least some of
the time, sending those imagesto a radiologist to get a report
back.
Or if you're doing a biopsy,you're more than likely sending
that sample off to the lab forpathology.
So we're already in the habitof offering this, as you know,
(16:39):
having a specialist or anotherexpert's opinion as a service to
complement what we're providing.
So I would encourage people youknow, let's say, that you're in
a GP practice you're going tospay a patient, right?
You already have a standardoperating procedure in place.
You already have an estimate inplace, standard things you're
(16:59):
going to do.
Okay, we're going to do aphysical exam, we're probably
going to do some in-housepre-anesthetic blood work, we're
going to come up with ananesthesia protocol and we're
going to come up with apost-operative pain management
plan and at-home monitoring planfor the patient when they go
home, right?
So if you add into that okay,this patient is a high risk
anesthesia candidate they'reunstable or which was my my
(17:22):
parents.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Gordon Sutter was a high risk anesthesia patient who
would take seven hours to wakeup from anesthesia.
My mom's like can I get my dog?
And they're like it's not awakeyet.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Right, or the client is nervous about anesthesia
because they've had a badexperience in the past.
Okay, well, guess what?
As part of our surgery package,we also offer a customized
anesthesia consultation with aboard-certified anesthesiologist
who's going to review yourpatient's records, their
previous response to therapy,the medications that we have
available for this.
They're going to come up with aplan of what to use, how to
(17:52):
monitor, what to look for, andthey're going to submit that to
us and we're going to use theiradvice and we'll be able to
contact them if we need to ifthere's any complications.
So, having that kind of builtinto your SOP for those high
risk candidates or concernedowners, or if you're going, you
have a patient that you believehas cancer and you take a sample
(18:13):
of the suspected tumor and yousend it out for cytology or for
biopsy or what have you, you getthose results back.
Now the next step in thatdiagnostic process is submitting
that case to an oncologist toget the list of options that we
have, present that accurately tothe owner and have them decide
which route they want to take.
So just having that part ofyour workflow as it is starting,
(18:35):
think of it not as like oh,this is my backup plan, for I
don't know what to do with thiscase and now I have to try to
figure it out when I'm busy buthaving it kind of built into
your routine of when I have thistype of case come in.
I can offer these services asdiagnostics and treatments, and
this is one of the services thatwe have to offer our clients to
(18:55):
enhance the level of care thatwe can provide.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
So you know that teleconsulting to build your
practice and increase revenuesbecause, at the end of the day,
you know it's, it's the, it's,it's the care and services, it's
the hey, would you like fries?
With that mentality of offeringthe extra component, of saying,
well, you know, yep, your doghas had bad reaction to
anesthesia in the past.
(19:19):
Would you like us, on the nextsurgery we do, would you like a
consultation with a boardcertified anesthesiologist?
My mom would have said yes, 10times out of 10 and said, yeah,
I'll pay for the extraconsultation to make sure that
we're on the right page.
And so you know your platform,stratasite.
So you know your platformStratasite.
How you know number one, howmany platforms are there out
(19:40):
there?
You know, not talking aboutcompetitors, but you know if
you're, if you're a veterinarypractice that wants to
incorporate that obviouslyStratasite is a place to do that
.
What's out there in the marketright now?
And why did you see a need tobuild something?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yeah, great question.
So when we first started thecompany, we didn't start out as
let's build a platform.
We're not tech people, we'reveterinarians.
Myself and a couple ofcolleagues started out as like,
let's consult, let's putourselves out there, let's offer
consultations to otherveterinarians.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
So we so you started this, as you're offering the
consultations.
How do we do consultations?
Because we're in the middle ofnowhere.
I don't want to live in Florida.
I love the Midwest, but I wantto be able to offer my
board-certified neurologyservices, even though I'm in
small, rural Illinois Right,illinois.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Right, and so when we started that process, we
quickly figured out at the timethere was nothing really
available for specialists as aresource trying to start this
business on their own, so wewere basically doing our own
marketing, like calling vetclinics hey, do you want to
consult?
Going and using email andGoogle Drive and stuff to send
(20:54):
cases, and where do you storethese files?
Is this secure?
Do I just keep this on mylaptop?
All of the like, the mark, andthen the accounting and the
invoicing and all of the kind ofadministrative things that go
into running a consultingbusiness started to realize it
would be great for especiallyfor these busy practitioners
that are still in specialtypractice, you know, full or part
(21:15):
time and are just trying to dothis on the side, instead of
them having to quit their joband work for a big corporation
as a consultant, or instead ofthem having to like hire someone
to build a business for them.
Why don't we just build abusiness that they can walk into
?
And so that's why we built thisas a marketplace.
As far as I know, we're theonly veterinary teleconsulting
marketplace.
(21:35):
There are a handful of otherconsulting companies either
independent veterinarians thatare doing their own thing.
On the side IDEX and Antec, someof the bigger companies will
hire specialists to act asconsultants for their customers.
There are some radiology groupsthat are now offering kind of
specialist consultations as anadditional service, so there are
other people trying to do it.
What we built and what wewanted to design was something
(21:58):
that would be accessible toevery single specialist that
wanted to consult.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So on both sides, right.
So you built a platform on oneside for the general
practitioner to be able toaccess specialists, but then you
also built a platform where thespecialists can say, hey, I'm
available.
So I've used Fiverr and I don'tknow if anyone's ever heard of
Fiverr, but Fiverr is basicallya service.
You go out there and say, hey,I need a graphic designer.
(22:23):
You put the bid out and whoeversomewhere in the world will do
a voiceover, they'll do amarketing program for you,
they'll design a logo, and soit's.
It's really where you'rematching up somebody's talents
with somebody who says, hey, Ineed somebody to stand, I need
somebody to do a voiceover forme, and you go out to this
service and you hire somebody todo a voiceover.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
You know it's.
It's a marketplace, so it'skind of most similar to Etsy.
We compare it to.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
That was actually I was going to ask that.
I was going to say I was like,oh, is this you really built the
Etsy of veterinary consulting?
Yeah, we call ourselves theEtsy of veterinary, okay, good,
that was actually the question Iwas going to ask Samantha.
It's like, uh, forgive me forsaying this, but like this feels
like it's Etsy, where ifsomebody is has a very
successful, lucrative practiceas a board certified
cardiologist in Minnesota butthey'd like to do some side
(23:14):
hustle consulting, it's reallythe ability to do some side
hustle consulting as a boardcertified cardiologist.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Right, exactly, and we have a lot of people at
academia who work inuniversities that like this,
because they do get some offclinic time where they do
teaching and research and thingslike that, and they're allowed
to do some consulting work inthat off clinic time.
So this is, I mean it can be, ifyou build up a successful
enough consulting business andyou want to consult full-time,
great.
But this is designed so that,instead of having to take
someone out of private practice,hire them to be available when
we need them, we can haveanybody be available to the
(23:48):
extent that they want.
So all of our specialists areindependent.
They create a free account,they work for themselves, they
set their own prices andservices and schedule and then
we just have this basicallyplatform available where, when a
vet needs a specialist, theysearch for the specialist they
need.
They can say I need acardiologist that's available
today, and then they can seewho's available today, what
(24:09):
services they offer, findsomeone that meets their
patient's needs and book theappointment.
So we basically just took allof the administrative works out
of both ends of that and justmade it an easy place where they
can come and connect.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So I'm not a regulatory wonk.
