May 27, 2025 • 40 mins
Jacinthe Moreau, CEO and co-founder of VetScribe, shares how AI scribing technology is transforming veterinary workflows by dramatically reducing documentation time and improving practitioner wellbeing.
• VetScribe was born from a dinner conversation where veterinarians expressed intense frustration with the time spent on SOAP notes
• AI scribing saves practitioners 6-8 minutes per appointment, adding up to approximately 35 hours monthly
• The technology records client consultations and uses AI to generate medical notes within minutes
• Practitioners have full control to review and edit AI-generated notes before approval
• AI notes provide more standardized, consistent medical records that improve continuity of care
• The technology integrates with practice management systems either through manual copy/paste or a team of medical scribes
• Entire veterinary teams can use the technology with technicians starting recordings during initial history-taking
• Reclaimed time allows veterinarians to take breaks, extend appointment times, see more patients, or improve work-life balance
• The mental relief of eliminating "pajama charting" significantly improves practitioner wellbeing
Visit VetSkribe.com to learn more about how AI scribing can transform your veterinary practice.
Host Information
Bill Butler – Contact Information
Direct – 952-208-7220
https://butlervetinsurance.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbutler-cic/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Embracing the changes and what the technology is
bringing to you.
We will have to do that in ourbusiness life, but also in our
personal life.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
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.
(00:33):
Welcome to today's episode.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprints Podcast,
where veterinary medicine meetsbusiness and entrepreneurship.
I'm your host, Bill Butler, andtoday's guest is Jacinthe
Moreau.
She's the CEO and co-founder ofVetScribe, a company helping
veterinarians simplifydocumentation.
With over 25 years in theveterinary industry, Jacinthe
has held leadership roles at VCA, VetSource, World Pet
(00:58):
Association and more.
Her expertise in marketing andbusiness strategy has helped
countless veterinaryprofessionals improve their
practices.
We're going to talk about herjourney today and the challenges
veterinarians face in thecurrent marketplace, and how
VetScribe is making a difference.
Jeanne Saint, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Thank you, bill.
Thank you for having me, andit's a pleasure to be able to
talk to your audience today.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Perfect.
Well, we had met at VMX and haddinner as a vet partner member
down at VMX and then gotconnected and you've got a very
interesting story and journeyand current company and what
you're involved in and we'reboth vet partner members, so
we've gotten to know each othera little bit.
So why don't you tell ouraudience a little bit about your
(01:43):
journey from where you were inthe animal health industry to
founding VetScribe?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I can do that.
Do we have like a few hours?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I think we all yeah, we all need that amount of time.
Well, why don't we make it acouple minutes instead of a
couple hours?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
First of all, I was in the veterinary field for all
of my life.
That's where my heart is,that's where my passion is.
I started when I was very youngin Canada and then moved to the
US working for pharma companies.
When I was in Delaware at thetime, I started my own company.
So it was the first time that Iwas an entrepreneur, raising
(02:20):
money for animal cancer.
And from there we moved to theWest Coast where I'm talking to
you today, from California.
And when I say we, it's myhusband and I.
We kind of always have a bigwork together.
We have a big, big magnetbetween us.
So when one goes somewhere, theother one has a tendency to
(02:41):
follow, and that's what happenedin our life.
So we moved to the West Coastand started to work for a very
big group of veterinarypractices.
So that was when we really hadthe opportunity to work with
many veterinarians andunderstanding the struggle and
(03:02):
how sometimes crazy it is towork in a veterinary practice,
how rewarding it can be but howfrustrating it can be, and the
processes also.
And if you want to implementsomething, that the change
management is most of the timethe biggest challenge you have.
So when I was working at VCA, Iwas responsible for new
(03:23):
technology or new services, sothat's where I thrive.
I really like everything that isnew, so I had the pleasure of
working there on home delivery,even before home delivery was a
thing, so 2008.
And I also developed somewellness program for them, a
private brand of product,created a team of marketers and
(03:44):
then from there I went to theWorld Pet Association.
So I did jump to the pet sidefor three years and then came
back on the veterinary side, andwhen I came back I had the
opportunity of working for VMGVeterinary Management Group, and
the idea for VetScribe came outof a meeting that I was
(04:04):
attending.
And the idea for VetScribe cameout of a meeting that I was
attending, a VMG meeting that Iwas attending, with about maybe
16, 20 veterinarians.
At dinner, Almost like duringour vet partners dinner,
everybody's together and thenyou talk about your child, your
children or something like that.
But then the conversationstarted, took a turn and the
(04:24):
veterinarian's owners weretalking about the pain of doing
the notes, the soap notes.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Transcription yeah, the transcription.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
And that started the most animated conversation I had
ever witnessed withveterinarians.
They were all complaining,saying that their veterinarians
were spending enormous hours oftime doing transcription, or
some were late not only days butweeks, and it was like wow,
they were just like veryemotionally involved and you
could tell that the soap noteswere really a problem.
And that is before AI.
And at that time there were afew services that you could use
(05:11):
to speak in a mic and beattached to your computer to do
your notes.
But the doctors that werearound that table were
commenting to the effect thatsome had tried them and it was
not meeting their expectationsbecause the doctors still needed
to be at the practice and doingtheir things in front of the
(05:31):
computer.
And then there were a littlebit of other technology
challenges.
So I just thought about whydon't we do an app?
And I called one of the doctors, dr John Allitt, the next day
and talk about the app and hesaid oh my God, that's so simple
, do it.
So I went.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
So that's how VetScribe was born.
It was born from a dinnerconversation about problems
veterinarians were having arounddocumentation and transcription
of their medical notes, and soyou launched an app.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
That's it.
You listen to the people doingthe work and then sometimes it
triggers those ideas and then AIbecome a thing as we were
launching and we had to pivotand really retrain our platform
to work with AI.
So we were very mindful andcareful before we launched
(06:25):
because we wanted to make surethat our technology could be as
good as it could be at the party.
Sure, because with AI and Ithink anybody could rely to that
the advancement that you seefrom one month to the next are
tremendous.
So, we wanted to make sure thatwe would be offering a good
(06:47):
quality product at the time, andwhen I'm looking back right now
like almost like a year and ahalf ago and what we were doing,
I'm almost ashamed becausewe're so much better, and I'm
sure I will have the samefeeling in two years from now.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, absolutely, and so you know when we talk about
we were just down at WVC, we'rerecording this early spring of
2025.
And so you know this is asnapshot in time.
As you talked about 18 monthsago, your product and, I think,
ai services overall, regardlessof what they are, has changed
tremendously in two years andit's going to be further
(07:24):
advanced two years from now, nowas we're recording the spring
of 2025.
For the listeners out there,you know we were just down at
WVC, you're out on the exhibithall floor and you're there
represented at VMX, or you seeother scribing.
What is AI scribing and whatcan it do and not do?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That's a very good question.
Ai scribing is a way for do andnot do.
That's a very good question.
Ai scribing is a way forveterinarians to gain back their
time.
You know, after eachconsultation veterinarians are
documenting the entireconversation they had with a pet
owner and now with the simplepress of a button you can have
this conversation being recordedand the AI going over the
(08:05):
details of the conversation andbuilding the soap notes.
So as soon as the doctor is donewith their consultation and
they press submit, within lessthan a minute the draft of their
notes or their notes are backinto their device.
If they are working on a phone,on a tablet, on a computer,
everything is back to them andthen they can right there, on
(08:28):
the spot, approve or if theyhave edits to do, they can do
their edits and they can be donewith that case.
So AI is definitely a help forany type of documentation that
veterinarians have to do.
So it could be soap notes, itcould be surgery report, it
could be call back.
