When your patients need you, will you be there? There’s an app for that.

AAHA has named BabelBark, a pet-related application software developer, as the exclusive provider of veterinarian-to-pet healthcare monitoring and communication applications and services for all of its AAHA-accredited hospitals across the United States and Canada.

“Everything is moving to digital technology,” says Kerri Marshall, DVM, MBA, chief veterinary officer for BabelBark. Marshall says that the widespread adoption of mobile technology, from mobile banking to mobile matchmaking, means it’s only natural that pet owners who do everything else through their smartphone are going to want to interface with their veterinarians and other pet businesses there too.

“I think it’s highly dangerous for veterinarians to get left out of that loop,” says Marshall. BabelBark was developed to get veterinarians into the loop via BabelVet.

Part of the BabelBark family of services, BabelVet is a comprehensive dashboard that downloads to the veterinary hospital’s practice management system. BabelVet allows both remote patient monitoring and real-time health monitoring that can set, manage, and monitor a pet’s activity goals, providing immediate and critical information on a pet’s health.

BabelVet works by giving veterinarians access to the BabelBark pet owner app on the client’s phone so hospital staff can monitor compliance, postsurgery care, arthritis, weight management, and more. Medications, medical history, and diet and exercise logs are at their fingertips. A scheduling tool lets clients schedule their own appointments directly. There’s also a prescription refill tool.

The BabelBark family of services—which also includes BizBark, a customer relationship management tool that connects both the client and the veterinarian to small, local pet businesses such as groomers and trainers—is designed to bring everyone in a pet’s life together into one digital ecosystem to better manage and provide exceptional pet care. Each caregiver has the ability to share notes and observations with the pet owner and veterinarian.

“Exceptional care is paramount to AAHA and we now have a consistent and direct connection between the veterinarian and the client through BabelVet,” says AAHA’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Cavanaugh, DVM, DABVP (Emeritus). “The real-time connection BabelBark provides to every caretaker in a pet’s life is unprecedented. This knowledge is vital for us to elevate ongoing patient care.”

Marshall says that traditionally, veterinary medicine has been behind the curve in terms of new technology: “[But] right now we can’t afford to be, because everybody is using technology in such different ways, and it becomes so integral to their lives.”

She recalls talking to a millennial veterinarian at one conference. He didn’t believe in treating his own pets, so he took them to another veterinarian. And not necessarily the one down the block. “He told me, ‘I’d drive across town to a veterinarian I could connect with digitally.’”

For Marshall, pet owners who think like that are an obvious wakeup call for the profession, and the whole reason for BabelVet. “If we’re not there on that smartphone with them, they’ll find somebody who will be.”

Photo credit: © iStock/Catalin205