I don't understand all the.
You know every state isdifferent.
It's all regulated by the Boardof Animal Health or whatever
they call themselves in eachstate because they're all
different.
So you know how does that workwith?
You know, not in.
You know we mentioned theworldwide component.
Obviously you know you'relooking to build a worldwide
(24:45):
empire here of teleconsulting.
How does that work from aregulatory standpoint, state to
state?
You know insurance,professional liability, all of
those things.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
This is a question that we get a lot, and I think
it's really important to kind ofunderstand the different types
of telehealth and the differentregulations that are assigned to
each one of them, because Ihave seen a lot of instances
where people will use all theseterms interchangeably and
sometimes incorrectly, andthat's where it gets a little
bit confusing.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Before we started this, I even said telemedicine.
You're like it's nottelemedicine, it's
teleconsulting.
So you know, let's be clearabout what we're actually doing.
So, stratasite, and what you'reoffering and what you're
talking about inside theveterinary animal health
community, is teleconsulting.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Teleconsulting?
Yeah, and the AmericanVeterinary Medical Association
defines teleconsulting as theprocess by which a veterinary
specialist or other qualifiedexpert provides advice to
another veterinarian.
So we are 100% vet to vet.
Our consultants cannot, shouldnot and will not directly
communicate with a pet or a petowner.
(25:57):
They will not prescribemedications, they will not make
a diagnosis, they will not bethe doctor on this case.
They are simply providing theirexpertise to a colleague who
acts as the veterinarian on thecase, as the prescribing
veterinarian, and the key thinghere is
veterinarian-client-patientrelationship.
So that's like the legal termthat defines how a veterinarian
(26:22):
can interact with a client and apatient.
So any veterinarian that makesa diagnosis, makes
patient-specific recommendationsdirectly to the client or
prescribes medications has tohave this veterinary and
client-patient relationship VCPRwe'll call it for short and
(26:43):
that means they have to know thepatient's history, they have to
have a legal, signedrelationship with the legal
owner of the pet, they have tohave examined the patient in
some capacity, they have toprovide follow-up and maintain
medical records for that patient.
So our consultants do not haveto have a VCPR.
They do not have a relationshipwith the client.
They're simply providingrecommendations to the
(27:06):
veterinarian that holds the VCPR, and so that's different from
telemedicine.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
So, in layman's terms , you've created a phone, a
friend platform for advice forveterinarians.
Hey, I need help with theanswer to this question.
I don't know what to do.
Or I think this is appropriate.
Or you know the anesthesia case.
Yeah, we've just got aproblematic case here.
We need to have a boardcertified anesthesiologist.
I, you know, and I think thatfor what's one of those things
(27:32):
right, where I think mostveterinarians could go find the
answer somewhere, the answer'sout there for them to go find.
But it's the time, it's thework involved, it's hey, I had a
colleague one time.
Are they still doing this?
Or you know, for a lot of thespecialists out there,
board-certified specialists theyput out papers, there's papers
(27:55):
on this stuff.
But from a medicalprofessional's perspective, from
that general practitioner, togo try and find the protocol for
anesthesia, to do that at mypractice, I just don't have time
for that and I might be lookingat outdated information.
And there's new stuff out therethat board-certified
specialists in anesthesiology orneurology or cardiology,
orthopedics have thatinformation because they they're
(28:18):
they're in it every day.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Right, and what's more than that is it?
It turns like okay, I'm goingto go stop what I'm doing and
scroll through all these journalarticles and try to find
something and interpret it andunderstand it, or I'm going to
text someone I went to vetschool with and hope they're out
of the country.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Available today.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
yeah, it turns that process into.
I am going to send all of theinformation specific to my
patient to an expert that hasextensive experience in managing
cases like this and they aregoing to provide me with a
verbal and a written report thatI can then put in my patient's
(28:56):
record, show to the client,monetize and show that value to
the client of.
Hey, I consulted with an expertin this.
Their experience, combined withmy examination, leads us to
these recommendations.
Here is the official reportfrom that and it gives that
(29:18):
veterinarian who requested theservice the opportunity to
monetize that as well.
Right, because they should be.
It's very hard to go to yourclient and say, oh yeah, my
roommate in vet school is aneurologist.
Now I texted her.
She said she likes Keppra, canI have $50?
No one can monetize that, right, what are you going to put that
in your medical record?
(29:38):
Like, yeah, I called my oldroommate and she said to do
Keppra, but if you have like anactual consultation, A protocol.
A protocol right and you submit,you get an actual form that
goes in that patient's record.
You have results.
You have results from adiagnostic test that just
happened to be a consultationand you can use that not only to
(30:00):
make the best decisions foryour patient but to you know,
supplement your medical recordand show that you're practicing
the highest quality of medicinepossible in that situation.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, and give the pet owner the ability to make
the decision.
You know that's in the bestinterest of their.
You know that their animal,that they're in charge of, that
they're responsible for carewhat they might financially be
able to do.
You know, with my cat, 18 yearsold, had lymphoma and they said
, well, we could see if it's.
You know, I was wobbling aroundand it was in bad shape and you
(30:33):
know I was like, well, do youwant to determine if this is
really lymphoma?
Because there's really only acouple of ways we could see.
If it's a brain, I think it'sbrain parasites they thought it
may have been or or someneurology issues.
They said, well, we could do aCT scan.
I said, well, what's the CTscan cost me?
And they said, well, it's goingto be 2,500 bucks.
And I was like, man, I love you, betty Boop, but it's a tough
(30:55):
call to make at 18.
And but you know, being able tooffer the service and the idea
and so you know, to your pointagain, kind of dumb it down,
cause I'm a simple guy is hey,would you like me to call my
buddy Steve, or would you likeme to offer this service as part
of our protocol that we put inplace and we have a procedure
(31:18):
for this and you know our costto the practice to be able to,
you know, in in.
You know maybe you're in anurban area or a suburban area,
but you know, I I see thisreally as you're offering a
service to veterinarians whodon't have access to this kind
of.
You know, here's a referral toa cardiologist who's a half an
hour away.
(31:38):
It's we don't just don't haveaccess to this and and so would
you like.
You know we're now offeringthis service.
So talk about the the you knowtalked about kind of building
this inside the practice.
What, what are some of therevenue?
You know how to how to buildthis as a revenue stream and
kind of finish that thought out.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah, that's a great point because when, if you're
thinking about it from theperspective of a practice owner
or a veterinarian that's tryingto build their client base,
build their practice, you've gotmultiple options with using
teleconsulting to build revenue.
So, first and foremost, theactual consult.
Well, the nice thing is forpeople that are using
teleconsulting, at least throughStratasite there's zero
(32:17):
overhead, so it costs younothing to sign up.
There's no risk.
You can sign up and never useit.
It doesn't cost you a dime Ifyou do use it.
You only pay when you do aconsult and, of course, you
charge the client for thatconsult.
So it costs you $0 at abaseline.
Then you have the opportunityto mark it up so that you make
some money from that transaction.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
You cover- I mean you could give vaccines away at
cost, but you don't from thattransaction you cover.
I mean you could give vaccinesaway at cost, but you don't
Right Exactly.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
You mark everything up.
You should.
You're covering your time.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Cost of goods.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
The cost of your technician submitting the
consult for you or however youdo it, so you can make some
money off of that, however muchyou want to mark it up, right.