Think about anything thatusually a veterinarian would be
(08:51):
spending typing on a keyboardinstead of having their hands on
an animal.
Pretty much everything thatthey are typing we can do for
them, and AI will improve theconsistency of the record
because the AI works a littlebit more like an automated
machine, if you want, so it willbuild notes that will be
(09:13):
consistent and accurate.
Be in the moment with their petowner because they don't have to
either take bullet notes on apiece of paper or they don't
have to multitask with theirbrain in saying, okay, I need to
remember that to document mynote.
(09:34):
I need to take account of that.
Now they can really be in thatconversation and be very engaged
with the pet owner, looking atthe patient and not having to
worry too much about what theywill need to put in their notes.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That was going to be my follow-up question.
So you know the AI out thereand you know vet scribe.
How does that and you kind ofdescribed that, that the being
in the moment, being able tofocus more on patients and
clients instead of the computer,or even just trying to remember
to take?
I mean, you know I do this withclients, we, you know, we have
a client meeting with aveterinary practice and they're
talking about their practice,operations and why they started
(10:11):
the practice and all this stuff,and then we get done with our
meeting and I've got to becausewe do documentate.
We document our client notesand calls, just like a vet
practice does, not in a medicalterm, but and so you know,
trying to have thatdocumentation and not worrying
about typing on my computerwhile we're having a meeting how
has that changed for yourclients with VetScribe?
(10:35):
How are they transitioning tobe more in the moment, working
with their clients and patients?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's a good question, I think and I have not
surveyed our client, but I feelthat our veterinarians using
the service were not necessarilytyping their notes like looking
away from the clients andtyping while the client is in
the room but then they alwayshad the fear of missing out on
(11:04):
some details.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Which, knowing that you have this great partner now,
that is, the AI, that is almostlike this presence in the room
that will be capturing all ofthat information, you can just
forget about those bullet pointsor those mental notes and the
fear of missing something orthose mental notes and the fear
of missing something.
We have clients that weretelling us that when they came
(11:27):
to us they were telling us, youknow, sometimes I'm late doing
my notes and I will do my notestwo, three days later and they
were explaining that sometimesthey have to stand up and put
themselves in the right placearound the table on the side
that they were when they weredoing the exam on that animal to
(11:48):
remember if it was the rightleg or the left leg.
But you see 15, 20, 22 patientsa day and then if you have to
remember all of that, that's alot.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So sometimes Was that the black cat or the tabby that
I had the conversation aboutthe hairball issue and the vomit
all the time I could.
You know we don't have thatmuch, we don't have that many
appointments or meetings, butit's the same situation.
You have a client meeting andthen you get a phone call, and
(12:23):
then there's an email and thenyou're recording a podcast with
a great guest like you and thenall of a sudden you're like, oh,
I have to go home for the dayCause I've got another
appointment.
I'm supposed to have dinnerwith my wife and then you know
I'll, I'll record, I'll documentthat conversation tomorrow and
trying to remember all the smalldetails and the fine points and
you know I'm not dealing in aclinical setting, I'm just
talking about, like, how manysquare foot is your building?
(12:44):
Did they say 3,500 or 4,500?
I can't read my note that Iscribbled during the meeting.
So your service is actuallyrecording during the client
interaction, during the patientmeeting.
You're live recording thatinteraction with the client or
the patient.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, you can do that .
Or you can dictate after aconsultation.
Okay, let's say that you have asensitive consultation or
someone doesn't want to berecorded which never happened so
far or that we know of but youcan dictate after the
consultation.
Or another example is that wehave quite a bit of equine
(13:20):
veterinarians and they dictatewhile they are driving in
between barns.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Sure, absolutely In companion animal practices.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
95% of our clients are using the ambient mode and,
bill, I just want to come back.
Your first question was aboutwhat can AI do and cannot do,
and I just want to talk aboutwhat it cannot do, because we
don't want to promise the moon.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Something that.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
AI cannot do is replace the veterinarian
expertise.
The veterinarian is the expert.
The veterinarian should stay incharge of the recommendation.
We don't do generative AI.
We don't propose treatment.
We're not there yet.
When the technology will getthere, eventually we might, but
(14:09):
right now those decisions, theplan and everything in our book
belongs to the veterinarians.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So it's more of a transcription AI than a
generative.
Here's a here's tell me myschedule for the day based on
what I want to try and do, andthen AI generates my schedule
for the day based on what I wantto try and do, and then AI
generates my schedule for theday.
This is, dictate my schedulefor the day and then it puts it
on a piece of paper, so to speak.
To oversimplify it.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Another point also that AI is not really truly good
as we speak today, in spring of2025, is the nuances in a
conversation.
Sometimes there will be thingsthat might have like two
different meanings.
Or another example if you havea multi-pet appointment and the
veterinarian is working with twocats at the same time, that's
complicated for the AI, theveterinarians they really have
(15:05):
to be careful in saying here I'mworking on Mimi and here I'm
working on Chocolat, and Mimihas this and Chocolat has that.
So that is very tricky.
Or the nuances of somethingthat was expressed.
Sometimes the AI will hear theconversation and be liter and
you need to be careful with that.
(15:27):
Sure so the AI does not replaceentirely the human.
It's really a big help, butthink about it as a partner into
building your notes.
That does not replace you andthe veterinarians still have the
responsibility of reading whatthe AI is suggesting, making
potential edits if they need to,and then approve what has been
(15:49):
done by the AI.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And I think that's true for all AI these days,
right now, you know, in theinsurance industry, there's a
lot of AI being used for youknow marketing, or you know
scheduling, or just all thethings that AI is doing right
now, and everywhere you hear AIbeing referenced, it's talked
about.
Well, you need to check itswork.
(16:12):
It's not the end all be all andit gets you about 80% of the
way there.
There's some changes that needto be made, or the voice of AI,
if you're using it for marketingor those types of things.
So how have you seen this helpwith your clients, or just
clients that are embracingveterinary practice, embracing
AI?
How have you seen it affecttheir efficiency and workflow
(16:35):
and then, more importantly,their well-being?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I mean all of that, their well-being.
You know the stress I wasmentioning, the stress of being
late three, two days in yournotes Some people when they are
coming to us are way fartherbehind than that.
They wake up in the middle ofthe night.
They cannot really sleepbecause they know that they are
so late.
In their notes it's arequirement when you are a
(17:00):
veterinarian to maintain yourmedical records adequately, so
it's a stress that is always ontheir shoulder.
They do what we call pajamacharting.
Sometimes they go home, theyfeed the kids, they do the bath,
the routine, they put the kidsin bed and then they reopen the
computer and work for hours.
(17:21):
So guess what?
You show up at work the nextday.
You're exhausted.
You did not even have thatbreak, that mental break that
you needed.
Now AI can take all of that.
Veterinarians usuallyself-reported.
Surveys that we have done.
Our users are saving in averagebetween six and eight minutes
per consultations.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
So per consultation, so if you're done, I'm grabbing
my calculator right now.
So if you're seeing 15 patientsa day, we'll just call it seven
minutes, because it's six toeight.
So seven times 15 is 105divided by 60.
A day saved times.
(18:06):
Let's just say 20 days in amonth, that's 35 hours a month.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
That's almost a full working week a month.
When you think about that, it'smind-boggling, and very few
technology or improvement overthe last few years could provide
that amount of time save orproductivity or good quality
time that you can use to dowhatever you want.
(18:35):
We have veterinarians that aretelling us that with the time
save, they can now take a break,a lunch break.
I mean, I have a lunch breakevery day, but many
veterinarians don't even havethe luxury of grabbing their
sandwich while treating apatient.
Now they can really take abreak.
