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- Back in March when my husband and I
had first started to self-isolate,
we noticed that our category was starting to go bald.
He was balding around his little ears
and he was balding on the top of his head,
and it was clearly getting worse,
so much so that the backs of his legs started to lose fur
and so we were getting worried.
So we contacted our vet,
and luckily, she had started to take telehealth visits.
So this was actually really interesting
because my cat is super aggressive.
He is not nice to people who are not me and my husband.
And so, over this video chat we were basically
able to get up close and personal with my cat,
see the scabbing on his ears, and better diagnose him,
I mean, better than we would have even been able to do
if we were able to go into the vet.
This whole experience got me wondering,
what other veterinary practices were doing
as people were self-isolating
and sort of operating under quarantine?
So Josh, can you tell me if you've had to shift care at all
because of the circumstances we're now living in?
- So Small Door is a membership based veterinary model.
We set out about a year and a half ago
to really reimagine what the veterinary experience
looks like, what it feels like.
A digital offering which includes 24/7 telemedicine,
a robust mobile app, digital booking, digital messaging.
These have always been a part of our offering.
COVID really just gave us an opportunity
to refocus our attention on those aspects of our business.
You know, to provide safety for our team,
we've implemented a drop off procedure.
That's really to provide safety for our team
and also, to provide safety to our members.
And then, you know, the member can call us from outside
on their phones or on FaceTime
and participate in the appointment that way
without being in the room.
We've also implemented video consults
so, you know, if you drop off the pet,
you can communicate via video from the sidewalk
or watch through the window.
But if you prefer not to come at all,
you can do a video consult from home, right?
And so those are some of things we've added,
and then to help our members and pets
get to our facility,
we've implemented subsidized pick up and drop off.
And so that's been very popular,
increasing in volume over the past two months.
- What are some of the innovations
you think that you will keep from,
like what you're doing right now for the long term?
- Yeah, I think telemedicine is, you know,
it was always a part of our offering,
but I think COVID has opened up
our members to its potential.
Usage is way up.
But almost 80% of our members have now used telemedicine.
That's much higher than it was before COVID set in.
I think usage will remain higher than it was pre COVID,
frankly because it's convenient.
Veterinary medicine in many ways is
less developed in telemedicine
than human medicine, interestingly.
And so there's a a long way to go,
there's a lot of opportunity in veterinary medicine
and I think over the next decade
you're gonna see a lot innovation,
a lot of evolution in the regulations
and, you know, some of the things that are impeding
or have imped its growth historically.
- Small Door was one of a few veterinary practices
that were starting to use technology
even before people began quarantining.
But now that there have been so many limits
on how people move about the world,
more veterinary practices
are embracing technology and telehealth.
In fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association
has started to provide tools to help veterinary practices
engage more with technology and engage more with telehealth
in order to keep their practices running
and also, in order to help people
access more veterinary care for their pets.
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