Keynote: Survival in the New Normal: the Impact of Digitisation on Customer Behaviour

Keynote speaker Nancy Rademaker, a partner in nexxworks, a digital consultancy, began her address with a question: “Do you know this object?” she asked the audience, showing them a picture of an old-fashioned rotary dial telephone. Every member of the audience agreed that, yes, they did know what the object was.

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The changing role of the veterinary professional

How will the role of vets have to evolve in a precision medicine future? That was the question considered by Guen Bradbury, of Innovia Technology. She began with the following definition of precision medicine: “An approach to medicine where we consider an animal’s genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors in our diagnosis, management and prognosis of disease.”

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Application of precision medicine, AI, genomics and the use of data for animal health and welfare

Dr Jasmeet Kaler, of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham, discussed how information derived from sensors and other sources can be used to develop machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) that can be applied across animal health, welfare and production.

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Driving positive change – communicating to a changing demographic

“As businesses, we have to be seen to act with purpose and drive positive change,” began Collette Philip, founder of the brand and strategy agency Brand By Me. She explained that, in the past, organisations had been divided into those responsible for driving social change and “doing good”, and those responsible for driving profit. Now, these two things are “one and the same”.

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Changing customer attitudes and preventative veterinary medicine

“Pets are truly part of our family,” said Kathy Turner, Corporate Vice-President and General Manager for Idexx Laboratories, describing how attitudes to pet ownership have changed in recent decades. While the data she cited to support her presentation originated in the USA, she explained that similar trends are being seen elsewhere in the western world.

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Accelerating innovation in the NHS

Professor Tony Young, National Clinical Lead for Innovation at NHS England, had recorded a short video for the ViVet Innovation Symposium to describe how innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare is now being encouraged within the NHS.

Two entrepreneurs from the NHS programme then gave presentations on the ideas that they had developed into start-up companies. Dr Mark Martin, a trainee GP and founder of Set Points Health and Dr Tom Oakley, a radiologist by background who is now the CEO of a public limited company that has floated on the London Stock Exchange.

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Motion: In order to thrive the veterinary professions must become truly ‘customer-centric’

Chair: George Gunn MRCVS
First Speaker for the proposition: Gudrun Ravetz MRCVS
Second Speaker for the proposition: Ebony Escalona MRCVS
First Speaker for the opposition: Iain Richards MRCVS
Second Speaker for the opposition: Lynne Hill MRCVS

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