But then from that, if you hadsent that patient to a
specialist in another hospital,they're going to get there.
That specialist is going to sayall right, I want to do these
(33:07):
tests, I want to prescribe thesetreatments and I want to do
this procedure and I want you tocome back for these rechecks.
All of that revenue now goes tothat specialist.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, it's at the specialty clinic Right.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
You diagnose a one-year-old dog with seizures,
you send them to a neurologistthat for the next 10, 15 years
of that dog's life, two, three,four times a year they're going
to see that person for bloodwork, for refills, for checkups.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
When 80% of that could have been done in your
practice.
The blood work, the medication,like all of that stuff.
Maybe there's some, maybe 20%of that care needs to be done at
a referral center four hoursaway.
But the parents, the client,get to make that decision.
But then 80% of that work, thatactually happened with my wife
(33:51):
in the human world, right.
So she was sick in 2016, she hadcancer and we did a consult at
Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic saidthe protocol that she's on for
chemo you could do here, but wewould recommend you know that's
what we would have prescribed ifyou had come here at Mayo.
But you know she's doing thatat the local hospital and so you
know, as a practice you can saywell, we're giving money away
(34:15):
because we're allowing all ofthat care to happen at a
third-party facility versushappening at our facility.
And so if we teleconsult someof these cases even if it's in a
metro area where you couldrefer some of that out if you do
the initial teleconsult, theycould prescribe a protocol and
you're doing the chemo on site,you're prescribing the specialty
(34:36):
medication, specialty food, allthe labs.
All of that could be done onsite by you and then you know,
maybe the one visit a year bythe specialist locally at the
referral center for the onething they need to be seen by
hands on to maybe do the TPLOsurgery or whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Right.
So there's so much that you cankeep in your practice, not only
in terms of revenue but interms of that relationship with
that client, and so I thinkthere's a lot of opportunities
for practitioners to reallybenefit from using
teleconsulting.
Not only building revenue,keeping your clients in your
clinic, keeping thoserelationships, there's also some
(35:12):
degree of peace of mind thatcomes with having acquired a
second opinion as well.
I love a second opinion,especially on non-neurology
things.
I love a second opinion,especially on non-neurology
things.
It's funny I work one day aweek at a general practice here
locally just to kind of keep myskills up and have fun and see
animals, and you should see thequestions that I ask the guy who
owns the practice.
I'm like.
(35:35):
So fleas what are we doing forfleas these days, Because it's
been so long since.
I've seen general practice stuff, so I love a second opinion.
I'm all about consulting foranything outside of my area of
expertise, so it's all aboutthat kind of peace of mind of
knowing that like, yes, not onlydo I think this is the right
treatment for this patient, sodoes this expert in this field.
I'm going to sleep well tonight, knowing that I did the best
(35:55):
that I could for my patient.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And, you know, at the end of the day you gave them
the opportunity to decide, yeah,I'll do the small investment.
You know, in the case of my cat, right Like, I don't think I
would have spent $2,500.
You know, ultimately we decidedto have her put down when it
got too bad, because that wasthe right decision to make.
I wasn't ready to spend $2,500.
But if they had said, well, wecould do a teleconsult for $200
(36:17):
or $300, whatever that number is, I mean, I wasn't ready to
write a $2,500 check for an18-year-old cat who had, you
know, most likely lymphoma,because that's not a good
prognosis.
But if they said, well, here's a$300 consult we could do with a
neurologist, with somebody tosay, yeah, here's the stuff, I
probably would have written acheck for $300 or $400 to do a
(36:39):
consult, versus, you know, twoor $3,000 for a CT scan and so,
and also for the for the patient.
You know, putting myself incause.
That's, you know, that's myworld.
I've never been a veterinarian.
It's it's giving me peace ofmind, knowing that I did
everything I could do within myfinancial budget to say, yeah, I
made the right decision, andgiving those tools and resources
(37:01):
to the pet owner for the petcare.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Exactly, exactly, yeah, I mean.
Most pet owners want to dowhat's best for their pet, and
whether you can or can't affordsomething doesn't dictate
whether you're making the rightdecision for your pet.
It's all about being able toprovide people with as much
information as we can providethem and help them to make an
informed decision, and adecision that they're
comfortable with.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Because as much as Betty Boop would talk to me and
say water, I thought she wouldsay in water when she's standing
in the bathroom sink.
We coached her for 18 years tosay wow, wow, and she would meow
to turn on the sink for her.
She couldn't say that she wasin pain.
And so you know, that's as thepet owner hat because that's the
only hat that I have is just,you know, trying to figure out
(37:49):
how to do the best thing that wecan for them, and that's why it
was so interesting to hear that.
You know, there's not, there'sjust not a lot of this out there
.
I think in the human healthworld there's a ton of you know.
That's where I think thetelemedicine world comes from.
Is that's the easy keywordversus teleconsulting, because
(38:09):
really, the veterinarian, thegeneral practitioner, your vet,
who you see every day, is theone doing all the prescribing
and they're just phoning afriend and it sounds like.
So let me put on my sales hatfor a moment, because that's the
hat that I wear when I'm not onthe podcast.
So you've developed a freeplatform that the consultant can
sign up for for free to gocheck it out, that the general
(38:31):
practitioner can go check outfor free and just say ever need
this, here's this platform thatI could maybe use at some point
in the future and then figureout how to monetize at my
practice as an additional fee orservice that we could charge
yes, free.
So that sounds like a prettygood deal.
(38:54):
So for veterinarians out therewho are listening to this
stratocytecomS-T-R-A-T-O-C-Y-T-Ecom, go check
it out.
We'll have some of thatinformation in the show notes
and this, unfortunately, willnot come out before VMX, but
you're starting now.
So you've spent a couple ofyears building this platform out
(39:14):
and now you're out in the worldstarting to promote this
platform.
So you're at some of thenational events and we'll have
the information about how peoplecan reach out to you online as
well.
So it's been awesome to haveyou on, samantha.
Where can people find youonline or reach out to you and
your team?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's been a lot of fun.
Yeah, any veterinarian can goto stratocyitecom and, like you
said, set up a free account tocheck it out.
We are on LinkedIn atStratosite and we're also on
Instagram at Stratosite.
For the new year, we'relaunching some fun educational
(39:54):
series.
So, Instagram will be featuringevery month.
We'll be working throughmanagement of a different
disease process and we'll havesome exclusive content for the
people that are signed up andpart of the Stratasite community
and we'll have some newslettersand things on LinkedIn as well,
so we would love to have peoplecome check us out.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Well, awesome.
Thanks so much, Samantha.
Any last words of advice for aveterinarian out there who's
thinking I don't know that Iwould ever want to do that.
What would you say to them?
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Well, I would say that you really have nothing to
lose by trying teleconsulting,especially if you are part of a
platform that doesn't charge asubscription fee or anything
like that, and that we, asspecialists, are here not to
make anyone feel bad about howthey've managed a case
previously, or to judge anyoneor anything like that.
(40:45):
We're all just here tocollaborate and to provide
support and encouragement forour colleagues and to bring the
best level of care to everypatient possible.
And so we are veterinarians, welove veterinarians, we respect
veterinarians and we really justwanted to build something that
would make veterinarians livesbetter.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
So we we hope to accomplish that in the coming
years, if you're in a specialistdesert, like a food desert, if
you're in a specialist desertsomewhere in rural middle
America, as we are in the upperMidwest, you know, or if it's
(41:29):
three months to get in and aspecialist in New York City,
check out Stratasite.
