Artificial intelligence brings limitless opportunities in veterinary medicine

How can we better support veterinary teams and ensure that pets get the care they deserve? At IDEXX we do this by creating clarity, looking for opportunities to remove unnecessary complexity in veterinary medicine and provide vets with the tools and insights they need. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a huge factor in achieving that.

AI opens opportunities to elevate the standard of pet care

Artificial intelligence is all about recognising patterns. When we think about AI in veterinary medicine and the patterns that we can analyse from massive amounts of patient data, we know AI is more relevant today than it’s ever been before. Incorporating AI into the clinic provides a great opportunity to implement workflow solutions and elevate the standard of pet care.

Incorporating AI into the clinic provides a great opportunity to implement workflow solutions and elevate the standard of pet care.

Everything at IDEXX is grounded in science, research and data. It is this basis that informs our products, which are designed with the highest-quality materials and technology. AI is the final layer of intuitive intelligence, providing even greater accuracy, faster results and insights to guide treatment decisions for the veterinary team, all while giving them time back in their working day. Here are two examples of IDEXX instruments using AI that I think are especially helpful and fascinating:

AI removes uncertainty created by platelet clumping

The ProCyte One Haematology Analyser has the latest in laser flow cytometry that allows the sensors to detect a vast amount of sample information from multiple cellular dimensions simultaneously. AI then creates a digital fingerprint, providing different and improved views of each cell.

This improved technology helps to mitigate certain conditions that were historically frustrating and very manual for vets, such as platelet clumping. The AI software removes platelet clumps from white blood cell populations, and (in a matter of minutes) the analyser provides graphical data and interpretive aids, helping the clinician move forwards quickly and confidently with a treatment decision.

AI removes the complexity of urine sediment analysis

Traditionally, analysing urine sediment was a laborious, messy task that took up to 20 minutes. The IDEXX SediVue Dx uses AI to analyse urine sediment samples in less than three minutes – and was the first time this technology was offered in clinic.

It works by using advanced cameras and an inverted microscope to take 70 high-resolution images of the sample. These are fed into Neural Network 6.0, which benefits from the analyser’s AI and the collective learnings extracted from over 800 million urine sediment images. The fascinating part of this technology is that the analyser will classify formed elements and identify abnormalities in the images, score them according to the most clinically relevant and make them available in order of importance for the clinician to review. It even labels the elements for ease of identification and education purposes.  

At IDEXX, we want to continue to expand what’s possible

We already see the important benefit of AI in veterinary medicine today , and the opportunities for providing better care for pets and better clinical insights and workflow solutions for veterinary teams are immeasurable. This matters for our pets, but also our veterinary partners. IDEXX will continue to adapt our products and services to be smarter, more intuitive, clearer and – as always – medically relevant.