Megan Sprinkle: [00:00:00] Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. It's 2025. For me, I feel that 2024 left us with a lot of unknowns, especially for our veterinary profession. So I thought we could use some expert insights to navigate the new year ahead. I decided to start the year of the podcast with a series featuring multiple industry leaders, sharing their predicted trends for veterinary medicine in 2025.
Many of these experts have been past guests on the podcast, and I'll share their links to the full episodes for your listening pleasure in the show notes. In this episode, I have Ryan Leech, Alyssa Mages, and Dr. Andy Anderson. You will see some themes in what each of these individuals discuss. And they are presenting very different perspectives in our industry.
So I hope you appreciate the diversity of positions and equal expertise and passion. We must take multiple perspectives into account to find the best solutions.
Speaking of solutions, you can see that everyone here today is invested [00:01:00] and wants to offer solutions to challenges and gaps. So listen with that in mind, they go beyond superficial lists and into what they believe could be ideal possibilities. So to start us off is Ryan Leech, host of The Birdbath Podcast, on which Ryan has collected and shared the most important information around the veterinary and pet industry all year.
So that no matter where you are in veterinary medicine, you are in the know on all aspects of the profession. I brought Ryan on the podcast in January of this year. He brings a background in business growth strategies, so I'm excited to bring his insights into 2025.
Ryan Leech: Three big things that I think we should expect to see in 2025. And I'm a broken record a lot of times when I talk about these, but I, I always like to look at what we've seen in the European market as a precursor to what to expect in the corporatization of vet med. As everyone should know, I'm not a doctor, so I will not tell you any medical breakthroughs that will happen.
But I [00:02:00] do think that in 2025, we will start to see more. consolidators buying other consolidators. That's already begun in 2024, but I think it's going to become a more fleshed out program that we're going to start seeing at a much higher level. There's an increase in private equity coming through, and there's some really, really big deals that are happening already in that section.
And that's exactly what happened in Europe and specifically in the UK. So I think groups buying groups will be one of the major things there. I think the conversation around veterinary professional associate role, veterinary technicians, DVMs, how all of that world boils out is going to be a big piece of it as well.
It's going to be interesting. It was very interesting to see and a lot of people brought this up when I've talked to them about it. It's like Colorado put [00:03:00] a decision on a role for care to the general public and that's unusual in some situations. It's not traditionally that, you know, I The example I gave, I was like, I didn't vote how many CE hours my radiologist needs to take, but, you know, so, so that was interesting to see, I, I think we'll continue to see that, and I think there's some big moves that are happening in some of the corporate groups with difficulty finding DVMs to staff practices that will be embracing an increase of utilization of any available talent that they have, so some of that's going to look like I think ADVM in charge of three or four practices that and somewhat bouncing between them to be able to staff with a license and be able to do those sort of things.
Um, so I think that's going to be a part of sort of. that redefinition of what the roles look like. [00:04:00] And then the last thing is going to be, let's go with the technology thing. I think AI is just going to continue to envelop more and more of every single thing that we do. It's annoying to say AI in every single conversation, but it is going to be the standard bearer for the decision of who and what technologies are being adopted in 2025.
So I think that technologies that aren't at least preparing to work with or embracing the utilization of AI and embracing it, but not requiring it, maybe is kind of the interesting side of it. I think those will be who we continue to see. Grow and win. And I think we'll find people that are hesitant to embrace AI are going to be on the beta max versus VHS [00:05:00] side of the side of things.
So that's, that's what I think we're going to see in 2025. I am gonna ask a couple follow ups. When you say ai, I think that's a very broad category. Like AI can be in lots of different things. It's in reading radiographs, it's in writing our medical records, those kinds of things. So when you think about everything that you've witnessed so far and where trends could be going in 2025, where do you think people should be leaning in the most when it comes to embracing ai?
Megan Sprinkle: Do you have. Kind of a direction there where they're going to benefit the most. Yeah, I think, and it's been said by a lot of people, a lot of people smarter than me, which is a lot of people. AI should be used or AI tools should be used to offload the mundane. I think that's the first place where everyone should start and look at it.
Ryan Leech: Um, I was using it this morning. We did a webinar. I was trying to compile all of the different comments through the chat and everything like that. [00:06:00] I just screenshotted the chat, loaded it into chat GPT, asked it to take the file. Turn it into text and then categorize them by style of question. I could have done that.