Now we are in the springtime,they can go out for a walk and
(18:57):
enjoy the beautiful weather thatwe're starting to have, or they
can use those hours to do CE.
I mean CE hours that they needto do.
They can do that, or just seehours that they need to do they
can do that, they can or just behome with the family, totally
Be home with the family is a bigone.
Mentoring other staff members inthe practice or some
(19:18):
veterinarians will also say I'mgoing to do an FNF.
I will either see more patientsa day, so some veterinarians
want to see more patients.
You can do that with that hourand something that you
calculated, or you can extendthe time of the consultation.
So let's say that right now youonly have 20 minutes
(19:38):
consultation.
We know that there is a lothappening and you have to talk
fast, but if you can extend thatconsultation by the seven
minutes that you're saving,that's giving you the time to
invest into that relationshipwith the pet owner, making sure
that the pet owner understandsthe recommendation that you can
engage them in better care foryour patients.
(20:02):
And most of the time there is afinancial return.
Not that we're looking for thatas veterinarians we're not
looking for a financial return,but if you spend more time
explaining a treatment, thecompliance will be increased,
the outcome will be better andusually it's reflected
financially.
There are so many ways that youcan use the time that you're
(20:23):
gaining back.
It's really up to theveterinarians, but you know time
is very precious.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Well, time is also money and so, from a time and
financial impact you know it'sI've always looked at.
Whenever I add a piece oftechnology to my business or
practice, it's about integratingthat in fully.
Otherwise I'm not getting thefull financial benefit of that.
So you know you're getting atime benefit by using this.
What's the financial impact ofadding this?
(20:51):
Or financial consideration?
You know there's a lot ofservices out there that are
starting to think about this,with PIMS and all this other
stuff, but what's the financialconsideration of adding this to
my practice?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And you know, some veterinarians are coming to us
thinking, okay, that's anexpense and I have to be mindful
of my expense.
But we have others that aresaying, oh my God, the money
that I'm investing in, that Iwill recoup it by so many.
My return on investment will beso much better, either
financially or on wellbeing ofmy team or recruiting.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Well, what's your time worth, right?
I mean, if you're, I look at itthis way if you're the
veterinary practice owner andyou look at, you know your team
members time, especiallyassociate veterinarians you
quantify their revenue theygenerate by how many
appointments they see andwell-being.
Well, if they're burned out andthey're sick and they're not
coming to work or you've gotchurn at the practice, all of
(21:45):
those things, those arefinancial considerations.
So if you're saving your teamseven minutes an appointment and
they're just happier mentally,you're going to run a better
practice overall.
So I've always looked at not anexpense of investment, whether
it's flying down to go to a vetpartner's meeting.
That's an investment.
(22:05):
It's not a business expense tofly down because I'm getting to
network with great people likeyou and Serge, and so it's the
financial investment versusfinancial expense.
And what are you getting out?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
of it.
Yeah, I really like that youconsider that as an investment,
because it is truly from anyangle you look at it, it's not
really an expense, it'sdefinitely an investment.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah, so how accurate .
Talking about AI, we chat alittle bit.
You do need to check its work.
What are some of thelimitations in capturing
specific terminology for theveterinary industry using AI, or
using AI like Vetscribe?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I want to say it's pretty good.
Just talking about what we weretalking before.
18 months ago there weremistakes.
There are still mistakes today,so that's something that
veterinarians have to keep inmind.
But it's so much better.
And I want to see the accuracyis very high, even with brand
(23:06):
names.
You know commercial brand names.
It will catch the brand names,even when the doctor is
recommending a drugs ormedication that are from the
human side.
Usually it will do a good job.
So it's fairly accurate.
That being said, the accuracydepends on how the veterinarian
is conducting the consultation.
You know, if a veterinarian isvery quiet when they do a
(23:31):
consultation, like when they dotheir exam, if they don't
verbalize everything that theyare doing, obviously what the AI
doesn't hear, the AI does notwrite.
So some veterinarians do haveto change the way that they are
doing their consultation andwhen they do that, when they
verbalize everything that theyare doing and they are very
(23:51):
precise, saying okay, now I'mgoing to look at the skin which,
in our notes, will be entigment, the AI will listen to that.
But not only the AI.
The pet owner that is in theroom realizes everything that
the doctor is doing during theirexam.
The doctor is not just pettingmy pet, he's really looking and
(24:14):
feeling the musculoskeletal andeverything.
So if a doctor is very precisein saying, okay, I'm doing an
exam of the ears and this iswhat I note, the AI will do a
good job.
The quality of the recording aswell.
Sometimes we do haveveterinarians or technicians it
seems to be more the techniciansthat will have their phone in
(24:36):
their back pocket and then theyhave a big sweater over their
phone and then they have thewhite coat or something and they
move a lot.
And if the sound is not clear,we do a pretty good job at
really filtering through thenoise.
But it's something that youhave to keep in mind.
If really your device, yourrecording device, is buried
(24:59):
somewhere, that might impact theaccuracy.
But overall the accuracy isexcellent.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
So you know there's a lot of different PIMs out there
.
How does AI?
Or you know Vetscribespecifically, but just AI.
How has that?
How has the integration processbeen with services like
Vetscribe to different PIMSsoftware systems?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I'm glad you asked this question, because when we
meet with veterinarians, that'sthe first question they ask.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Sure, is this going to work with my stuff?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Exactly, and I totally understand, because
veterinarians don't want to haveto go to 12 different platforms
to really be able to workwithin their PIMS, where they
spend all of their time.
Right now, most service, if notall services, do not integrate
with PIMS.
The way that we work at thatscribe is that we have a team of
(25:51):
medical scribes that, if youwant and if it's a service that
is offered, you don't have totake it.
But we have a team of medicalscribes that log on to your PIMS
through either remote access oron the cloud.
The veterinarians will give usa logging credential and we do
the uploads in the patient filesinto the practice management
(26:15):
software, also called PIMS, onbehalf of the doctors.
If you don't want to do that,the copy and paste is very
simple.
You come, you look at the notes, you approve your notes and
then you copy them and then youtransfer them into your PIMS.
So it's a simple process thatcan be done.
So either you do it yourself oryou ask our medical scribes to
(26:38):
do it for you.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Sure.
So you know, as we start towrap up, as we mentioned, like
if you go to WVC or you go toVMX, you see a lot of these
services starting to pop up,either the PIMS themselves
trying to offer some scribingservices For a veterinary
practice out there looking toengage with VetScribe, or
(27:00):
another practice out there, ascribing service, especially
using AI.
What considerations should theythink about if they want to
start using this at theirpractice?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
think about what they want to start using this at
their practice.
I think they have to look attheir current process and see
how they will integrate ascribing service.
Some veterinarians want to bethe only one to use it within
the practice.
We recommend that you team upwith your staff, with your
technician, and even yourreceptionist Technician can use
the app.
The receptionist technician canuse the app, start the
recording, go on with thecollection of the information,
(27:37):
the history or the subjectiveinformation, and then submit so
then the veterinarians canreview in the app everything
that was collected by thetechnicians, even before they
get into the consultation roomto meet the patient.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Wow, okay.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So you know what you're stepping in, and then
it's giving you an occasion tosay, oh, I need to dig a little
bit more into that point, butyou don't have to ask the same
question over and over again tothe pet owner.
So it shows respect to the petowner and it's giving you a
little bit more time, so youhave to think of the way that
(28:14):
you will be using it.
We highly recommend a teamapproach.
Same thing if in your app wedon't pull some PIMS, we don't
pull the appointments to showthem in the app.
Veterinarians should have theirreceptionist in the morning to
create their appointments forthem.
