7 May 2020
“We want to help practices adapt to the new normal” – Adrian Tantrum, MSD Animal Health.
Vet Times
Job Title
A telemedicine platform that will allow practices to book virtual consult rooms, sign up pet owners for online appointments, and allow them to pay electronically in advance has been set up by MSD Animal Health.
The company has teamed up with Easy Direct Debit (EDD), which already offers a direct debit payment platform geared to the veterinary profession.
To use the new service, veterinary practices must register for, and set up, the platform via the EDD portal. The platform is customisable to the practice and each can create as many virtual consult rooms as it needs.
Practices can promote and provide the service to pet owners by sharing the link to the URL via social media, the practice website, or a mailout to pet owners.
Pet owners would then complete a form to book a consultation slot. Following the consult, the practice can email a link to the pet owner so he or she can pay for any medication that needs to be dispensed following the video consultation.
Adrian Tantrum, head of the companion animal business unit at MSD Animal Health, said: “We want to help practices adapt to the new normal. We have listened to feedback from practices around what they want from a telemedicine platform and worked with EDD to create a simple and easy-to-use service.
“This will allow practices to provide pet owners with the support they need, whether it be their parasiticide prescriptions or providing continuity of care for diabetic patients, and will, of course, bring much-needed cash flow into their practices. We’ve chosen Zoom for the video capabilies, as it is one of the most popular video conference apps, with millions of users worldwide, so we know it’s familiar to most pet owners.”
He added: “Being able to see a vet ‘face-to-face’, if not in the flesh, will be reassuring for a lot of pet owners who will be worrying about both new and on-going conditions.”