That's not like impossible to do. It would have taken me maybe 45 minutes to do it. But I had a tool do it in 3 minutes. And then I went through and checked the answers and got on with my day. So I think we'll find those sort of things. So, soap notes, emails. a lot of generative stuff, the writing of things.
But I also think the utilization and imaging is going to be continued to grow. So I think the use of AI to dispel some of the ambiguity around looking at radiology reports and things like that's going to be helpful. Plus, the standard image recognition, so taking a photo with your phone and having it tell you what the photo is of, or [00:07:00] doing counts, or categorizing something to put it into a medical record, or things like that I think are going to be the place where we see it.
I don't think it's going to start telling you which, you know, wire to cut on the bomb, or anything like that, or tell you, oh, you know, you're You need four sutures instead of three in this opening because it's like We're still gonna have doctors be doctors, but I think it's gonna be like, Hey, I didn't have to scrub in and scrub out to type notes and then go back and close and type more notes and go back.
Like, I think that's going to be the big, big piece where we see in 2025. So kind of tying in the last two points, as we need to utilize doctors as efficiently as possible for their knowledge, taking away the things that AI could do will be the most important thing to lean into. Yeah. Yeah. I think working top of license and it's going to be about working.
If you take it out of the vet [00:08:00] clinic, working top of your skill set, my skills I hope are more valuable than reading comments and organizing them. So I should utilize tools to be able to, to streamline that process. And then one question back to your first point on the consolidators, buying consolidators for people who are already nervous about consolidation.
Megan Sprinkle: This just seems like mounding on top. Maybe so. Looking at the European example, what do you see? Good, bad, ugly, whatever from their example that might come with it. That's consolidator buying consolidator of practices. Obviously the European market is less. I won't say less. They still are pet crazy. No one's as pet crazy as Americans though.
Ryan Leech: So there is a little bit of a difference in that aspect. I think for people that are scared of consolidation, [00:09:00] a couple things to keep in mind when you look at it. One is the idea that those practices are already owned by a corporate group. And the goal of a group buying another group is removing an additional layer of corporate structure within there.
would be the ideal scenario. So instead of having two CEOs that might not have that experience, or one CEO that does have and one that doesn't, running two separate groups, you'll acquire those two and you'll find the better leader, hopefully, within those groups. So you might have the CEO from one group, the COO from another group.
Recruiting from this company and change management team from another one blend together to be able to hopefully create a more powerful and quality organization. So that's my hopeful view on it. The other side of it, where [00:10:00] people might say, I don't want giant companies and bubbly and all of that. There's still independently owned practices in Europe.
Um, and there is a additional wave. They're kind of doing it somewhat different than us, but. There's this wave now of the de novo groups growing in Europe as well, similar to what we see in the U. S. with companies like Modern Animal PetVet365 and Bond and Sploot. Those groups that are growing, they have some European groups that are starting to model their businesses after what they've seen successful on the de novo side in the U.
S. So there is that light of DVM owned, operated, continuing to grow and get a footprint. So I think. It's going to allow it and, and hopefully, and if people are loud and listen to great podcasts and understand what's happening in the space, they'll be able to have a more active voice in what happens, to be able to say, [00:11:00] Hey, I want our CEO to be a DVM, or I want our chief medical officer to be a member of the board as opposed to just being a figurehead, or, you know, there's ways that we can a.
As an industry sort of demand more voice in, in the organizations and the bigger they get, the bigger that voice needs to be.
Megan Sprinkle: Next is Alyssa Mages, a certified veterinary technician who advocates for veterinary technicians and DEIB in veterinary medicine. She has a very long, impressive resume. Check out her episode from back in August of 2022. A few of her superpowers include education and coaching. She's the co founder of Empowering Veterinary Teams, EVT, and director of Mentor Vet Tech.
Alyssa recorded this just for us. So here is her powerful look into 2025.
Alyssa Mages: Hi, this is Alyssa Mages, and I'm thrilled to be back talking with Megan about a few things that I see happening in this new [00:12:00] year in 2025 and a few things I'd, I'd really like to see happening because it's a little bit of an optimist and A little bit of a pragmatist and we'll see how those combine. So I am a credential veterinary technician.
For those of you that don't know me, I've been in the field for over 20 years now, credentialed for 12 of those 20 years, actually coming up on 13. That's pretty exciting. Anyway, what's been going on in the past five years in particular has been pretty tumultuous to say the least. And it's not just in our profession.