So when they are ready, theyjust pull their app and they see
(28:35):
the patient, they open thepatient and they're ready to go.
And they're ready to go.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, that's another way to work with your team and
you had mentioned and I'm sure,as you said, it's understanding
and this kind of goes to myinvestment of technology
component is what do you want itto do for you?
Do you want it to be as youmentioned?
You have an ambient recordingwhere it's recording during the
(29:02):
appointment versus recordingnotes post-appointment, and so
it's probably understanding howyou want the scribing service to
work in your practices.
You're building out yourprocess.
Do we want to record during theappointment, post-appointment?
Do we want all the team to useit?
How are we going to integratewith our PIMs?
And so it's figuring out how dowe work at our practice?
How do we want to use thistechnology that we're going to
invest in and make the best useof it?
(29:24):
Maybe we need to change some ofour practices for the better.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Exactly, and a piece of advice that I would give the
veterinarians is that tounderstand that now your note
will be built by thiscollaborator, the AI, so when
you will receive the notes back,they will not be written with
your tone of voice.
So it's almost to say to theveterinarians look at the
information.
(29:48):
If what is medically relevantis there, even if it's not
written with your own choice ofwords.
If the information is there,don't start retyping everything,
because if you do, you couldend up spending more time than
you if you would have done yournotes yourself.
So just look if it's there.
Even if it's not written withyour own style, it's there.
(30:12):
And talking about that, bill, Iwant to mention that we offer
personalized templates.
So if veterinarians and mostveterinarians work with their
own templates with their defaultcontent describing a condition,
you can keep your templates andwhen you work with our service,
you just send them to us.
We build them for you.
(30:33):
A few hours back, you will findthem in your template.
The AI will work within yourtemplate and will listen to the
conversation and if it hears anabnormal let's say you say
something about a heartcondition the AI will come and
overwrite the default contentthat was there saying
(30:54):
potentially that the heart wasin great condition and it will
override this information withthe new information that was
verbalized by the veterinarianabout an abnormal.
So that's really a greatbenefit.
So don't retype or rewordeverything.
Work with it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Don't try and reinvent the wheel if the
content's there that you need inthe medical record.
What I've always coached ourteam about when we're talking
about documentation is goingback and looking at your work,
review your work, and because ifI'm typing it in, you know we
use a little bit ofdocumentation and transcription,
(31:35):
but for the most part, we'retyping we're still typing our
notes here at Butler VetInsurance, and so what I've what
I've coached our team aboutwe've preached for years is go
back and look at what you typedto make sure what you've typed
is clear to somebody who'sreading this for the first time,
versus just like.
Well, I know what I wrote thereand it makes sense to me, but
it needs to make sense tosomebody two years from now
(31:56):
who's going to look at this notein the future, and probably not
you.
Maybe it's a differentveterinarian, maybe it's a
different tech, and so makingsure to check your work, but not
trying to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
We think that it's very important, the point you're
making, bill, because it's kindof ensuring the good continuity
of care.
If it's not you that see thatpatient in a year from now, will
your note make sense?
Or we do see especially younggraduates, young veterinarians,
(32:34):
that sometimes have a tendencyto really write long.
They want to build defensiblerecords and they tend to put a
lot of information and sometimesfor the next veterinarian that
will come, let's say, next year,you almost have to read the
novel and look for the medicalinformation in that novel Sure.
The AI will kind of like sortall of that information, make it
(32:57):
concise, making it clear,making it more standardized, if
you want.
So the veterinarian that willcome in a year will look at the
notes and everything will bethere, clearly stated, and there
will not be this kind of like.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
clearly stated and there will not be this kind of
like I don't want to say notuseful information but the
medical relevant informationwill be there, the cliff notes,
so to speak, for those of us oldenough to remember cliff notes.
So, as we start to wrap up ourconversation, in the current
modern veterinary practice here,spring of 2025, what is the
(33:38):
risk from trying AI or saying,all right, we're going to give
this a six-month trial at ourpractice to see if it really is
everything it's cracked up to be?
What's the risk of saying, hey,I'm going to give this a shot.
In the current modernveterinary practice?
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Well, that's a good question.
What could be the risk?
You know it's a pretty easyprocess or system to implement.
You almost have nothing to doIf you know how to use Siri on
your phone, it's the same.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
You're pretty much there.
It's just how does it integratewith your system or process at
the practice.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
And you know the risk .
Every day the veterinarian issupposed and should review their
recordings or their notes,ideally after each consultation
or during a break, either lunchbreak or at the end of the day.
So if there would be something,let's say something terrible
would happen with the AI and AIwould start to hallucinate.
(34:38):
The veterinarian should catchthat the same way.
So the risk would be hey, wehave a problem with the AI.
Can you look into that?
Honestly, bill, I barely see arisk and the prices are so
affordable that even financiallyit's not a risk.
The one risk that I'm tryinghard to find something that
(35:03):
would be considered as a risk.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
So it's very low risk .
It's hey, let's give this ashot.
I mean I've bought, you knowbought.
I've invested in differentpieces of technology at my
business.
You know you sign up for yourcontract and you go okay, well,
that didn't quite perform theway I thought it would.
You know, it's $3,000 or it's a$4,000 investment and but for
(35:25):
the ones that have worked out orhave been very beneficial, that
return on investment hasoutweighed the risk of giving it
a shot.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
So I was trying just to find a risk, and I think I
might have one just because Ireally want to answer your
question.
Let's say that you are a ownerof a practice and then you say
let's try Vetscribe for sixmonths and then after six months
, for X, y, z reason, you, theowner of the practice, says I
want to go back to my old waysand have my people to type the
(35:55):
notes and everything.
I feel you would have arebellion that your team might
argue with that, so that's theonly risk.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
That's the risk is trying it out, deciding you
don't like it and your teamsaying, no, this was really good
, we want to keep this going.
It's probably the biggest risk.
Okay, well, that's actually.
It probably shows that, if you,you know, I've attended a lot
of different events over thelast probably two years in the
insurance world and there's youknow whether it's AI from
(36:26):
scribing or you know what haveyou, the smart industry.
People in my world say thatthere's going to be two kinds of
insurance agencies at the endof this decade, which we're only
five years away from.
It's insurance agencies thatare out of business and those
that have embraced AI.
And if you haven't embraced AIin some shape or form, you're
(36:49):
not going to be competing withyour competitors, whether that's
coding inside our managementsystems or using it for
marketing purposes.
I was using AI this morning tocreate a flyer internally for
our insurance association.
Instead of spending two hoursformatting a flyer, I just spoke
into Microsoft Word my thoughtsand said, okay, create a
(37:11):
one-page flyer on this topic.
Now I needed to go in and makesome edits and adjustments, but
instead of spending two hours onthat, I spoke for 10 minutes
and had to create a generallypretty decent thing for us to
review.
So the risk is pretty low.
The risk could be where youversus your competition
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I agree, and you know , embracing the changes and what
the technology is bringing toyou.
We will have to do that in ourbusiness life, but also in our
personal life.
The changes that.
Ai will have on our societywill be impactful.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Good or bad, but we have to be understanding of
what's happening.
Well, if there are listenersout there that want to find you
or Vetscribe, where's the bestplace to find Vetscribe?
The website will have someinformation on that in the show
notes.
But Vetscribecom, or what'syour website?
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Vetscribecom.
Vetscribe written with a K, soV-E-T-S-K-R-I-B-Ecom and Bill,
please feel free to put my emailaddress.
If someone has a specificquestion, I would be pleased to
follow up with them.
