Through AI platforms, computers can learn how to mimic human thought processes and cognitive functions, but with increased speed and learning capacity. Artificial intelligence has several subdisciplines, including machine learning, unsupervised learning, and deep learning. The versatility of AI makes it useful in a variety of medical disciplines. In human medicine, AI has already found applications in areas such as drug design, anesthesiology, cardiology, radiology, oncology, and infectious disease management. In general veterinary practice, protocols for vaccination, parasite prevention, and many aspects of wellness care are well-established.

Upon his retirement from veterinary practice--the last 2 decades of which he spent in specialty care where he helped to establish the model of a referral hospital--Neil Shaw, DVM, DACVIM, started thinking about how treatment protocols in general practices could be improved. His primary concern: how to scale what is done in specialty practices for use in general practices. Preventive care protocols are well established in general practice, Shaw says, but "models for treating common illnesses and injuries in primary care practice really have not been well established." "Not all cases need to be referred," he tells Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, in this episode of the Vet Blast Podcast. And he saw technology as the only way to accomplish that goal.