Pet Wellness Clinics Offers New Artificial Intelligence Platform for Rapid, Point-of-Care Diagnoses

Pet Wellness Clinics, a local network of veterinary offices, is now offering a new diagnostic platform to detect intestinal parasites more rapidly in pets.

Vetscan Imagyst uses image recognition technology, algorithms and cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) to allow veterinarians to identify intestinal parasites in dogs and cats, view images and share the results with pet parents — all within just nine minutes.

Developed by Zoetis, Imagyst is powered by deep-learning capabilities to revolutionize in-clinic fecal testing by automating the fecal examination to detect internal parasite eggs, cysts and oocysts.

“Parasites are a threat throughout the year, making routine monitoring critical to pet health,” said Richard Goldstein, DVM, DACVIM, DECVIM-CA, VP Global Diagnostics Medical Affairs at Zoetis. “With Vetscan Imagyst, the ability to have accurate, fast results at the point-of-care empowers veterinarians to diagnose and treat in the same visit.”

“This is very exciting artificial intelligence technology that is far more accurate than manual analysis alone,” said Pet Wellness Clinics Owner and CEO Michael Graves, DVM. “It generally finds almost fifty percent more parasites than manual fecal evaluation does, and then, if necessary, we can treat the pet at that same appointment. We have the Imagyst machines in all our clinics and look forward to using them to enhance the overall pet and pet owner experience.”

According to the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC), the most frequently diagnosed internal parasites are whipworm, hookworm, roundworm, Giardia and coccidia, which are most commonly diagnosed by fecal examination. CAPC recommends fecal testing for dogs and cats at least four times in the first year of life, and then one to two times per year in adults, depending on patient health and lifestyle factors.

For more information about Vetscan Imagyst, visit www.vetscanimagyst.com.