I always love engaging withveterinarians or anybody from
the veterinary community.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Every time I was cruising the floor on the vet
shows, you were always happilyengaged with a veterinarian out
there, so I know that you'revery passionate about this and
helping the animal servicesindustry in this, and so just a
pleasure to have you on thepodcast, and I look forward to
seeing you at our next dinnerevent out in the world,
somewhere in the world of animalhealth?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Absolutely.
I think we will meet thissummer, in July probably.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Let's hope so.
All right, well, take care, andthanks for listening to this
episode of the VeterinaryBlueprints podcast.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Thank you so much, Bill.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
As always, make sure to like, review and subscribe to
the podcast.
It helps us share our messagewith veterinarians out there
everywhere.
Thanks so much for listeningand have a great day.
Embracing the changes and what the technology is
bringing to you.
We will have to do that in ourbusiness life, but also in our
personal life.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
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.
(00:33):
Welcome to today's episode.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprints Podcast,
where veterinary medicine meetsbusiness and entrepreneurship.
I'm your host, Bill Butler, andtoday's guest is Jacinthe
Moreau.
She's the CEO and co-founder ofVetScribe, a company helping
veterinarians simplifydocumentation.
With over 25 years in theveterinary industry, Jacinthe
has held leadership roles at VCA, VetSource, World Pet
(00:58):
Association and more.
Her expertise in marketing andbusiness strategy has helped
countless veterinaryprofessionals improve their
practices.
We're going to talk about herjourney today and the challenges
veterinarians face in thecurrent marketplace, and how
VetScribe is making a difference.
Jeanne Saint, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Thank you, bill.
Thank you for having me, andit's a pleasure to be able to
talk to your audience today.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Perfect.
Well, we had met at VMX and haddinner as a vet partner member
down at VMX and then gotconnected and you've got a very
interesting story and journeyand current company and what
you're involved in and we'reboth vet partner members, so
we've gotten to know each othera little bit.
So why don't you tell ouraudience a little bit about your
(01:43):
journey from where you were inthe animal health industry to
founding VetScribe?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I can do that.
Do we have like a few hours?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I think we all yeah, we all need that amount of time.
Well, why don't we make it acouple minutes instead of a
couple hours?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
First of all, I was in the veterinary field for all
of my life.
That's where my heart is,that's where my passion is.
I started when I was very youngin Canada and then moved to the
US working for pharma companies.
When I was in Delaware at thetime, I started my own company.
So it was the first time that Iwas an entrepreneur, raising
(02:20):
money for animal cancer.
And from there we moved to theWest Coast where I'm talking to
you today, from California.
And when I say we, it's myhusband and I.
We kind of always have a bigwork together.
We have a big, big magnetbetween us.
So when one goes somewhere, theother one has a tendency to
(02:41):
follow, and that's what happenedin our life.
So we moved to the West Coastand started to work for a very
big group of veterinarypractices.
So that was when we really hadthe opportunity to work with
many veterinarians andunderstanding the struggle and
(03:02):
how sometimes crazy it is towork in a veterinary practice,
how rewarding it can be but howfrustrating it can be, and the
processes also.
And if you want to implementsomething, that the change
management is most of the timethe biggest challenge you have.
So when I was working at VCA, Iwas responsible for new
(03:23):
technology or new services, sothat's where I thrive.
I really like everything that isnew, so I had the pleasure of
working there on home delivery,even before home delivery was a
thing, so 2008.
And I also developed somewellness program for them, a
private brand of product,created a team of marketers and
(03:44):
then from there I went to theWorld Pet Association.
So I did jump to the pet sidefor three years and then came
back on the veterinary side, andwhen I came back I had the
opportunity of working for VMGVeterinary Management Group, and
the idea for VetScribe came outof a meeting that I was
(04:04):
attending.
And the idea for VetScribe cameout of a meeting that I was
attending, a VMG meeting that Iwas attending, with about maybe
16, 20 veterinarians.
At dinner, Almost like duringour vet partners dinner,
everybody's together and thenyou talk about your child, your
children or something like that.
But then the conversationstarted, took a turn and the
(04:24):
veterinarian's owners weretalking about the pain of doing
the notes, the soap notes.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Transcription yeah, the transcription.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
And that started the most animated conversation I had
ever witnessed withveterinarians.
They were all complaining,saying that their veterinarians
were spending enormous hours oftime doing transcription, or
some were late not only days butweeks, and it was like wow,
they were just like veryemotionally involved and you
could tell that the soap noteswere really a problem.
And that is before AI.
And at that time there were afew services that you could use
(05:11):
to speak in a mic and beattached to your computer to do
your notes.
But the doctors that werearound that table were
commenting to the effect thatsome had tried them and it was
not meeting their expectationsbecause the doctors still needed
to be at the practice and doingtheir things in front of the
(05:31):
computer.
And then there were a littlebit of other technology
challenges.
So I just thought about whydon't we do an app?
And I called one of the doctors, dr John Allitt, the next day
and talk about the app and hesaid oh my God, that's so simple
, do it.
So I went.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
So that's how VetScribe was born.
It was born from a dinnerconversation about problems
veterinarians were having arounddocumentation and transcription
of their medical notes, and soyou launched an app.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
That's it.
You listen to the people doingthe work and then sometimes it
triggers those ideas and then AIbecome a thing as we were
launching and we had to pivotand really retrain our platform
to work with AI.
So we were very mindful andcareful before we launched
(06:25):
because we wanted to make surethat our technology could be as
good as it could be at the party.
Sure, because with AI and Ithink anybody could rely to that
the advancement that you seefrom one month to the next are
tremendous.
So, we wanted to make sure thatwe would be offering a good
(06:47):
quality product at the time, andwhen I'm looking back right now
like almost like a year and ahalf ago and what we were doing,
I'm almost ashamed becausewe're so much better, and I'm
sure I will have the samefeeling in two years from now.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yeah, absolutely, and so you know when we talk about
we were just down at WVC, we'rerecording this early spring of
2025.
And so you know this is asnapshot in time.
As you talked about 18 monthsago, your product and, I think,
ai services overall, regardlessof what they are, has changed
tremendously in two years andit's going to be further
(07:24):
advanced two years from now, nowas we're recording the spring
of 2025.
For the listeners out there,you know we were just down at
WVC, you're out on the exhibithall floor and you're there
represented at VMX, or you seeother scribing.
What is AI scribing and whatcan it do and not do?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That's a very good question.
Ai scribing is a way for do andnot do.
That's a very good question.
Ai scribing is a way forveterinarians to gain back their
time.
You know, after eachconsultation veterinarians are
documenting the entireconversation they had with a pet
owner and now with the simplepress of a button you can have
this conversation being recordedand the AI going over the
(08:05):
details of the conversation andbuilding the soap notes.
So as soon as the doctor is donewith their consultation and
they press submit, within lessthan a minute the draft of their
notes or their notes are backinto their device.
If they are working on a phone,on a tablet, on a computer,
everything is back to them andthen they can right there, on
(08:28):
the spot, approve or if theyhave edits to do, they can do
their edits and they can be donewith that case.
So AI is definitely a help forany type of documentation that
veterinarians have to do.
So it could be soap notes, itcould be surgery report, it
could be call back.
Think about anything thatusually a veterinarian would be
(08:51):
spending typing on a keyboardinstead of having their hands on
an animal.
Pretty much everything thatthey are typing we can do for
them, and AI will improve theconsistency of the record
because the AI works a littlebit more like an automated
machine, if you want, so it willbuild notes that will be
(09:13):
consistent and accurate.
Be in the moment with their petowner because they don't have to
either take bullet notes on apiece of paper or they don't
have to multitask with theirbrain in saying, okay, I need to
remember that to document mynote.
(09:34):
I need to take account of that.
