Why vets are adopting AI faster than hospitals

Heidi Health, backed by Australia’s biggest venture capital fund Blackbird, has been touted as growing more than graphic design darling Canva, with its artificial intelligence platform allowing doctors to spend more time with their patients rather than writing notes.

The platform, with patient consent, not only records and transcribes a consultation with a doctor but can then fill out a medical record, saving what is known as “pyjama time” where doctor completes notes out of hours.

Now Dr Kelly is expanding into veterinary practice with Australia’s biggest vet network Greencross, saying the technology is “very translatable to any clinical interaction”.

“That’s why we use the word clinician, because anything clinical where you’re sharing your knowledge, and you’re gathering history from maybe the owner of a pet … anywhere, you’re sharing your advice. We’ve found that Heidi can be really useful,” Dr Kelly said.

The success of Heidi Health – which has raised $US26m to date and is used in almost two million consultations a week – stems from its flexible design, originally built “to serve everyone in a hospital.” This flexibility allows the software to be “very configurable to the end user,” with personalised settings and underlying models that change depending on the user’s specialty.

“If you say you’re a vet, you’re getting completely different underlying models and prompting, and guardrails will change, but that’s kind of just the magic of Heidi. They don’t see that. They just use the product and it works.“

Greencross is now using Heidi Health about 35 per cent of all consultations, with the company having more success with vets than public hospitals.

Dr Kelly says privatised healthcare sectors like veterinary care have a faster procurement cycle than the public system.

“In a private competitive environment where it’s like, ‘hey, I can go to this vet, or I can go to that vet’, actually, it becomes an important thing to deliver a great experience. So you’re walking out of that room with clear instructions, a summary of what happened, great document for insurance, and it will just become a standard of practice.

“That’s why I think the Greencross, the collaboration partnership, is like so big for us, because it’s just a stake in the ground that we can share with other vets.”

The inherent demands of veterinary work also contribute to Heidi’s appeal. “Because their hands are occupied, like they’re doing the examination and managing the pet in the room. There’s another reason why vets, I think, have adopted these tools really quickly, because people just don’t have time to document – you could be handling a cat in the room and typing at the same time.“

“We see it in pediatrics and physio and allied specialties, where there’s a lot of examination. It’s just you in the room is incompatible with being on a computer.”

Greencross chief veterinary officer Magdoline Awad said: “The uptake of and feedback from our teams on Heidi Health in such a short space of time has been fantastic. Hundreds of our GP and speciality and emergency vets are using Heidi Health to streamline thousands of consultations a week – with some clinics and hospitals using it in more than 60 per cent of consultations.”

“The benefits are numerous, but the most important one is now that our teams’ are using Heidi Health, less time is spent on admin and more time is spent connecting with clients and treating patients. Over the coming months, we believe the impact it can drive for both our GP and specialists and our patients will grow exponentially.” Dr Awad said.

Beyond efficiency Dr. Kelly believes the AI’s success in veterinary settings could foster broader trust in AI for human healthcare. “People are probably more likely to trust AI with their pets, animals, rather than their own health. And then when they can see that they have that good experience with their pet … they think, actually, I might try this on myself.“

Heidi Health’s expansion strategy involves both winning over solo clinicians and engaging with larger organisations. “Our go to market motion has always been trying to … win that solo clinician that’s just picking the best tool that they love,” which creates an “overwhelming sort of brand voice” that then influences larger networks.

Dr Kelly also plans to “start extending Heidi’s capabilities to just basically do more of what clinicians want from us.” This includes automatically drafting investigations and providing support to help clinicians “make the best decisions they can.” Channelling Steve Jobs, Dr Kelly views this as solving problems for clinicians “before they realise it’s a problem.”

Michael Tolo, general partner at Blackbird, said: “Heidi has had a stunning growth trajectory over the past 12 months, outpacing some of our best-known investments,” which include Canva.

“The company’s success comes down to the team’s deep understanding of clinical workflows (as clinicians themselves), allowing them to build a product that becomes indispensable within weeks,” Mr Tolo said.

“With Heidi now powering over a million consults every week, and most of those happening outside Australia, we are still scratching the surface of what might be possible. It’s been an impressive 12 months for the company and we are excited about the future ahead.”

This article first appeared in The Australian as Why vets are adopting AI faster than hospitals as vets turn to Heidi Health