Well, thanks so much forjoining us today, samantha, and,
as always for all of ourlisteners, make sure to like,
comment and review the podcast,Share it with your friends out
there in the veterinary world,and we look forward to having
you join us on a future episode.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Thanks for tuning in to Veterinary Blueprints.
If you have any thoughts,questions or suggestions for an
episode, I would love to hearfrom you.
Email me at bill atbutlervetinsurancecom.
Don't forget to subscribe soyou never miss an episode, and
if you could do me a huge favoryou know it helps with the
algorithm.
If you can like, share orcomment on the post, leave a
(42:11):
review, I would love it.
Thanks for tuning in and untilnext time.
Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprint Podcast
brought to you by Butler VetInsurance.
Hosted by Bill Butler, theVeterinary Blueprint Podcast is
for veterinarians and practicemanagers who are looking to
learn about working on theirpractice instead of in their
practice.
Each episode we will bring yousuccessful, proven blueprints
from others, both inside andoutside the veterinary industry.
(00:28):
Welcome to today's episode.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprints Podcast,
where business ideas andentrepreneurship meet the
veterinary industry.
I am your host, bill Butler,and today.
Now I don't know when this willair, but this is our first
recording of 2024, so I'mexcited to have Dr Samantha
Vitale with us.
Professionally, samantha shinesas a board-certified veterinary
(00:54):
neurologist, but she has focusedher dedication in the last
couple years to solving someindustry challenges in the
veterinary community and that'sevident based on her belief that
veterinary professionalsdeserve the tools and resources
for world-class patient care andhelp them fulfill their careers
as healthcare professionals inthe animal health space.
(01:15):
Her own experiences as aveterinarian in remote areas
ignited her desire to ensurethat all pets, regardless of
location, can receive top-tierveterinary care.
After a successful career inprivate practice, samantha has
embraced innovation after seeingthe need in the animal health
space that's very prevalent inhuman health, and now she is the
(01:38):
CEO of Stratasite, which is astartup giving access to
veterinary specialists not justin the United States but
worldwide via teleconsulting.
So her mission is to help bringspecialty care everywhere to
every pet and pet owner andveterinarian, and today we'll
talk about some of her journeyalong with her what she sees as
some of the future forveterinary medicine.
(01:59):
So let's dive in.
Welcome Samantha.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Hi Bill, Thanks so much for having me in for that
introduction dive in.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Welcome, samantha.
Hi Bill, thanks so much forhaving me in for that
introduction.
Well, you and I connected onLinkedIn, as I'm connecting with
many professionals in theindustry like yourself, and we
wound up having a conversationabout some stuff and it seemed
like there's a need for whatyou're doing in the industry.
So why don't you, just beforewe dive into what Stratasite is
(02:27):
and what teleconsulting is forveterinarians who aren't
experiencing that, why don't youjust kind of give us a very
brief overview of you and whatyou've done to get where you are
right now?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I'm originally from Memphis,tennessee.
I wanted to be a veterinariansince I found out what a
veterinarian was, so justfocused all of my childhood on
trying to get into vet school.
I went to Mississippi StateUniversity for undergrad in vet
school, had a great experiencethere and then ended up deciding
(03:00):
I wanted to specialize inneurology during my clinical
years of vet school.
So I was fortunate enough toget accepted into a couple of
internships and then a residencyprogram which landed me in
central Illinois, in the Midwest, where I'm not at all familiar
with the concept of winter, butI'm now very familiar with Did
(03:23):
my residency at the Universityof Illinois and ended up loving
the Midwest, getting married andmoving here permanently.
So here we are.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So here you are, and so I think people look at the
Midwest and think, oh, they hearIllinois and they think Chicago
, correct, but if you drivesouth from Chicago for about two
hours, you wind up in themiddle of nowhere.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yes, there's a whole other state.
It's very, very different fromChicago.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
There's Chicago and then the rest of Illinois.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yes, exactly, and so you know, going to to doing my
residency at the U of I inChampaign, we were about three
hours South of Chicago, about anhour and a half from Indy and
about three hours from St Louis,and we were the only veterinary
specialty center in the centerof the state, really South of
(04:18):
Chicago.
So we had people from all overIllinois Southern Illinois,
Bloomington, Peoria, Springfield, kind of the whole central and
south part of the state drivinghours to see any of our various
specialists.
So that kind of started helpingme recognize that there is a
little bit of a geographicalissue.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, planted a seed right.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Exactly Like.
People want to seek certainlevels of specialty care, but
when they're having to drivethree hours one way just to see
a specialist for an appointment,that is an inconvenience, it's
a hardship, not everyone can dothat and it adds to the overall
cost of the veterinary.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
And then I, because I lived in the Midwest and I
moved to Springfield.
There's no veterinary specialtyhospitals in Springfield, so I
ended up working as a locumneurologist actually.
So every other week I flew toSouth Florida and worked at a
large specialty hospital inSouth Florida, which was fun, Um
.
And then when I wasn't working,I was kind of working behind
the scenes.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Especially in like January February.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
That was great yes.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Left my poor husband with the dog and the chicken.
So good luck, go to the beach.
We have a couple of emergencycare facilities that have
board-certified cardiologistsand board-certified you know
small animal and board-certified.
You know neurology as yourspecialty, but if you drive an
hour in any direction from youknow Minneapolis-St Paul
(06:00):
International Airport, you aregoing to be in a cornfield and
so you know for for for that petowner or that veterinarian
specifically, when you, when youtalk about trying to provide
care, you know, I think that the, the level of care that's
available now for for pet owners, specifically, you know,
(06:20):
companion animal, is just somuch different than it was 20
years ago.
And I, you know I I wasn'tinvolved in this 20 years ago,
but I just even in the five orso years that we've really been
active in the veterinarycommunity with my industry, it's
changing quite a bit and so, um, so you've you saw that change,
(06:40):
you saw a need, like there'sjust areas of the country where
where pet owners don't haveaccess to specialty care and and
so talk about some of theevolution, or you know, okay,
you identified this issue.
What did, what did you thinkwas kind of a next logical step
for veterinary care from fromyour viewpoint, cause you're
(07:03):
still in middle central Illinois, right.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yes, yep, I'm still in central Illinois and I still
don't have a day job at aspecialty hospital, which is
fine because I really like myday job running this company.
Yeah, so there's always goingto be a place for in-person
veterinary referral.
There's always going to be aplace for in-person veterinary
referral.
There's always going to be asurgery that you need to do a
(07:29):
residency to train to do.
There's always going to bediagnostic equipment that it
doesn't make sense for a GP tohave in their practice.
There's always going to be theneed for a veterinary specialist
to put their hands on an animalto do a procedure, to have that
in-person consultationexperience.
But just because there's a needfor that doesn't mean that
(07:51):
there is always the opportunityor ability for that pet to get
to that specialist.
For whatever reason, eithergeography, the pet owner
physically can't or won't driveto see someone.
Wait times, even in like NewYork City where you know where
there's tons of specialtyhospitals we're seeing wait
times of months just to get into see a specialist.
(08:13):
Maybe they can't get in, butthey don't want to wait two
months to see someone abouttheir dog's cancer, or maybe
they're just, you know, forwhatever reason that pet is not,
maybe they're not stable enoughto travel to another hospital.
