Health Care

There was an interesting story recently run on ABC News. The gist of the story was the health care costs are rising not just for human patients, but for veterinary patients as well. It profiles some owners who chose to spend lots of money on their pets, and it shows some of the technology that veterinarians are using these days. It's a bit of a stretch to make comparisons between overhauling the human health care system and the state of the veterinary health care system, but the REALLY interesting thing is that this national news story exposes people to the fact that there is much more to veterinary medicine than they may have thought.

There are veterinary specialists these days in all sorts of fields like internal medicine, oncology, radiology, cardiology, surgery, dermatology, opthalmology, radiation oncology, etc. And the types of care that is being offered is very similar to the things that are being provided for the pets' owners. I suspect that this is an eye-opener to many people. Sure, there will be many people who believe spending this kind of money on a pet is a waste, but there will be many more who believe that their pet is a family member and they wouldn't think of NOT spending the money. (Draw your own conclusions about the cost issue. For what it's worth, very few cases cost as much as the examples in the story. It's the journalist's job to make the story more sensational by intentionally picking the most exorbitant examples)

The ABC piece was not filmed at TVEC, but it gives you a sense of the kinds of things going on here 'behind the scenes.' And in spite of the heavy emphasis on the sexy technology in the video, we (and most vets) know that it's not about the gadgets. We know that it's about listening to the client, paying attention to the pet, and using tests and technology appropriately to come up with the most effective solution to the problem.