Veterinary Innovation Podcast

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak chat with Heather Moore, Founder and CEO of PetCentric Health, about the affordability crisis in veterinary medicine and why pet parents want a better way to pay than loans and payment plans.  Drawing from her background in human healthcare finance, Heather shares how embedding flexible spending funds through petFSA® empowers clients to cover both preventive services and unexpected sick visits on day one. You will learn how modern subscription models help clinics combat declining visit frequency, improve treatment compliance, and eliminate the awkward friction of end-of-visit payment shock. The discussion highlights practical strategies for building sustainable recurring revenue, retaining clients, and integrating financial conversations seamlessly into the patient care journey. Learn more about PetCentric Health. Heather Moore recommends "The Calamity Club: A Novel" by Kathryn Stockett for an inspiring and energizing look at how collective determination can overcome steep odds.

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak sit down with Dr. Kate Elden, Chief Medical Officer at Dutch Vet, to discuss how telehealth is tackling the access-to-care crisis in veterinary medicine. Dr. Elden breaks down how Dutch's $11-a-month subscription model provides pet parents with unlimited virtual vet consults while giving DVMs flexible, non-production-based work opportunities supported by AI-driven EMR tools. She shares how virtual care bridges the gap for the estimated 52% of pets not receiving regular veterinary attention and advocates for trusting DVM clinical judgment across virtual platforms. This conversation offers valuable insights for veterinary professionals interested in the future of telehealth and sustainable career flexibility. Learn more about Dutch. Dr. Elden recommends "The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self" by Michael Easter for embracing healthy discomfort, and "Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than They Expect" by Will Guidara for bringing surprise and delight into daily interactions.

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak chat with Jeremy Halperin from MeasureVet about how veterinary practices and groups can turn scattered, fragmented data into timely, actionable business decisions. Jeremy shares how MeasureVet creates a clean, normalized data layer across PIMS, HR, finance, and scheduling systems, giving leadership the insights they need to support their teams and optimize operations. He highlights the importance of having at least yesterday's data to solve core challenges like labor productivity and burnout before they compound. You'll also learn how query-based AI sitting on clean data can deliver reliable, 100% repeatable answers to transform practice management. Learn more about MeasureVet. Jeremy Halperin recommends following Palantir's AI developments and the market movements in watch P/E.

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak sit down with Dr. Brad Waffa, a small animal and exotics veterinarian and co-founder of Truss Vet - Veterinary Urgent Care, to discuss the growing need to define urgent care in veterinary medicine. Dr. Waffa explains how Truss Vet fills the gap between overburdened general practices and high-cost emergency hospitals by providing true intermediate care. He shares how Truss Vet's unique operational model helps protect veterinary team members from burnout while delivering exceptional patient experiences. The discussion also touches on how practices can navigate changing market pressures, build strong referral relationships with local GPs, and continuously innovate to support both clinicians and pet owners. Learn more about Truss Vet - Veterinary Urgent Care. Dr. Brad Waffa recommends "The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company" by Robert Iger. He also mentions currently re-reading "The Hard Thing about Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers" by Ben Horowitz.

This week, we speak with Anthony Gatti, co-founder and CEO of PetPax Co., about how their proprietary SupplaMelts® are fixing one of pet wellness's biggest bottlenecks: administration compliance. Anthony explains how these thin wafers sit above the gum line to deliver microencapsulated active ingredients directly through the oral mucosa, bypassing stomach acid and taking effect within minutes. He discusses how pairing effective formulations with simple, mess-free delivery formats helps pet owners stick to daily preventative routines. From calming anxious pets to maintaining daily oral hygiene, this episode highlights how PetPax Co. is bridging the gap between clinical intent and actual home compliance. Learn more about PetPax Co. Discover more about SupplaMelts®. Anthony Gatti recommends the insights shared in Yo-Yo Ma On Sharing Joy & Finding Connection Through Music regarding shifting mindset from "proving" to "sharing".

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak sit down with Dr. Jake Rodgers, a relief veterinarian and founder of Rodgers Veterinary Care and Vet Buddies, to address a critical flaw in veterinary medicine: breakdowns in care between clinic visits. With 52% of pet owners skipping needed care, traditional discharge sheets are no longer enough to maintain client compliance and continuity of care. Dr. Rodgers explains how Vet Buddies bridges this gap by pairing pet owners with veterinary students under clinical supervision to manage a living medical record and provide ongoing support. You will learn how this relationship-first model provides students with hands-on communication experience, offloads busy practitioners, and creates a scalable framework for independent practice. Learn more about Vet Buddies. Dr. Jake Rodgers recommends "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari.

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak talk with Gary Peters, co-founder and CEO of PupPilot, about how AI front-office technology is helping with front-desk understaffing and burnout in veterinary practices. Gary shares how PupPilot manages inbound and outbound calls, texts, and emails using AI voice models and dynamic PIMS integrations built for veterinary teams. He explains why human-healthcare platforms fail in veterinary medicine and how PupPilot's hardware and software make it possible to automate scheduling, post-op check-ins, and website content updates. This episode offers practical insights into how clinics can eliminate phone overload, improve client compliance, and capture lost booking opportunities. Learn more about PupPilot. Gary Peters recommends the YouTube channel and podcast by Dwarkesh Patel.

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak catch up with Neshmeen Faatimah, the founder and CEO of Nuzzle Technologies, Inc., to discuss how AI-powered simulations are transforming veterinary communication training.   After losing her cat during a complex care journey marked by communication breakdowns, Neshmeen set out to solve one of veterinary medicine's most overlooked challenges: teaching vets how to navigate difficult conversations with clients. Nuzzle's platform allows veterinarians to practice realistic case scenarios with AI-simulated pet owners, helping teams improve trust-building, treatment discussions, cost conversations, and clinical decision-making in a low-stakes environment.  This episode is a fascinating look at the intersection of AI, behavioral science, education, and the future of veterinary mentorship. Learn more about Nuzzle Technologies. Neshmeen recommends "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In" by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce Patton, a foundational text on negotiation and alignment that helps reframe vet-client interactions.

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak welcome Guilherme Coelho, Co-founder and CEO of Maven Pet, to discuss how AI-powered pet wearables are helping owners better understand their pets' health between vet visits. They discuss how Maven combines sensor data, app-based inputs, and artificial intelligence to build a "digital paw print" for each pet and detect early signs of illness before they become critical. Guilherme explains why the modern pet owner is moving beyond simple GPS tracking in favor of deep health insights that provide peace of mind, especially for pets with chronic conditions. Learn how Maven is changing the conversation in the vet office by empowering owners with continuous data that supports more accurate diagnoses and effective treatment monitoring. Learn more about Maven Pet. Guilherme recommends the Youtube - Head of Growth (Anthropic): Anthropic is automating its own growth for insights into rapid AI scaling.

This week, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak welcome Dr. Lisa Beagan, founder of Your Vet Direction, to discuss how AI-supported triage can bring more structure, consistency, and safety to veterinary intake. The conversation explores one of the most overlooked risks in practice operations: asking front-desk teams to make triage decisions without the clinical tools or training to do so confidently. Dr. Beagan shares how her platform, Your Vet Direction, helps guide CSRs through the right questions, prioritize urgency, and support better decision-making while keeping humans firmly in the loop. The episode offers a practical look at how structured AI can reduce variability, improve efficiency, and help veterinary practices modernize one of their most critical workflows. Learn more about Your Vet Direction. Dr. Beagan recommends "The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma" by Mustafa Suleyman for its insights on AI guardrails.