So there's always going to bereasons why pets that would
benefit from seeing a specialistin person are not going to get
(08:34):
to see a specialist in person,at least not right away, and we
wanted to create a plan B forthat pet.
That was better than like sorry, like it's all or nothing you
know.
So having the opportunity toconsult remotely with a
specialist and have theirexpertise weigh in and be able
(08:56):
to make the most of whatresources that veterinarian
who's caring for that pet has intheir clinic is a great option
for those pets that can't travel.
And then there's also specialtycases that don't necessarily
need to go see the specialistbut could still benefit from
their management, their input,their expertise on a remote
basis.
And when we're dealing with aspecialist shortage, not only
(09:18):
because of geography but justbecause there's like there's
only 450 board certifiedveterinary neurologists in North
America there's not there'sobviously not enough to go
around to every city.
So there's just, we're spreadthin and the ones that are in
practice full time need to bedoing the procedures, need to be
(09:38):
seeing the cases that need thatadvanced, those advanced skills
and those advanced thatadvanced equipment, and maybe
the ones that just need aconsultation or the owner just
wants their opinion before theythink about making the drive.
There's a lot of indicationswhere remote consultation can
take the place of an initial oran in-person visit.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So you know, as as far as in in my family we
actually just kind of wentthrough this right.
So if you're a pet owner, youknow putting on the pet owner's
hat right A lot of times whenyou need to see that specialist.
It's really that kind of oncein that pet's life's decision of
(10:20):
are we going to proceed downpath A, which is a course of
treatment you know thinkingabout, you know you had
mentioned cancer, right, and soI think for that pet owner it's
one of those things where thegeneral practitioner can give
some of that quality of life,like, okay, if you decide not to
treat, you know, the cancer,this is what's going to happen
(10:42):
over the next probably two tosix months.
I mean realistically.
You know I had a cat that was18 years old, had a lymphoma and
it was okay.
We're going to do some sub-Qfluids.
You can do these at home.
If the cat gets bad you cancome in and we might be able to
do some stuff, but it's probablynot worth doing anything.
So it's managing the quality oflife for the animal until it's
(11:05):
too far gone.
But if you're going to make thatdecision as a pet owner, it's
okay.
Are we going to go down path A,which is a treatment protocol
which is potentially thousandsor tens of thousands of dollars,
thousands of dollars, and ifI'm going to do that, the
general practitioner might wantit's, it's the one-time consult
(11:29):
with the oncologist to say thisis what you're going to do and
this is how long it's going togo on this, this is what it is,
versus just the generalpractitioner going well, if you
want to do that, it's this, butbut, um, helping that pet owner
make that, make that kind of Aor B decision, Like if we're
going to go down this path, it'sthis, if we're not going to go
down that path, it's that.
Is that I mean?
Does that accurately describesome of those decisions that you
need to make up front of thatcourse of treatment?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, that's one really good indication is
sometimes when you're initiallyfaced with a complex diagnosis
and you're wanting to help thepet owner make those decisions
Should I pursue surgery?
Should I try chemo?
Should I try X, y and Z?
There's a new treatment but Ihaven't had a chance to use it
yet.
I don't have any personal basisof how this is going to affect
your pet.
Having that specialist withexpertise in that area come in
(12:14):
and say these are your threeoptions, these are the studies
and my own personal experiencethat support your expected
outcomes for each of these threeoptions, because we, as
veterinarians, I mean it'simpossible to keep up with every
single study.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
This is when that comes out.
So having someone that's sayinglike, oh yeah, no, I wrote that
paper, this is actually what wecan expect in this situation
can be very helpful.
I think.
The other indication for thatis when you have chronic cases
that are complex and needlifelong management.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
When you have chronic cases that need lifelong
management and are maybe notroutine.
So when you have a patient withepilepsy, a seizure disorder,
and the seizures are verydifficult to control, they're
not responding to medicationsthat you're comfortable
prescribing.
When you've got a diabeticthat's not very responsive to
therapy, when you've got a casethat is very difficult to
(13:08):
diagnose, sometimes being ableto bring the specialist in, have
that kind of collaborative carein your practice, can be a lot
more accessible and affordablefor the owner than if they have
to drive three hours every timethey need to recheck their
diabetic patient's blood glucoseor something like that Sure, I
mean, I even think about my momwith her, with her dog, they had
(13:30):
a Gordon Setter and you know,for her to need to go to the
specialty clinic, you know, justfor an oral exam, was was an
hour and they may have been ableto do, and that's even in the
Twin Cities, right.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
That's you know.
Even if you think about Chicago, if you're trying to go see a
specialist from the north sideof Chicago to the south side of
Chicago, like you know, thatcould be a four-hour drive
depending on the day and roadconstruction, and so you know
having accessibility to notnecessarily that in-person, as
you mentioned, there will alwaysbe a place in the medical
profession, whether it's animalor human health, of that
(14:07):
in-person, hands-on.
Hey, let's see the, the animal,walk across the floor or what's
their.
You know what's theirdisposition in person versus
here's how they're presentingwhat do you think?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
specialist yeah, and the nice thing about, you know,
at least with our platform, iswe do have video capabilities so
the specialist can do someextent of the exam with the
general practitioner so they canwatch the animal you know,
observe them in the exam room,observe them in the environment.
(14:40):
They can also, you know, sendand receive videos of the exam
that the specialist is doing.
So we do have a lot of ways tokind of have that specialist be
part of the exam process.
So we try to mitigate thatdistance as much as we can.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So that kind of leads me to a question that I have
about for a busy generalpractitioner and I'd say every
general practitioner out thereis probably busy, whether you're
you know a solo practitioner,you've got five associates
working for you.
You're probably busy.
How can they incorporateteleconsulting into their
practice If they're notutilizing this now and they're
(15:16):
just referring to the you know?
Hey, here's this emergencypractice that has you know Dr
Samantha's four hours away inSpringfield.
You're in you know Champaign orsomething.
How would I incorporate thatinto my practice?
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think it's something thatwould be great to have a plan in
place and discuss with yourteam ahead of time, because it
is very hard when you're in themiddle of a busy day and you're
like man, I do not know what todo next for this patient's
diabetes.
Oh yeah, maybe I should loginto my StrataCite account and
try to.
Even if it's a relativelyintuitive, easy to use thing,
(15:54):
it's very hard to adopt a newskill and habit in the middle of
your busy workflow.
So I encourage people to try tobuild, using teleconsulting,
into your existing SOPs, intoyour existing plans for how you
work up and manage cases.
And we're doing things like thisalready, right?
If you have digital radiology inyour clinic, you're taking
(16:17):
x-rays digitally, you're morethan likely, at least some of
the time, sending those imagesto a radiologist to get a report
back.
Or if you're doing a biopsy,you're more than likely sending
that sample off to the lab forpathology.
So we're already in the habitof offering this, as you know,
(16:39):
having a specialist or anotherexpert's opinion as a service to
complement what we're providing.
So I would encourage people youknow, let's say, that you're in
a GP practice you're going tospay a patient, right?
You already have a standardoperating procedure in place.
You already have an estimate inplace, standard things you're
(16:59):
going to do.
Okay, we're going to do aphysical exam, we're probably
going to do some in-housepre-anesthetic blood work, we're
going to come up with ananesthesia protocol and we're
going to come up with apost-operative pain management
plan and at-home monitoring planfor the patient when they go
home, right?
