VetCT celebrates major milestone 

The UK’s largest veterinary remote radiology and specialist consultancy company celebrated a major milestone last month.

VetCT marked its 15th anniversary on 23 July with staff at its headquarters in Cambridge enjoying the occasion with tea, cake and party games.

Head of ceremonies was company founder radiologist Victoria Johnson, who first set up the business interpreting CT and MRI images from a cupboard under the stairs of her home back in 2009.

Since then, the company has grown rapidly and now employs nearly 300 people – including more than 150 radiologists – in 26 countries covering every time zone around the world.

Rapid developments

Dr Johnson said: “It is incredible how far we have come in such a relatively short time and it is a testament to all the wonderful people here at VetCT who have helped make that happen.

“The company started really to fill an unmet need and when CT began to take off I found myself being asked to look at more and more CT images and reporting on those.

“While we began with CT interpretation, x-ray and MRI interpretation and a focus on education has been key to our growth. When we started there were only a few CT machines in the UK, now there are more than 200 and we have also seen the growth in MRI, so we were definitely well placed as a business to take advantage of those imaging developments across the sector. Our core focus is high quality, clinically-focused reports that our clients can trust and use to positively impact patient outcomes.”

Overseas expansion

VetCT opened its first company overseas when the Australian offices were opened in 2015 with a US company established in 2017. An office in Canada came online in 2022 and there are plans for VetCT offices to open in Spain and Germany later this year.

VetCT also provides education services and content for student and resident training with education partners around the world.

Adding a multidisciplinary specialist consultancy service in 2021, it is a tech-driven business that has benefitted from rapidly developing technologies in the fields of cloud computing and virtual services, but for Dr Johnson, it’s the people that make VetCT such a success.

A people business

Dr Johnson added: “Trust, kindness, teamwork and curiosity are the fundamentals that have built this business, and that has always been really important to myself and my husband and business partner Julien [Labruyere].

“We have people working for us across the globe, but wherever people work for us, we all share those values, which is why we want to show our commitment to them by submitting our application to become a B Corp, which feels like a great fit for us.

“There is a lot of change coming I am sure – particularly around the use of AI across the veterinary sector – and I expect us to be at the front of that. Indeed we are at the forefront of championing standards and self-regulation to ensure the responsible development and use of AI across the profession – but our people and the patients we serve will always be the centre of everything good we do.”