Politics and Policy

Lincoln Memorial’s pilot program for midlevel professionals is a crucial response to chronic shortages of veterinarians and technicians.

Two major challenges confront U.S. veterinary medicine in the face of unprecedented demand for pet health care. The first is the acute shortage of veterinarians. The second is the acute turnover issues involving credentialed veterinary technicians/nurses, who are chronically underpaid by practices and have few pet-related alternatives. Both challenges have a single solution: Follow human […]

The veterinary establishment needs to trust the judgment of practitioners and appreciate what a virtual VCPR can do for pet care.

As the adoption of telemedicine rises, discussions persist on the details surrounding virtual care. A point that pet health stakeholders haven’t agreed on is whether the veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) should be established virtually. This past April, May and June helped to sort out the differences in how organizations view the telemedicine VCPR, or more precisely, […]

The veterinary profession isn’t doing enough to support the booming pet market. Change must come from the top and from practice owners.

The economic surge in pet health care and services has exceeded 14 months. There’s no end in sight. The fundamentals appear to be in place: rising pet ownership, growing demand for pet services, the millennial and Gen Z appetites for human-quality pet health care, the acceptance of online delivery models, access to capital, etc. The […]

From A to V, here’s what you can expect from legislators and regulators on policy issues involving pet health care.

My company, Animal Policy Group, employs a team of four researchers who track legislation and state board or agency actions in 50 states and the District of Columbia 365 days a year. Believe it or not, last year we monitored over 15,000 pieces of legislation affecting veterinarians or pets. Most of those bills fell to […]

We have too few veterinary professionals (and dogs) and too much student debt. There is a way out.

COVID carried on a curious relationship with the veterinary industry throughout 2020 and early 2021. Much has been written about the industry’s financial strength and gains during this period, hopefully putting to rest chronic fears that pet health care is a fragile sector and susceptible to sudden downturns. The toll on human lives is a […]

The evidence shows there’s no reason for anyone to fret about veterinary virtual care. It’s safe, effective, in demand and here to stay.

When we look back on 2020, the year of COVID, three other things will jump out: With some exceptions, 2020 was a year of extraordinary growth for veterinary practices and the animal health industry. Who would have predicted that in early March, when an anxious America wondered about economic survival as the pandemic took hold? […]

The human-animal bond has brought monumental change to the veterinary industry. You can run with the pack and enjoy the riches, or you can be a slow-to-react naysayer.

Can veterinarians handle success? That’s a silly question, right? Of course, veterinarians can handle success, just like anyone else. But are you sure? Does handling success only mean applauding and cashing the checks while success unfolds around you? Or does it involve understanding the fundamentals of why success is occurring and then evaluating and implementing […]

America’s love affair with companion animals is now engrained in society. The millennial and Z generations have made sure of that.

In May 2018 I got a phone call from a nonfiction literary agent. My Manhattan brother knew Kitty Cowles and said she might call me. I was surprised, but I knew her credentials, so I also was intrigued. Her message was simple: Major New York publishers wanted a book written that told the story of […]

The newly established Veterinary Virtual Care Association will develop best practices, define standards and protocols, and do so much more.

In late April, the veterinary world awakened to a new organization: the Veterinary Virtual Care Association. VVCA hopes to do for veterinary medicine what the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) has done for human health care since its founding in 1993. Today, telemedicine, telehealth and virtual care are staples of our personal health care, and to […]

The profession and industry need to support our underfunded state veterinary medical boards before they are pushed aside by politicians.

This article might surprise readers, but it needs to be written and we don’t have much time to act. A quiet crisis that’s not obvious to practitioners and industry is building within the world of state regulation of veterinary medicine. I observe it only because my Animal Policy Group works with state veterinary medical boards […]