State of the PMS Report: BVA Peer Review Panel

BVA Live saw Jack Peploe and Team put together a phenomenal panel of veterinary peers to discuss their latest 'State of the PMS' release. Panelists included Kate Higgins, Director of Village Vets Formby, Francesca Verney, Veterinary Director of Pet People, Simon Hayes, Chief Veterinary Officer of Creature Comforts, Richard White, Co-Founder & CEO of Pickles Vet and of course our very own CEO and CoFounder Dr. Thom Jenkins.

Bringing the State of the PMS Report to BVA with a Peer Review Panel, veterinary IT services aim was to further build upon the great success and feedback their original guide has once again received. This new edition covers even more ground, providing deeper insights, extensive evaluations, and comprehensive analyses of Practice Management Systems (PMS) for veterinary practices.

Tapping into the pulse of the profession the BVA panelists joined Jack for an exclusive session diving into the hot off the press 2024 Report, giving their insights as community thought leaders on what they felt were crucial discoveries.

Breaking things down into a more comprehensive understanding of jargon often thrown at clinics when seeking new tech updates and assistance the panel walked through current key trends, challenges, and opportunities. The main aim of this knowledge exchange and collaboration to further support professional growth and development within the veterinary community.

Discussing key trends positively changing the landscape of technology in veterinary, Dr. Thom highlighted the move towards more open APIs and the incorporation of more advanced technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence).

"There are some providers emerging with truly open APIs that if a clinic wants another provider to do something the API is there and they are able to use it with no barriers. And then there is AI, so you've got people using large language models/machine learning to help veterinary teams do more and help pet owners access this high quality touch point in a more convenient way. And I think that it all makes sense that there is an intersection there because if we're going to unlock the insights available in our data then we do need to use advanced technologies like AI as it is a bit unrealistic to expect existing providers to do all that."

Agreeing with Thom, Veterinary IT Services Director and Founder, Jack Peploe elaborated on what he had noticed, specifically in the past demi-decade, saying:

"It's great things are opening up, it only feels like the APIs have become prominent in the last 5 years. There's been a big cry to try make systems more open and available and make the platforms more aware that they can't do everything, as it is impossible as you end up making unintuitive interfaces. One trend I'm seeing however is PMS' becoming the gatekeepers of the data and turning it into an almost commercial opportunity."

It was clear that Jack and the panel all felt that such activity was in no way a positive move and instead a potential constraint to further innovation within the sector.

For more on the State of the PMS why not check out the coverage of the BVA panel session on our Youtube channel or better still download the full report for FREE.