Demand for veterinary care is greater than ever, fueled by the global growth in pet ownership (which shows little sign of abating), the rising life expectancy of pets and the increasing expectation among pet owners for their pets to receive healthcare standards equivalent to their own. This demand has placed considerable pressure on already-busy clinical teams. Simultaneously, veterinary medicine is seeing a shift away from curative treatment, towards preventative practice. Innovations in the realm of diagnostics that bring together smart diagnoses and artificial intelligence (AI) are vital to providing support to veterinary practices. Advancements in diagnostic technologies provide greater opportunities to predict, prevent, diagnose and treat animal illnesses, more quickly, accurately and reliably – alleviating pressure on veterinary teams and elevating standards of care for patients worldwide. Here, Abhay Nayak, President of Global Diagnostics at Zoetis, and Dr Richard Goldstein, Global Chief Medical Officer, Zoetis, discuss how diagnostic capabilities for in-clinic hematology are evolving, as they unveil the newest addition to the company’s diagnostics portfolio – Vetscan OptiCell™. The cartridge-based, AI-powered, point-of-care analyzer is the first of its kind. Featuring viscoelastic focusing, it provides Complete Blood Count (CBC) analysis in minutes, providing actionable insights to help you diagnose and treat with confidence. Below is the interview transcript, which has been lightly edited for readability. Abhay Nayak, President of Global Diagnostics, Zoetis: Vetscan OptiCell is going to revolutionize in-clinic hematology for our veterinarians. As you can see here, it’s got a very compact footprint and we're going to significantly reduce the space requirements. It's going to simplify the workflow dramatically, while creating incredible accuracy for the veterinary clinic as well. We're really excited to bring a revolutionary technology to the modern veterinary practice, we really feel like this is going to elevate the standards of care for patients worldwide. Dr Richard Goldstein, Global Chief Medical Officer, Zoetis: OptiCell is cartridge based, just one little cartridge. All the magic really happens in here, in terms of the blood coming in and then the microfluidics are able to sort the cells and line them up one-by-one in this new technology that we're calling a “viscoelastic focus”. Cameras within the device take pictures and AI figures out what cells those are. So, we're not sorting them based on size or another kind of parameter; it's thousands of pictures counting hundreds of thousands of cells and getting a really accurate description and accurate count of what those cells are. But there's no maintenance – so there's no changing of fluid packs, there’s no running blanks, there's no running calibration. Taking care of a hematology machine has been a huge pain and effort in every veterinary practice, requiring many minutes to hours every day to manage – that’s all gone. This will bring hematology to a whole new level. Right now, people are very skeptical sometimes with the results they get. They know that the machines are not great, especially not for cat blood. They often just disregard it or don't do it, because it's not going to tell them much anyway. I think this will drive more hematology, better medicine, more accurate results and really enable us to do things we've never been able to do before in practice. Abhay Nayak, President of Global Diagnostics, Zoetis: Last year, we were able to introduce the concept of the Virtual Lab, and in the years prior we bought Vetscan Imagyst® to life as well. Vetscan OptiCell is a continuation of this transformative journey that we've been on that really puts the customer in the center and we try to think through, “How do we innovate and drive meaningful change in the veterinary practice?”. We’re really excited that this sits on top of a lot of great products and services that we have brought to market, and we'll continue that journey from here on out as well.
