This week on Petworking, we chat with Dr. Cade Wilson, DVM, a leading veterinarian with an award-winning practice in South Central Oklahoma. Dr. Wilson is also the founder of a company called Skoped Micro, which gives veterinary practices an affordable telecytology option, by attaching a smartphone to the clinic's microscope via a specialized phone case and eyepiece adapter.
Dr. Wilson positions Skoped Micro as a cost-effective solution for practices that can't afford more expensive solutions. It can be used to take images and videos from the microscope, and send them to pathology groups for diagnosis.
I'm particularly intrigued by Skoped Micro's ability to speed up the diagnosis process. Instead of waiting for a slide to be prepped, packaged up, shipped out, and sent to a lab, Skoped Micro allows for immediate imaging and sharing of results. This reduces the waiting time for both the client and the veterinarian, allowing for a quicker game plan for treatment. More critically, because of its low cost, this is an option that can be adopted by virtually any practice, assuming they have a smartphone with a high-quality camera, and a relationship with a pathologist who they can email/text images and videos for interpretation.
Additionally, Skoped Micro is also used for client education. It allows veterinarians to show their clients the cytology images on their phone, making the clients a part of the treatment journey, and helping them better understand the condition of their pet. This leads to them being more confident in the veterinarian's recommended treatment. Dr. Wilson discussed the importance of client education, and how it has been instrumental to his success as a practitioner.
Although we didn't get to it in the episode, I think Skoped Micro also possesses some tremendous potential as part of an AI-driven cytology solution, where a model is trained on the images submitted by veterinarians using the app. This could further reduce the wait time in the diagnosis process.
Check out the episode to hear more, including Dr. Wilson's thoughts on televet, and veterinary burnout. Enjoy!