I feel like we tend to make the mistake of thinking that. Everything that happens in veterinary medicine is all that's happening, and it's only happening to us. And that's simply not the case. We are a part of a bigger community, of a bigger world, and things that have impacted us impact so many. That being said, what I am seeing coming down the road in 2025 is, you know, for lack of a better term, a little bit of belt tightening.
You know, things are not projecting to be. [00:13:00] Fiscally solvent throughout, uh, the U S economy. I'm, I'm located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so I'm definitely in the States. Um, and it's a lot due to the political landscape that's coming in with the new administration. And I think we're going to feel that in our profession as well, because if You know, pets are still considered a commodity and they are still considered property.
That might be something that's not necessarily a focus for people's income. And so that's gonna, we're going to feel that pinch across the board, whether we're in academia, in industry or in practice, it, I really feel that that is going to be coming with the regulatory issues or deregulatory issues.
What's happening there, right? So it's, It's gonna be a potential concern for what's going on within both our political spectrum, you know, for things that are happening with new bills that have been passed, but also looking into title protection [00:14:00] for my cohort, the veterinary technicians. That's been a contentious topic for a long time.
And I think what I'm concerned about is seeing how that's going to play out, right? We are still dealing with five titles that we can't agree on a consensus, right? So, and. Those are CVT, LVT, LVMT, RVT, and RVTG, and it depends on which state you're in. And it also depends on what the title acts are and what the practice acts are in all of those states.
And I could go down that rabbit hole, but I won't. So seeing what that's going to come into, and especially what we're seeing with what passed in Colorado with Proposition 129, what does that mean for the rest of us, right? So how is this going to play out for people? Veterinary team utilization, all members, right?
Credential technicians, assistants, CSRs. And how does that unfold for us as we move forward? So what I [00:15:00] would like to see, you know, in respects for all of these things, especially going back to that belt tightening, I would really like this to have a huge picture into what that overhead consideration is within a practice, you know, so it can lead to increased support for team member compensation, right?
Yeah. Absolutely. We need to pay our team members what they are worth, and it has been linked in several studies, a ton of research is out there in Canada and throughout the U. S., and in other countries. It's not just about us. That when you pay people more, your productivity goes up, and when you utilize them appropriately, your bottom dollar increases, and it's something that we really need to take seriously.
Otherwise, there's going to be a reckoning, and I don't want that to continue. I'd really like us, and along that note, I'd really like us to stop doing this. Stop being us versus them in all aspects of that phrase. Right? Stop pitting assistants and technicians against one another. Stop [00:16:00] pitting technicians and doctors against one another.
And stop the fighting. And that's easier said than done. I get it. I really do. I was on, you know, the proponents for being called a nurse until I learned a lot more about it and what that means. And that might be contentious to some, and I might create some people getting really mad about that at me, and I'm okay with that.
Until we can have a general consensus of one unified title, I do not agree with throwing in more into the mix. We need one. Just one. I don't care what you call me. I want it to be regulated, I want it to be standardized, and I want it to be universally applied. What I'd also love to see, love, love, love to see, because even if we agree with the VPA position or not, it's here.
All right? It's a precedent. It is here to stay. So what are we going to do about it? Well, take into consideration what we actually do with our teams now. Do we fully utilize our credentialed team members? [00:17:00] Do we recognize that there are VTSs in play that are not utilized? And when I mean utilized, I don't mean overusing.
What I mean is to the fullest extent of their license. There are only four things that technicians legally cannot do. We cannot prescribe a medication. We cannot give a prognosis. We cannot diagnose a patient, and we cannot perform surgery. Everything else, we can do. The scope of practice depends on the supervision.
Is it immediate, direct, or indirect? And that is a whole other conversation. What that means is if you actually utilize your technicians to the highest level of their degree, they can do so much more. You don't have to do, as a veterinarian, as a practice manager, you don't have to do as much because they're doing it.
And in turn, upskill the rest of your team. Talk to your assistants. Show them what they can do. There are certifications for them as well. How about those receptionists, those [00:18:00] CSRs, customer service representatives? Whatever title you give these incredible humans, involve them in the process. Make sure that everyone has a clearly defined role, tasks that they can accomplish, and a way to move forward.
And that's the final piece. I want a path forward. I want it clear cut, and I want it to be inclusive. The concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are not, are not trendy. They are not something that can be downsized or underutilized. They are something that is essential and it has to be a paradigm shift.
I don't want to go backwards. I certainly don't want to start using thiopental again for induction. We know what that does to our patients. So why on earth would we ignore what we have done historically, not learn from it, and do better moving forward? To sum it up, I, I'm concerned about what I might be seeing, right?