Now they can really be in thatconversation and be very engaged
with the pet owner, looking atthe patient and not having to
worry too much about what theywill need to put in their notes.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That was going to be my follow-up question.
So you know the AI out thereand you know vet scribe.
How does that and you kind ofdescribed that, that the being
in the moment, being able tofocus more on patients and
clients instead of the computer,or even just trying to remember
to take?
I mean, you know I do this withclients, we, you know, we have
a client meeting with aveterinary practice and they're
talking about their practice,operations and why they started
(10:11):
the practice and all this stuff,and then we get done with our
meeting and I've got to becausewe do documentate.
We document our client notesand calls, just like a vet
practice does, not in a medicalterm, but and so you know,
trying to have thatdocumentation and not worrying
about typing on my computerwhile we're having a meeting how
has that changed for yourclients with VetScribe?
(10:35):
How are they transitioning tobe more in the moment, working
with their clients and patients?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
That's a good question, I think and I have not
surveyed our client, but I feelthat our veterinarians using
the service were not necessarilytyping their notes like looking
away from the clients andtyping while the client is in
the room but then they alwayshad the fear of missing out on
(11:04):
some details.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Which, knowing that you have this great partner now,
that is, the AI, that is almostlike this presence in the room
that will be capturing all ofthat information, you can just
forget about those bullet pointsor those mental notes and the
fear of missing something orthose mental notes and the fear
of missing something.
We have clients that weretelling us that when they came
(11:27):
to us they were telling us, youknow, sometimes I'm late doing
my notes and I will do my notestwo, three days later and they
were explaining that sometimesthey have to stand up and put
themselves in the right placearound the table on the side
that they were when they weredoing the exam on that animal to
(11:48):
remember if it was the rightleg or the left leg.
But you see 15, 20, 22 patientsa day and then if you have to
remember all of that, that's alot.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So sometimes Was that the black cat or the tabby that
I had the conversation aboutthe hairball issue and the vomit
all the time I could.
You know we don't have thatmuch, we don't have that many
appointments or meetings, butit's the same situation.
You have a client meeting andthen you get a phone call, and
(12:23):
then there's an email and thenyou're recording a podcast with
a great guest like you and thenall of a sudden you're like, oh,
I have to go home for the dayCause I've got another
appointment.
I'm supposed to have dinnerwith my wife and then you know
I'll, I'll record, I'll documentthat conversation tomorrow and
trying to remember all the smalldetails and the fine points and
you know I'm not dealing in aclinical setting, I'm just
talking about, like, how manysquare foot is your building?
(12:44):
Did they say 3,500 or 4,500?
I can't read my note that Iscribbled during the meeting.
So your service is actuallyrecording during the client
interaction, during the patientmeeting.
You're live recording thatinteraction with the client or
the patient.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, you can do that .
Or you can dictate after aconsultation.
Okay, let's say that you have asensitive consultation or
someone doesn't want to berecorded which never happened so
far or that we know of but youcan dictate after the
consultation.
Or another example is that wehave quite a bit of equine
(13:20):
veterinarians and they dictatewhile they are driving in
between barns.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Sure, absolutely In companion animal practices.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
95% of our clients are using the ambient mode and,
bill, I just want to come back.
Your first question was aboutwhat can AI do and cannot do,
and I just want to talk aboutwhat it cannot do, because we
don't want to promise the moon.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Something that.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
AI cannot do is replace the veterinarian
expertise.
The veterinarian is the expert.
The veterinarian should stay incharge of the recommendation.
We don't do generative AI.
We don't propose treatment.
We're not there yet.
When the technology will getthere, eventually we might, but
(14:09):
right now those decisions, theplan and everything in our book
belongs to the veterinarians.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
So it's more of a transcription AI than a
generative.
Here's a here's tell me myschedule for the day based on
what I want to try and do, andthen AI generates my schedule
for the day based on what I wantto try and do, and then AI
generates my schedule for theday.
This is, dictate my schedulefor the day and then it puts it
on a piece of paper, so to speak.
To oversimplify it.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Another point also that AI is not really truly good
as we speak today, in spring of2025, is the nuances in a
conversation.
Sometimes there will be thingsthat might have like two
different meanings.
Or another example if you havea multi-pet appointment and the
veterinarian is working with twocats at the same time, that's
complicated for the AI, theveterinarians they really have
(15:05):
to be careful in saying here I'mworking on Mimi and here I'm
working on Chocolat, and Mimihas this and Chocolat has that.
So that is very tricky.
Or the nuances of somethingthat was expressed.
Sometimes the AI will hear theconversation and be liter and
you need to be careful with that.
(15:27):
Sure so the AI does not replaceentirely the human.
It's really a big help, butthink about it as a partner into
building your notes.
That does not replace you andthe veterinarians still have the
responsibility of reading whatthe AI is suggesting, making
potential edits if they need to,and then approve what has been
(15:49):
done by the AI.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And I think that's true for all AI these days,
right now, you know, in theinsurance industry, there's a
lot of AI being used for youknow marketing, or you know
scheduling, or just all thethings that AI is doing right
now, and everywhere you hear AIbeing referenced, it's talked
about.
Well, you need to check itswork.
(16:12):
It's not the end all be all andit gets you about 80% of the
way there.
There's some changes that needto be made, or the voice of AI,
if you're using it for marketingor those types of things.
So how have you seen this helpwith your clients, or just
clients that are embracingveterinary practice, embracing
AI?
How have you seen it affecttheir efficiency and workflow
(16:35):
and then, more importantly,their well-being?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I mean all of that, their well-being.
You know the stress I wasmentioning, the stress of being
late three, two days in yournotes Some people when they are
coming to us are way fartherbehind than that.
They wake up in the middle ofthe night.
They cannot really sleepbecause they know that they are
so late.
In their notes it's arequirement when you are a
(17:00):
veterinarian to maintain yourmedical records adequately, so
it's a stress that is always ontheir shoulder.
They do what we call pajamacharting.
Sometimes they go home, theyfeed the kids, they do the bath,
the routine, they put the kidsin bed and then they reopen the
computer and work for hours.
(17:21):
So guess what?
You show up at work the nextday.
You're exhausted.
You did not even have thatbreak, that mental break that
you needed.
Now AI can take all of that.
Veterinarians usuallyself-reported.
Surveys that we have done.
Our users are saving in averagebetween six and eight minutes
per consultations.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
So per consultation, so if you're done, I'm grabbing
my calculator right now.
So if you're seeing 15 patientsa day, we'll just call it seven
minutes, because it's six toeight.
So seven times 15 is 105divided by 60.
A day saved times.
(18:06):
Let's just say 20 days in amonth, that's 35 hours a month.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
That's almost a full working week a month.
When you think about that, it'smind-boggling, and very few
technology or improvement overthe last few years could provide
that amount of time save orproductivity or good quality
time that you can use to dowhatever you want.
(18:35):
We have veterinarians that aretelling us that with the time
save, they can now take a break,a lunch break.
I mean, I have a lunch breakevery day, but many
veterinarians don't even havethe luxury of grabbing their
sandwich while treating apatient.
Now they can really take abreak.
Now we are in the springtime,they can go out for a walk and
(18:57):
enjoy the beautiful weather thatwe're starting to have, or they
can use those hours to do CE.
I mean CE hours that they needto do.
They can do that, or just seehours that they need to do they
can do that, they can or just behome with the family, totally
Be home with the family is a bigone.
Mentoring other staff members inthe practice or some
(19:18):
veterinarians will also say I'mgoing to do an FNF.
I will either see more patientsa day, so some veterinarians
want to see more patients.
You can do that with that hourand something that you
calculated, or you can extendthe time of the consultation.
So let's say that right now youonly have 20 minutes
(19:38):
consultation.
