Veterinarian and Telemedicine in Covid-19 Crisis
DR MD MOIN ANSARI Associate Professor/Senior Scientist Division of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology FVSc & AH, SKUAST K, SHALIMAR -190025
A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a professional who practices veterinary medicine by treating diseases, disorders, and injuries in non-human animals. Veterinarians being an integral and essential part of the global health, offer diverse roles not only related to the health and welfare of animals but prevention, management and control of zoonotic diseases as well. The scope of practice, specialty and experience of the individual veterinarian will dictate exactly what interventions they perform, but most will perform surgery (of differing complexity). Unlike in human medicine, veterinarians must rely primarily on clinical signs, as animals are unable to vocalize symptoms as a human would. In some cases, owners may be able to provide a medical history and the veterinarian can combine this information along with observations, and the results of pertinent diagnostic tests such as radiography, Computed tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), blood tests, urinalysis and others. Veterinarians are well equipped with the scientific knowledge to handle the virus and perform associated diagnostic tests. To commemorate their role to the society, this year World Veterinary Day (WVD) is themed with “The Veterinarian Response to the Covid-19 Crisis”. The use of telehealth within veterinary medicine has been an emerging topic of interest, particularly with the advancement of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs). According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), veterinary telehealth is defined as an overarching term that describes all uses of technology to deliver healthcare information, education, and services remotely. The AVMA breaks down the umbrella term telehealth into subcategories: telemedicine, teletriage, tele-advice, teleconsulting, telecommunication, telesupervision, telemonitoring, e-VFD, and e-prescription. However, veterinary telehealth likely appeared year’s prior, back to the early days of the telephone or telegraph.
Telemedicine is the remote delivery of healthcare services (general wellness advice, post-surgical care, convenient veterinary care etc.) for patients when the provider and patient are not physically present with each other. It is tool that makes health care more accessible, originally pertained exclusively to the use of electronic communications to provide clinical services without requiring a patient to come into a hospital, cost-effective and that increases patient management. Hence, it may represent both a screening and diagnostic tool, which demonstrated remarkable importance in recent literature, mostly due to the higher deployment and development of digital technologies (viz. smart phones and digital connections). Telemedicine will in time become an integral part of the practice of certain aspects of veterinary medicine. Telemedicine services should focus on the issues that the public is most concerned about, such as the symptoms, prevention and treatment of the disease, and provide reasonable advice to patients owner with symptoms.
Telemedicine can be classified into three main categories: 1. Interactive telemedicine/telehealth: Veterinarians and patient’s owner can share information (talk to a vet over text, phone or video chat) in real time. Such sessions can be conducted in the patient’s home or at a designated medical kiosk. 2. Remote patient monitoring/ telemonitoring: Allows patients to be monitored in their homes using mobile devices that collect data about vital signs viz: temperature, pulse, respiration, colour of mucous membrane etc. 3. Store and forward: also known as asynchronous telemedicine lets one healthcare provider share patient information, such as lab results with another healthcare provider. Veterinary telemedicine is a technology whose time has come and we must adopt it with open arms in order to ensure that two-way flow of information is facilitated between field veterinarians and subject experts, thus resulting in an enriching experience for animal health sector. Recently, telemedicine has become remarkably important, due to increased deployment and development of digital technologies. Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) at FVSc & AH, Referral Clinical Complex, Shuhama, offered non- emergency services through telemedicine converted overnight to “seeing” our patient’s owner by electronic communications during Covid-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the relevance of One Health principles in the global governance of infectious diseases, in particular in international efforts to prevent and contain zoonotic diseases. Various sectors like the ones of medical, pharmaceutical and veterinary offer direct health services while other related sectors like agriculture, forestry and environment provide indirect services to the animals and human. All these fields have been forced to communicate, collaborate on and coordinate activities for “One Health” initiative. One Health is gaining recognition in the United States and globally as an effective way to fight health issues at the human-animal-environment interface, including zoonotic diseases. As COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, early prevention and control of the epidemic is extremely important. Telemedicine, which includes medical advice given over telephone, Internet, mobile phone applications or other similar ways, may be an efficient way to reduce transmission and pressure on medical institutions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mandatory social distancing and the lack of effective treatments have made telemedicine the safest interactive system between patients, both infected and uninfected, and clinicians. On the academic point of view, protection of students, staff and faculty has been ensured without compromising the standard operating protocols (SOPs) of the Covid-19 pandemic. Avoiding exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19 is critical to veterinary team safety, along with vaccination and encouraging vaccine acceptance. Appropriate Personal Protective Equipment, commonly referred to as “PPE”, is equipment should be considered and worn to minimize exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses. Veterinarians, being part and parcel of the society with scientific background, contribution to strengthen the surveillance diseases which are or may emerge as public health threats can’t be ignored. Using telemedicine can help prevent the spread of COVID-19, because it allows veterinary patients to be appropriately triaged and monitored with only those veterinary patients that really need to be seen making the trip to the clinic/hospital along with their owners.
References:
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