The belt [00:19:00] tightening, regulatory issues, and a lack of team utilization and recognition. But what I feel like we can see, what we can do, what we will do if we put our minds to it, are less infighting, more team based approach to medicine, and a brighter, more inclusive sense of belonging in this profession.
Megan Sprinkle: Our final guest for this particular episode of our 2025 Trends is our guest from last week, Dr. Andy Anderson, a great veterinary surgeon and masterful business mind. He is the executive chairman of CityVet and Arista Advanced Pet Care and the author of the book, The Prosperous Veterinarian, which is a great book to read at any time, but especially the start of a new year to plan out a path for a happy and successful future.
So giving us a peek into his crystal ball, here are insights from Dr. Andy Anderson.
Andy Anderson: I'm so excited about 2025 as I tend to be, you know, every year [00:20:00] as we turn the calendar to a new year. You know, I write a letter to my son every year recounting the year that we've had as a country globally in his life, in our family's life. I've been doing it about 10 years now. And I, this is such a great time of year for planning the future.
Reflecting on the past and this topic that you've chosen kind of lines up with that. And I've, I've given this a little bit of thought and I'm certain none of these will be right because predicting is a bad business to be in. If you look statistically, all the prognosticators in the world only get it right about 10 percent of the time.
But I had three that I thought would be relatively sure as predictions were. Moving along various continuums and the first one is the AI and robotics in veterinary medicine. [00:21:00] I've been reading a book that I would recommend to all of your listeners, which is called the coming wave. It's one of the books that Bill Gates recommends every December.
He sort of puts out a handful of books. He thinks everybody ought to read. And this is one of those. And it's written by the founder of DeepMind, who was sort of at the cusp of developing AI in terms of machine learning and sort of really winning some of the games that are so iterative in nature and just as a terrific primer for all things AI.
Uh, and he talks a lot about synthetic biology and how all of that is wrapped together, but I think that we're going to continue to see acceleration of AI. In our profession, not only in the administrative realm, but also in laboratory, [00:22:00] EMR and drug development. I think all those things will be touched significantly by AI and we'll see more integration and product offerings.
I'm, there's a lot of startups and things going on that, you know, there's no clear winner in any of these categories we're using in our hospitals. You know, some of the exam room catchment tools where we, and then automatically populate medical records and workflow saving tools and so forth. But I think that'll, you know, increase in 2025.
I think we will at some point see some robotics potentially enter the surgery suite, which, uh, if you think about it, I was talking to one of our partner vets the other day, and we're like, Let's get a robot to do all the big dog space, because nobody likes that. So I don't know that that'll land in anybody's hospital this year, but I think there's more work being [00:23:00] done behind the scenes.
By big players than any of us appreciate. And also what I'm seeing is some of the human AI medical type applications, they're starting to pilot them in that because of their concerns about some of the patient HIPAA issues and piloting them in human healthcare. So we're, maybe we'll be on the front end of something instead of on the back end of this.
So. I guess that is to use Suleiman's title of his book. That's the coming wave. And I think we're going to, it's going to crash on us. Just like it crashes on every other aspect of life and. I'm excited to see what it will do. I think it also opens up the intensity of a conversation around containment of AI and how far it should go.
Uh, this will be a huge topic around the dinner table. Maybe not this year, but in coming years. [00:24:00] Gosh, I mean, what, what are the risks of all of this technology? It's just. Proliferating at a rate, none of us can really appreciate, at least I can't cause I don't work in that realm, but just tried to keep up with it.
And I tell people my age, like this is your last technology that you have to master, or you're going to be an old. Man or old woman quickly, if you don't get ahead of this. So I really encourage people in their fifties, sixties to settle in on this, embrace it, be part of the conversation and learn, which is what I believe we all need to do all the time is learn.
So I think that's the. That's probably the first one that I would call out for people to watch forward and see how it might play into what they're doing in all the many corners of the veterinary profession and animal health. You are so far the first [00:25:00] person who's really pulled in One Health as well with the robotics.
Megan Sprinkle: And I think that's really exciting to hear because I think it would be nice to go along together in this future as it moves so quickly. And I have seen robotics used in surgery for people at the veterinary innovation summit. I guess now it's been at this past year, but the year before they were already showing this.