We know that there is a lothappening and you have to talk
fast, but if you can extend thatconsultation by the seven
minutes that you're saving,that's giving you the time to
invest into that relationshipwith the pet owner, making sure
that the pet owner understandsthe recommendation that you can
engage them in better care foryour patients.
(20:02):
And most of the time there is afinancial return.
Not that we're looking for thatas veterinarians we're not
looking for a financial return,but if you spend more time
explaining a treatment, thecompliance will be increased,
the outcome will be better andusually it's reflected
financially.
There are so many ways that youcan use the time that you're
(20:23):
gaining back.
It's really up to theveterinarians, but you know time
is very precious.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Well, time is also money and so, from a time and
financial impact you know it'sI've always looked at.
Whenever I add a piece oftechnology to my business or
practice, it's about integratingthat in fully.
Otherwise I'm not getting thefull financial benefit of that.
So you know you're getting atime benefit by using this.
What's the financial impact ofadding this?
(20:51):
Or financial consideration?
You know there's a lot ofservices out there that are
starting to think about this,with PIMS and all this other
stuff, but what's the financialconsideration of adding this to
my practice?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And you know, some veterinarians are coming to us
thinking, okay, that's anexpense and I have to be mindful
of my expense.
But we have others that aresaying, oh my God, the money
that I'm investing in, that Iwill recoup it by so many.
My return on investment will beso much better, either
financially or on wellbeing ofmy team or recruiting.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Well, what's your time worth, right?
I mean, if you're, I look at itthis way if you're the
veterinary practice owner andyou look at, you know your team
members time, especiallyassociate veterinarians you
quantify their revenue theygenerate by how many
appointments they see andwell-being.
Well, if they're burned out andthey're sick and they're not
coming to work or you've gotchurn at the practice, all of
(21:45):
those things, those arefinancial considerations.
So if you're saving your teamseven minutes an appointment and
they're just happier mentally,you're going to run a better
practice overall.
So I've always looked at not anexpense of investment, whether
it's flying down to go to a vetpartner's meeting.
That's an investment.
(22:05):
It's not a business expense tofly down because I'm getting to
network with great people likeyou and Serge, and so it's the
financial investment versusfinancial expense.
And what are you getting out?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
of it.
Yeah, I really like that youconsider that as an investment,
because it is truly from anyangle you look at it, it's not
really an expense, it'sdefinitely an investment.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah, so how accurate .
Talking about AI, we chat alittle bit.
You do need to check its work.
What are some of thelimitations in capturing
specific terminology for theveterinary industry using AI, or
using AI like Vetscribe?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
I want to say it's pretty good.
Just talking about what we weretalking before.
18 months ago there weremistakes.
There are still mistakes today,so that's something that
veterinarians have to keep inmind.
But it's so much better.
And I want to see the accuracyis very high, even with brand
(23:06):
names.
You know commercial brand names.
It will catch the brand names,even when the doctor is
recommending a drugs ormedication that are from the
human side.
Usually it will do a good job.
So it's fairly accurate.
That being said, the accuracydepends on how the veterinarian
is conducting the consultation.
You know, if a veterinarian isvery quiet when they do a
(23:31):
consultation, like when they dotheir exam, if they don't
verbalize everything that theyare doing, obviously what the AI
doesn't hear, the AI does notwrite.
So some veterinarians do haveto change the way that they are
doing their consultation andwhen they do that, when they
verbalize everything that theyare doing and they are very
(23:51):
precise, saying okay, now I'mgoing to look at the skin which,
in our notes, will be entigment, the AI will listen to that.
But not only the AI.
The pet owner that is in theroom realizes everything that
the doctor is doing during theirexam.
The doctor is not just pettingmy pet, he's really looking and
(24:14):
feeling the musculoskeletal andeverything.
So if a doctor is very precisein saying, okay, I'm doing an
exam of the ears and this iswhat I note, the AI will do a
good job.
The quality of the recording aswell.
Sometimes we do haveveterinarians or technicians it
seems to be more the techniciansthat will have their phone in
(24:36):
their back pocket and then theyhave a big sweater over their
phone and then they have thewhite coat or something and they
move a lot.
And if the sound is not clear,we do a pretty good job at
really filtering through thenoise.
But it's something that youhave to keep in mind.
If really your device, yourrecording device, is buried
(24:59):
somewhere, that might impact theaccuracy.
But overall the accuracy isexcellent.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
So you know there's a lot of different PIMs out there
.
How does AI?
Or you know Vetscribespecifically, but just AI.
How has that?
How has the integration processbeen with services like
Vetscribe to different PIMSsoftware systems?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I'm glad you asked this question, because when we
meet with veterinarians, that'sthe first question they ask.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Sure, is this going to work with my stuff?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Exactly, and I totally understand, because
veterinarians don't want to haveto go to 12 different platforms
to really be able to workwithin their PIMS, where they
spend all of their time.
Right now, most service, if notall services, do not integrate
with PIMS.
The way that we work at thatscribe is that we have a team of
(25:51):
medical scribes that, if youwant and if it's a service that
is offered, you don't have totake it.
But we have a team of medicalscribes that log on to your PIMS
through either remote access oron the cloud.
The veterinarians will give usa logging credential and we do
the uploads in the patient filesinto the practice management
(26:15):
software, also called PIMS, onbehalf of the doctors.
If you don't want to do that,the copy and paste is very
simple.
You come, you look at the notes, you approve your notes and
then you copy them and then youtransfer them into your PIMS.
So it's a simple process thatcan be done.
So either you do it yourself oryou ask our medical scribes to
(26:38):
do it for you.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Sure.
So you know, as we start towrap up, as we mentioned, like
if you go to WVC or you go toVMX, you see a lot of these
services starting to pop up,either the PIMS themselves
trying to offer some scribingservices For a veterinary
practice out there looking toengage with VetScribe, or
(27:00):
another practice out there, ascribing service, especially
using AI.
What considerations should theythink about if they want to
start using this at theirpractice?
Speaker 1 (27:14):
think about what they want to start using this at
their practice.
I think they have to look attheir current process and see
how they will integrate ascribing service.
Some veterinarians want to bethe only one to use it within
the practice.
We recommend that you team upwith your staff, with your
technician, and even yourreceptionist Technician can use
the app.
The receptionist technician canuse the app, start the
recording, go on with thecollection of the information,
(27:37):
the history or the subjectiveinformation, and then submit so
then the veterinarians canreview in the app everything
that was collected by thetechnicians, even before they
get into the consultation roomto meet the patient.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Wow, okay.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
So you know what you're stepping in, and then
it's giving you an occasion tosay, oh, I need to dig a little
bit more into that point, butyou don't have to ask the same
question over and over again tothe pet owner.
So it shows respect to the petowner and it's giving you a
little bit more time, so youhave to think of the way that
(28:14):
you will be using it.
We highly recommend a teamapproach.
Same thing if in your app wedon't pull some PIMS, we don't
pull the appointments to showthem in the app.
Veterinarians should have theirreceptionist in the morning to
create their appointments forthem.
So when they are ready, theyjust pull their app and they see
(28:35):
the patient, they open thepatient and they're ready to go.
And they're ready to go.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, that's another way to work with your team and
you had mentioned and I'm sure,as you said, it's understanding
and this kind of goes to myinvestment of technology
component is what do you want itto do for you?
Do you want it to be as youmentioned?
You have an ambient recordingwhere it's recording during the
(29:02):
appointment versus recordingnotes post-appointment, and so
it's probably understanding howyou want the scribing service to
work in your practices.
You're building out yourprocess.
Do we want to record during theappointment, post-appointment?
Do we want all the team to useit?
