As Pet Telemedicine Booms, Vets Are Flying Blind Without Real-Time Data -- Until Now

PetPace Smart collar closes the critical information gap in telemedicine veterinary care

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When a pet owner launches a telemedicine video call with their veterinarian, the vet can see the animal, but they can't hear its heart rate, sense its pain level, or detect the subtle physiological changes that often signal something serious. That blind spot may soon be a thing of the past.

PetPace, whose AI/ML-powered health monitoring collar was named IoT Breakthrough Wearable Device of the Year and received the PC MAG Excellence Rating, is emerging as a critical infrastructure layer for the rapidly expanding veterinary telemedicine market providing veterinarians with continuous, real-time vitals and behavioral data during remote consultations.

The timing is significant. The global veterinary telemedicine market, valued at $457 million in 2022, is projected to nearly triple to $1.23 billion by 2028, growing at an 18.3% CAGR, according to Markets & Markets Research. Yet most virtual visits still rely solely on what owners can describe and cameras can capture.

"PetPace is the only health monitoring collar that can truly support remote patient assessment," said Dr. Asaf Dagan, DVM, Co-Founder of PetPace. "During a telemedicine visit, a veterinarian gains access to the same quality of physiological data they'd collect in an exam room such as heart rate, respiration, temperature, activity, pain indicators, in real time. What’s more is we allow you as a vet to use our platform to give your patients your branded telemedicine services, integrated into our app with complete security protection.

The implications go beyond convenience. Telemedicine already excels at triaging common concerns like skin conditions, vomiting, pain, behavioral issues and research shows that clients who use telemedicine services are more likely to follow up with in-person visits and spend more during those appointments. Adding continuous biometric data to the equation transforms a visual check-in into a genuine clinical encounter.

“The clinical value of this technology when integrated with telemedicine cannot be underestimated with immediate access to objective data for pre, post-surgical procedures, disease management, drug monitoring, early detection of pain, stress and much more," added Dagan.

The broader shift underway in veterinary medicine is from reactive, acute care to proactive and preventative, and wearables are at the center of it. By tracking metrics like activity levels in real time, veterinarians can now catch early signs of conditions such as osteoarthritis or post-surgical complications before they become emergencies.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning won't replace veterinarians, but they will define which ones lead the field. Those who pair telemedicine with real-time biometric data will be practicing a fundamentally different and more effective kind of medicine.