So if you add into that okay,this patient is a high risk
anesthesia candidate they'reunstable or which was my my
(17:22):
parents.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Gordon Sutter was a high risk anesthesia patient who
would take seven hours to wakeup from anesthesia.
My mom's like can I get my dog?
And they're like it's not awakeyet.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Right, or the client is nervous about anesthesia
because they've had a badexperience in the past.
Okay, well, guess what?
As part of our surgery package,we also offer a customized
anesthesia consultation with aboard-certified anesthesiologist
who's going to review yourpatient's records, their
previous response to therapy,the medications that we have
available for this.
They're going to come up with aplan of what to use, how to
(17:52):
monitor, what to look for, andthey're going to submit that to
us and we're going to use theiradvice and we'll be able to
contact them if we need to ifthere's any complications.
So, having that kind of builtinto your SOP for those high
risk candidates or concernedowners, or if you're going, you
have a patient that you believehas cancer and you take a sample
(18:13):
of the suspected tumor and yousend it out for cytology or for
biopsy or what have you, you getthose results back.
Now the next step in thatdiagnostic process is submitting
that case to an oncologist toget the list of options that we
have, present that accurately tothe owner and have them decide
which route they want to take.
So just having that part ofyour workflow as it is starting,
(18:35):
think of it not as like oh,this is my backup plan, for I
don't know what to do with thiscase and now I have to try to
figure it out when I'm busy buthaving it kind of built into
your routine of when I have thistype of case come in.
I can offer these services asdiagnostics and treatments, and
this is one of the services thatwe have to offer our clients to
(18:55):
enhance the level of care thatwe can provide.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
So you know that teleconsulting to build your
practice and increase revenuesbecause, at the end of the day,
you know it's, it's the, it's,it's the care and services, it's
the hey, would you like fries?
With that mentality of offeringthe extra component, of saying,
well, you know, yep, your doghas had bad reaction to
anesthesia in the past.
(19:19):
Would you like us, on the nextsurgery we do, would you like a
consultation with a boardcertified anesthesiologist?
My mom would have said yes, 10times out of 10 and said, yeah,
I'll pay for the extraconsultation to make sure that
we're on the right page.
And so you know your platform,stratasite.
So you know your platformStratasite.
How you know number one, howmany platforms are there out
(19:40):
there?
You know, not talking aboutcompetitors, but you know if
you're, if you're a veterinarypractice that wants to
incorporate that obviouslyStratasite is a place to do that
.
What's out there in the marketright now?
And why did you see a need tobuild something?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yeah, great question.
So when we first started thecompany, we didn't start out as
let's build a platform.
We're not tech people, we'reveterinarians.
Myself and a couple ofcolleagues started out as like,
let's consult, let's putourselves out there, let's offer
consultations to otherveterinarians.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
So we so you started this, as you're offering the
consultations.
How do we do consultations?
Because we're in the middle ofnowhere.
I don't want to live in Florida.
I love the Midwest, but I wantto be able to offer my
board-certified neurologyservices, even though I'm in
small, rural Illinois Right,illinois.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Right, and so when we started that process, we
quickly figured out at the timethere was nothing really
available for specialists as aresource trying to start this
business on their own, so wewere basically doing our own
marketing, like calling vetclinics hey, do you want to
consult?
Going and using email andGoogle Drive and stuff to send
(20:54):
cases, and where do you storethese files?
Is this secure?
Do I just keep this on mylaptop?
All of the like, the mark, andthen the accounting and the
invoicing and all of the kind ofadministrative things that go
into running a consultingbusiness started to realize it
would be great for especiallyfor these busy practitioners
that are still in specialtypractice, you know, full or part
(21:15):
time and are just trying to dothis on the side, instead of
them having to quit their joband work for a big corporation
as a consultant, or instead ofthem having to like hire someone
to build a business for them.
Why don't we just build abusiness that they can walk into
?
And so that's why we built thisas a marketplace.
As far as I know, we're theonly veterinary teleconsulting
marketplace.
(21:35):
There are a handful of otherconsulting companies either
independent veterinarians thatare doing their own thing.
On the side IDEX and Antec, someof the bigger companies will
hire specialists to act asconsultants for their customers.
There are some radiology groupsthat are now offering kind of
specialist consultations as anadditional service, so there are
other people trying to do it.
What we built and what wewanted to design was something
(21:58):
that would be accessible toevery single specialist that
wanted to consult.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So on both sides, right.
So you built a platform on oneside for the general
practitioner to be able toaccess specialists, but then you
also built a platform where thespecialists can say, hey, I'm
available.
So I've used Fiverr and I don'tknow if anyone's ever heard of
Fiverr, but Fiverr is basicallya service.
You go out there and say, hey,I need a graphic designer.
(22:23):
You put the bid out and whoeversomewhere in the world will do
a voiceover, they'll do amarketing program for you,
they'll design a logo, and soit's.
It's really where you'rematching up somebody's talents
with somebody who says, hey, Ineed somebody to stand, I need
somebody to do a voiceover forme, and you go out to this
service and you hire somebody todo a voiceover.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
You know it's.
It's a marketplace, so it'skind of most similar to Etsy.
We compare it to.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
That was actually I was going to ask that.
I was going to say I was like,oh, is this you really built the
Etsy of veterinary consulting?
Yeah, we call ourselves theEtsy of veterinary, okay, good,
that was actually the question Iwas going to ask Samantha.
It's like, uh, forgive me forsaying this, but like this feels
like it's Etsy, where ifsomebody is has a very
successful, lucrative practiceas a board certified
cardiologist in Minnesota butthey'd like to do some side
(23:14):
hustle consulting, it's reallythe ability to do some side
hustle consulting as a boardcertified cardiologist.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Right, exactly, and we have a lot of people at
academia who work inuniversities that like this,
because they do get some offclinic time where they do
teaching and research and thingslike that, and they're allowed
to do some consulting work inthat off clinic time.
So this is, I mean it can be, ifyou build up a successful
enough consulting business andyou want to consult full-time,
great.
But this is designed so that,instead of having to take
someone out of private practice,hire them to be available when
we need them, we can haveanybody be available to the
(23:48):
extent that they want.
So all of our specialists areindependent.
They create a free account,they work for themselves, they
set their own prices andservices and schedule and then
we just have this basicallyplatform available where, when a
vet needs a specialist, theysearch for the specialist they
need.
They can say I need acardiologist that's available
today, and then they can seewho's available today, what
(24:09):
services they offer, findsomeone that meets their
patient's needs and book theappointment.
So we basically just took allof the administrative works out
of both ends of that and justmade it an easy place where they
can come and connect.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
So I'm not a regulatory wonk.
I don't understand all the.
You know every state isdifferent.
It's all regulated by the Boardof Animal Health or whatever
they call themselves in eachstate because they're all
different.
So you know how does that workwith?
You know, not in.
You know we mentioned theworldwide component.
Obviously you know you'relooking to build a worldwide
(24:45):
empire here of teleconsulting.
How does that work from aregulatory standpoint, state to
state?
You know insurance,professional liability, all of
those things.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
This is a question that we get a lot, and I think
it's really important to kind ofunderstand the different types
of telehealth and the differentregulations that are assigned to
each one of them, because Ihave seen a lot of instances
where people will use all theseterms interchangeably and
sometimes incorrectly, andthat's where it gets a little
bit confusing.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Before we started this, I even said telemedicine.