And so it is pretty, it's a little crazy where we already are in some of the human medicine. So it is going to be interesting to see where we are in the vet side as well. So, well, if somebody. Had the capital and one to take the time we could do it, you know, now it's not, you think about taking a prostate out with robotics, doing an OHE, you know, would be easy, right?
Andy Anderson: I mean, it's, it's all right there in the, you know, all the stereotactic kind of landmarks and all that can be programmed. It's all we're all, we could do it. It's just. [00:26:00] Is that the allocation of talent and capital that the market chooses? And it hasn't yet, but we could. So if you, if you're needing a new project, there you go.
You got something to work on. I guess my second one is the mid level provider topic. And I, I come at this recognizing it's controversial. I am in favor of a mid level provider solution in veterinary medicine. I'm involved on the board and as an investor in a pediatric urgent care business. We operate 23.
Pediatric Urgent Care Clinic, some of which are beginning to do primary care. So, for a veterinarian, I have more experience with a mid level provider scenario than most veterinarians would because of my involvement in that business. And the benefits are amazing. [00:27:00] And, you know, there are obviously acuity levels of business.
There is a whole bundle of work that is not the highest and best use of the veterinarian's time, but it still needs to be done by a highly competent and experienced provider. And while we're not fighting the insurance companies for reimbursement, You know, between the different levels of provider, we are needing to respond to our client's demand for availability, affordability, and these sorts of things.
And, and so as you and I have talked previously, you know, when we make a veterinarian today, five years out, we're making, you know, really a half or maybe six tenths of a percent of the full time practitioner. You know, it's counting noses of veterinary graduates does not [00:28:00] equal full time employees five years later.
And so we have to fill this gap. And I think that the win win for our profession, our clients, all the constituencies we serve, our patients would be to, to pursue this mid level provider in a thoughtful way that models, you know, the same approach that has been successful that I've experienced in pediatrics and.
Yeah, across other things, I mean, I see mid level people for my own health care, I'm very comfortable with it. I think it can be done well. And I think the Colorado vote was an interesting, uh, marker for this trend, which I believe will continue in 2025. Yes, I actually saw a nurse practitioner just yesterday, so I have used it myself and, yeah.
Megan Sprinkle: You know, whether you agree or disagree, I think at this point, it is moving that direction. And so embracing how we can do it well [00:29:00] and how to make sure that we are inclusive of the veterinary technician position as well. And like, how can that all work? I think that's the conversation we need to start leaning into versus the Yay or nay, it's rolling.
So we might as well all come together and make sure we do it all. Well, Let's get our AI folder out, our mid level provider folder out and, you know, sit down and start working on them because they're coming for sure. And my third is really what I work on, you know, day to day, which is the. I would call it the migration of servant leadership and practice ownership in the veterinary profession and thinking across the GP space and small animal, as well as now what we're working on in specialty and emergency where we're bringing what I call the hybrid model, which is significant ownership of each practice by a veterinarian or group of veterinarians, which is, [00:30:00] I believe the absolute.
Andy Anderson: Best way to deliver care and equitably share the economic value created from a veterinary practice. So, you know, at CityVet, we're opening 20 25 practices a year with owner veterinarians in every one. ARISP's is opening two or three in the veterinary specialty emergency space a year. Each one of these is 40 plus percent owned by veterinarians.
And I think it will compound or others doing this model. Now we've been at it 25 years, but others in the last three years have started doing it and I think it's great. I mean, you know, I've, I wrote the book about prosperity for veterinarians because I want to encourage veterinarians to succeed across all dimensions, financial and non financial dimensions.
And so this is a part of that step. And I think it's, we'll continue to pick up pace, uh, in [00:31:00] 2025 and beyond. I'm excited for their success.
Megan Sprinkle: That's a wrap for part one of the 2025 Trends series. To recap a bit, there were three big shifts to watch for. Changing business models, like consolidators, buying consolidators on one end, and then the rise of the independent practice led by veterinarians on the other. Two, the evolution of veterinary roles.
And three, AI becoming more deeply integrated into the veterinary practice workflow. So change is coming fast. But with thoughtful implementation and team collaboration, these shifts can benefit patients, clients, and the veterinary team. If you'd like to share your predictions of 2025, please click the send us a text at the top of the show notes.
Ones that I receive by January 15th may make it into the final trends episode on January 20th. There's more to come next week. So please subscribe to VetLife Reimagined wherever you get your podcasts. Your ratings and reviews help others discover the podcast too. So stay [00:32:00] tuned for part two to hear more trends in vet med featuring more experts here next week.