How are we going to integratewith our PIMs?
And so it's figuring out how dowe work at our practice?
How do we want to use thistechnology that we're going to
invest in and make the best useof it?
(29:24):
Maybe we need to change some ofour practices for the better.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Exactly, and a piece of advice that I would give the
veterinarians is that tounderstand that now your note
will be built by thiscollaborator, the AI, so when
you will receive the notes back,they will not be written with
your tone of voice.
So it's almost to say to theveterinarians look at the
information.
(29:48):
If what is medically relevantis there, even if it's not
written with your own choice ofwords.
If the information is there,don't start retyping everything,
because if you do, you couldend up spending more time than
you if you would have done yournotes yourself.
So just look if it's there.
Even if it's not written withyour own style, it's there.
(30:12):
And talking about that, bill, Iwant to mention that we offer
personalized templates.
So if veterinarians and mostveterinarians work with their
own templates with their defaultcontent describing a condition,
you can keep your templates andwhen you work with our service,
you just send them to us.
We build them for you.
(30:33):
A few hours back, you will findthem in your template.
The AI will work within yourtemplate and will listen to the
conversation and if it hears anabnormal let's say you say
something about a heartcondition the AI will come and
overwrite the default contentthat was there saying
(30:54):
potentially that the heart wasin great condition and it will
override this information withthe new information that was
verbalized by the veterinarianabout an abnormal.
So that's really a greatbenefit.
So don't retype or rewordeverything.
Work with it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Don't try and reinvent the wheel if the
content's there that you need inthe medical record.
What I've always coached ourteam about when we're talking
about documentation is goingback and looking at your work,
review your work, and because ifI'm typing it in, you know we
use a little bit ofdocumentation and transcription,
(31:35):
but for the most part, we'retyping we're still typing our
notes here at Butler VetInsurance, and so what I've what
I've coached our team aboutwe've preached for years is go
back and look at what you typedto make sure what you've typed
is clear to somebody who'sreading this for the first time,
versus just like.
Well, I know what I wrote thereand it makes sense to me, but
it needs to make sense tosomebody two years from now
(31:56):
who's going to look at this notein the future, and probably not
you.
Maybe it's a differentveterinarian, maybe it's a
different tech, and so makingsure to check your work, but not
trying to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
We think that it's very important, the point you're
making, bill, because it's kindof ensuring the good continuity
of care.
If it's not you that see thatpatient in a year from now, will
your note make sense?
Or we do see especially younggraduates, young veterinarians,
(32:34):
that sometimes have a tendencyto really write long.
They want to build defensiblerecords and they tend to put a
lot of information and sometimesfor the next veterinarian that
will come, let's say, next year,you almost have to read the
novel and look for the medicalinformation in that novel Sure.
The AI will kind of like sortall of that information, make it
(32:57):
concise, making it clear,making it more standardized, if
you want.
So the veterinarian that willcome in a year will look at the
notes and everything will bethere, clearly stated, and there
will not be this kind of like.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
clearly stated and there will not be this kind of
like I don't want to say notuseful information but the
medical relevant informationwill be there, the cliff notes,
so to speak, for those of us oldenough to remember cliff notes.
So, as we start to wrap up ourconversation, in the current
modern veterinary practice here,spring of 2025, what is the
(33:38):
risk from trying AI or saying,all right, we're going to give
this a six-month trial at ourpractice to see if it really is
everything it's cracked up to be?
What's the risk of saying, hey,I'm going to give this a shot.
In the current modernveterinary practice?
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Well, that's a good question.
What could be the risk?
You know it's a pretty easyprocess or system to implement.
You almost have nothing to doIf you know how to use Siri on
your phone, it's the same.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
You're pretty much there.
It's just how does it integratewith your system or process at
the practice.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
And you know the risk .
Every day the veterinarian issupposed and should review their
recordings or their notes,ideally after each consultation
or during a break, either lunchbreak or at the end of the day.
So if there would be something,let's say something terrible
would happen with the AI and AIwould start to hallucinate.
(34:38):
The veterinarian should catchthat the same way.
So the risk would be hey, wehave a problem with the AI.
Can you look into that?
Honestly, bill, I barely see arisk and the prices are so
affordable that even financiallyit's not a risk.
The one risk that I'm tryinghard to find something that
(35:03):
would be considered as a risk.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
So it's very low risk .
It's hey, let's give this ashot.
I mean I've bought, you knowbought.
I've invested in differentpieces of technology at my
business.
You know you sign up for yourcontract and you go okay, well,
that didn't quite perform theway I thought it would.
You know, it's $3,000 or it's a$4,000 investment and but for
(35:25):
the ones that have worked out orhave been very beneficial, that
return on investment hasoutweighed the risk of giving it
a shot.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
So I was trying just to find a risk, and I think I
might have one just because Ireally want to answer your
question.
Let's say that you are a ownerof a practice and then you say
let's try Vetscribe for sixmonths and then after six months
, for X, y, z reason, you, theowner of the practice, says I
want to go back to my old waysand have my people to type the
(35:55):
notes and everything.
I feel you would have arebellion that your team might
argue with that, so that's theonly risk.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
That's the risk is trying it out, deciding you
don't like it and your teamsaying, no, this was really good
, we want to keep this going.
It's probably the biggest risk.
Okay, well, that's actually.
It probably shows that, if you,you know, I've attended a lot
of different events over thelast probably two years in the
insurance world and there's youknow whether it's AI from
(36:26):
scribing or you know what haveyou, the smart industry.
People in my world say thatthere's going to be two kinds of
insurance agencies at the endof this decade, which we're only
five years away from.
It's insurance agencies thatare out of business and those
that have embraced AI.
And if you haven't embraced AIin some shape or form, you're
(36:49):
not going to be competing withyour competitors, whether that's
coding inside our managementsystems or using it for
marketing purposes.
I was using AI this morning tocreate a flyer internally for
our insurance association.
Instead of spending two hoursformatting a flyer, I just spoke
into Microsoft Word my thoughtsand said, okay, create a
(37:11):
one-page flyer on this topic.
Now I needed to go in and makesome edits and adjustments, but
instead of spending two hours onthat, I spoke for 10 minutes
and had to create a generallypretty decent thing for us to
review.
So the risk is pretty low.
The risk could be where youversus your competition
somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
I agree, and you know , embracing the changes and what
the technology is bringing toyou.
We will have to do that in ourbusiness life, but also in our
personal life.
The changes that.
Ai will have on our societywill be impactful.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Good or bad, but we have to be understanding of
what's happening.
Well, if there are listenersout there that want to find you
or Vetscribe, where's the bestplace to find Vetscribe?
The website will have someinformation on that in the show
notes.
But Vetscribecom, or what'syour website?
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Vetscribecom.
Vetscribe written with a K, soV-E-T-S-K-R-I-B-Ecom and Bill,
please feel free to put my emailaddress.
If someone has a specificquestion, I would be pleased to
follow up with them.
I always love engaging withveterinarians or anybody from
the veterinary community.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Every time I was cruising the floor on the vet
shows, you were always happilyengaged with a veterinarian out
there, so I know that you'revery passionate about this and
helping the animal servicesindustry in this, and so just a
pleasure to have you on thepodcast, and I look forward to
seeing you at our next dinnerevent out in the world,
somewhere in the world of animalhealth?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Absolutely.
I think we will meet thissummer, in July probably.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Let's hope so.
All right, well, take care, andthanks for listening to this
episode of the VeterinaryBlueprints podcast.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Thank you so much, Bill.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
As always, make sure to like, review and subscribe to
the podcast.
It helps us share our messagewith veterinarians out there
everywhere.
Thanks so much for listeningand have a great day.
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