You're like it's nottelemedicine, it's
teleconsulting.
So you know, let's be clearabout what we're actually doing.
So, stratasite, and what you'reoffering and what you're
talking about inside theveterinary animal health
community, is teleconsulting.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Teleconsulting?
Yeah, and the AmericanVeterinary Medical Association
defines teleconsulting as theprocess by which a veterinary
specialist or other qualifiedexpert provides advice to
another veterinarian.
So we are 100% vet to vet.
Our consultants cannot, shouldnot and will not directly
communicate with a pet or a petowner.
(25:57):
They will not prescribemedications, they will not make
a diagnosis, they will not bethe doctor on this case.
They are simply providing theirexpertise to a colleague who
acts as the veterinarian on thecase, as the prescribing
veterinarian, and the key thinghere is
veterinarian-client-patientrelationship.
So that's like the legal termthat defines how a veterinarian
(26:22):
can interact with a client and apatient.
So any veterinarian that makesa diagnosis, makes
patient-specific recommendationsdirectly to the client or
prescribes medications has tohave this veterinary and
client-patient relationship VCPRwe'll call it for short and
(26:43):
that means they have to know thepatient's history, they have to
have a legal, signedrelationship with the legal
owner of the pet, they have tohave examined the patient in
some capacity, they have toprovide follow-up and maintain
medical records for that patient.
So our consultants do not haveto have a VCPR.
They do not have a relationshipwith the client.
They're simply providingrecommendations to the
(27:06):
veterinarian that holds the VCPR, and so that's different from
telemedicine.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
So, in layman's terms , you've created a phone, a
friend platform for advice forveterinarians.
Hey, I need help with theanswer to this question.
I don't know what to do.
Or I think this is appropriate.
Or you know the anesthesia case.
Yeah, we've just got aproblematic case here.
We need to have a boardcertified anesthesiologist.
I, you know, and I think thatfor what's one of those things
(27:32):
right, where I think mostveterinarians could go find the
answer somewhere, the answer'sout there for them to go find.
But it's the time, it's thework involved, it's hey, I had a
colleague one time.
Are they still doing this?
Or you know, for a lot of thespecialists out there,
board-certified specialists theyput out papers, there's papers
(27:55):
on this stuff.
But from a medicalprofessional's perspective, from
that general practitioner, togo try and find the protocol for
anesthesia, to do that at mypractice, I just don't have time
for that and I might be lookingat outdated information.
And there's new stuff out therethat board-certified
specialists in anesthesiology orneurology or cardiology,
orthopedics have thatinformation because they they're
(28:18):
they're in it every day.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Right, and what's more than that is it?
It turns like okay, I'm goingto go stop what I'm doing and
scroll through all these journalarticles and try to find
something and interpret it andunderstand it, or I'm going to
text someone I went to vetschool with and hope they're out
of the country.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Available today.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
yeah, it turns that process into.
I am going to send all of theinformation specific to my
patient to an expert that hasextensive experience in managing
cases like this and they aregoing to provide me with a
verbal and a written report thatI can then put in my patient's
(28:56):
record, show to the client,monetize and show that value to
the client of.
Hey, I consulted with an expertin this.
Their experience, combined withmy examination, leads us to
these recommendations.
Here is the official reportfrom that and it gives that
(29:18):
veterinarian who requested theservice the opportunity to
monetize that as well.
Right, because they should be.
It's very hard to go to yourclient and say, oh yeah, my
roommate in vet school is aneurologist.
Now I texted her.
She said she likes Keppra, canI have $50?
No one can monetize that, right, what are you going to put that
in your medical record?
(29:38):
Like, yeah, I called my oldroommate and she said to do
Keppra, but if you have like anactual consultation, A protocol.
A protocol right and you submit,you get an actual form that
goes in that patient's record.
You have results.
You have results from adiagnostic test that just
happened to be a consultationand you can use that not only to
(30:00):
make the best decisions foryour patient but to you know,
supplement your medical recordand show that you're practicing
the highest quality of medicinepossible in that situation.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Well, and give the pet owner the ability to make
the decision.
You know that's in the bestinterest of their.
You know that their animal,that they're in charge of, that
they're responsible for carewhat they might financially be
able to do.
You know, with my cat, 18 yearsold, had lymphoma and they said
, well, we could see if it's.
You know, I was wobbling aroundand it was in bad shape and you
(30:33):
know I was like, well, do youwant to determine if this is
really lymphoma?
Because there's really only acouple of ways we could see.
If it's a brain, I think it'sbrain parasites they thought it
may have been or or someneurology issues.
They said, well, we could do aCT scan.
I said, well, what's the CTscan cost me?
And they said, well, it's goingto be 2,500 bucks.
And I was like, man, I love you, betty Boop, but it's a tough
(30:55):
call to make at 18.
And but you know, being able tooffer the service and the idea
and so you know, to your pointagain, kind of dumb it down,
cause I'm a simple guy is hey,would you like me to call my
buddy Steve, or would you likeme to offer this service as part
of our protocol that we put inplace and we have a procedure
(31:18):
for this and you know our costto the practice to be able to,
you know, in in.
You know maybe you're in anurban area or a suburban area,
but you know, I I see thisreally as you're offering a
service to veterinarians whodon't have access to this kind
of.
You know, here's a referral toa cardiologist who's a half an
hour away.
(31:38):
It's we don't just don't haveaccess to this and and so would
you like.
You know we're now offeringthis service.
So talk about the the you knowtalked about kind of building
this inside the practice.
What, what are some of therevenue?
You know how to how to buildthis as a revenue stream and
kind of finish that thought out.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah, that's a great point because when, if you're
thinking about it from theperspective of a practice owner
or a veterinarian that's tryingto build their client base,
build their practice, you've gotmultiple options with using
teleconsulting to build revenue.
So, first and foremost, theactual consult.
Well, the nice thing is forpeople that are using
teleconsulting, at least throughStratasite there's zero
(32:17):
overhead, so it costs younothing to sign up.
There's no risk.
You can sign up and never useit.
It doesn't cost you a dime Ifyou do use it.
You only pay when you do aconsult and, of course, you
charge the client for thatconsult.
So it costs you $0 at abaseline.
Then you have the opportunityto mark it up so that you make
some money from that transaction.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
You cover- I mean you could give vaccines away at
cost, but you don't from thattransaction you cover.
I mean you could give vaccinesaway at cost, but you don't
Right Exactly.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
You mark everything up.
You should.
You're covering your time.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Cost of goods.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
The cost of your technician submitting the
consult for you or however youdo it, so you can make some
money off of that, however muchyou want to mark it up, right.
But then from that, if you hadsent that patient to a
specialist in another hospital,they're going to get there.
That specialist is going to sayall right, I want to do these
(33:07):
tests, I want to prescribe thesetreatments and I want to do
this procedure and I want you tocome back for these rechecks.
All of that revenue now goes tothat specialist.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, it's at the specialty clinic Right.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
You diagnose a one-year-old dog with seizures,
you send them to a neurologistthat for the next 10, 15 years
of that dog's life, two, three,four times a year they're going
to see that person for bloodwork, for refills, for checkups.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
When 80% of that could have been done in your
practice.
The blood work, the medication,like all of that stuff.
Maybe there's some, maybe 20%of that care needs to be done at
a referral center four hoursaway.
But the parents, the client,get to make that decision.
But then 80% of that work, thatactually happened with my wife
(33:51):
in the human world, right.
So she was sick in 2016, she hadcancer and we did a consult at
Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic saidthe protocol that she's on for
chemo you could do here, but wewould recommend you know that's
what we would have prescribed ifyou had come here at Mayo.
But you know she's doing thatat the local hospital and so you
know, as a practice you can saywell, we're giving money away
(34:15):
because we're allowing all ofthat care to happen at a
third-party facility versushappening at our facility.
And so if we teleconsult someof these cases even if it's in a
metro area where you couldrefer some of that out if you do
the initial teleconsult, theycould prescribe a protocol and
you're doing the chemo on site,you're prescribing the specialty
(34:36):
medication, specialty food, allthe labs.
All of that could be done onsite by you and then you know,
maybe the one visit a year bythe specialist locally at the
referral center for the onething they need to be seen by
hands on to maybe do the TPLOsurgery or whatever.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Right.
So there's so much that you cankeep in your practice, not only
in terms of revenue but interms of that relationship with
that client, and so I thinkthere's a lot of opportunities
for practitioners to reallybenefit from using
teleconsulting.
Not only building revenue,keeping your clients in your
clinic, keeping thoserelationships, there's also some
(35:12):
degree of peace of mind thatcomes with having acquired a
second opinion as well.
I love a second opinion,especially on non-neurology
things.
I love a second opinion,especially on non-neurology
things.
It's funny I work one day aweek at a general practice here
locally just to kind of keep myskills up and have fun and see
animals, and you should see thequestions that I ask the guy who
owns the practice.
I'm like.
(35:35):
So fleas what are we doing forfleas these days, Because it's
been so long since.
I've seen general practice stuff, so I love a second opinion.
I'm all about consulting foranything outside of my area of
expertise, so it's all aboutthat kind of peace of mind of
knowing that like, yes, not onlydo I think this is the right
treatment for this patient, sodoes this expert in this field.
I'm going to sleep well tonight, knowing that I did the best
(35:55):
that I could for my patient.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And, you know, at the end of the day you gave them
the opportunity to decide, yeah,I'll do the small investment.
You know, in the case of my cat, right Like, I don't think I
would have spent $2,500.
You know, ultimately we decidedto have her put down when it
got too bad, because that wasthe right decision to make.
I wasn't ready to spend $2,500.
But if they had said, well, wecould do a teleconsult for $200
(36:17):
or $300, whatever that number is, I mean, I wasn't ready to
write a $2,500 check for an18-year-old cat who had, you
know, most likely lymphoma,because that's not a good
prognosis.
But if they said, well, here's a$300 consult we could do with a
neurologist, with somebody tosay, yeah, here's the stuff, I
probably would have written acheck for $300 or $400 to do a
(36:39):
consult, versus, you know, twoor $3,000 for a CT scan and so,
and also for the for the patient.
You know, putting myself incause.
That's, you know, that's myworld.
I've never been a veterinarian.
It's it's giving me peace ofmind, knowing that I did
everything I could do within myfinancial budget to say, yeah, I
made the right decision, andgiving those tools and resources
(37:01):
to the pet owner for the petcare.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Exactly, exactly, yeah, I mean.
Most pet owners want to dowhat's best for their pet, and
whether you can or can't affordsomething doesn't dictate
whether you're making the rightdecision for your pet.
It's all about being able toprovide people with as much
information as we can providethem and help them to make an
informed decision, and adecision that they're
comfortable with.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Because as much as Betty Boop would talk to me and
say water, I thought she wouldsay in water when she's standing
in the bathroom sink.
We coached her for 18 years tosay wow, wow, and she would meow
to turn on the sink for her.
She couldn't say that she wasin pain.
And so you know, that's as thepet owner hat because that's the
only hat that I have is just,you know, trying to figure out
(37:49):
how to do the best thing that wecan for them, and that's why it
was so interesting to hear that.
You know, there's not, there'sjust not a lot of this out there
.
I think in the human healthworld there's a ton of you know.
That's where I think thetelemedicine world comes from.
Is that's the easy keywordversus teleconsulting, because
(38:09):
really, the veterinarian, thegeneral practitioner, your vet,
who you see every day, is theone doing all the prescribing
and they're just phoning afriend and it sounds like.
So let me put on my sales hatfor a moment, because that's the
hat that I wear when I'm not onthe podcast.
So you've developed a freeplatform that the consultant can
sign up for for free to gocheck it out, that the general
(38:31):
practitioner can go check outfor free and just say ever need
this, here's this platform thatI could maybe use at some point
in the future and then figureout how to monetize at my
practice as an additional fee orservice that we could charge
yes, free.
So that sounds like a prettygood deal.
(38:54):
So for veterinarians out therewho are listening to this
stratocytecomS-T-R-A-T-O-C-Y-T-Ecom, go check
it out.
We'll have some of thatinformation in the show notes
and this, unfortunately, willnot come out before VMX, but
you're starting now.
So you've spent a couple ofyears building this platform out
(39:14):
and now you're out in the worldstarting to promote this
platform.
So you're at some of thenational events and we'll have
the information about how peoplecan reach out to you online as
well.
So it's been awesome to haveyou on, samantha.
Where can people find youonline or reach out to you and
your team?
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's been a lot of fun.
Yeah, any veterinarian can goto stratocyitecom and, like you
said, set up a free account tocheck it out.
We are on LinkedIn atStratosite and we're also on
Instagram at Stratosite.
For the new year, we'relaunching some fun educational
(39:54):
series.
So, Instagram will be featuringevery month.
We'll be working throughmanagement of a different
disease process and we'll havesome exclusive content for the
people that are signed up andpart of the Stratasite community
and we'll have some newslettersand things on LinkedIn as well,
so we would love to have peoplecome check us out.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Well, awesome.
Thanks so much, Samantha.
Any last words of advice for aveterinarian out there who's
thinking I don't know that Iwould ever want to do that.
What would you say to them?
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Well, I would say that you really have nothing to
lose by trying teleconsulting,especially if you are part of a
platform that doesn't charge asubscription fee or anything
like that, and that we, asspecialists, are here not to
make anyone feel bad about howthey've managed a case
previously, or to judge anyoneor anything like that.
(40:45):
We're all just here tocollaborate and to provide
support and encouragement forour colleagues and to bring the
best level of care to everypatient possible.
And so we are veterinarians, welove veterinarians, we respect
veterinarians and we really justwanted to build something that
would make veterinarians livesbetter.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
So we we hope to accomplish that in the coming
years, if you're in a specialistdesert, like a food desert, if
you're in a specialist desertsomewhere in rural middle
America, as we are in the upperMidwest, you know, or if it's
(41:29):
three months to get in and aspecialist in New York City,
check out Stratasite.
Well, thanks so much forjoining us today, samantha, and,
as always for all of ourlisteners, make sure to like,
comment and review the podcast,Share it with your friends out
there in the veterinary world,and we look forward to having
you join us on a future episode.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Thanks for tuning in to Veterinary Blueprints.
If you have any thoughts,questions or suggestions for an
episode, I would love to hearfrom you.
Email me at bill atbutlervetinsurancecom.
Don't forget to subscribe soyou never miss an episode, and
if you could do me a huge favoryou know it helps with the
algorithm.
If you can like, share orcomment on the post, leave a
(42:11):
review, I would love it.
Thanks for tuning in and untilnext time.
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