• In conversation with Director Digital Pulz (Pvt.) Ltd., Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Faculty of Computing Senior Professor Koliya Pulasingha

There is a revolutionary leap in veterinary care – introducing the business feature of cutting-edge veterinary apps developed for clinics and doctors the “Vet pulz” app and for the pet owners, “pet pulz” app. Designed to transform the way veterinary practices operate, streamline appointments, enhance communication, and optimize patient care, the app's business module is poised to set new standards in veterinary management. The Vet pluz app delves into the innovative tools and solutions that empower clinics to thrive in the digital age of pet healthcare.

In conversation with The Daily Morning Business, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Faculty of Computing, Senior Professor Koliya Pulasingha highlights the significance and need of stepping to a digital era in the veterinary care where it will make the work of doctors more easier and also will be able to provide an efficient and accurate treatment for the patients.

Following are excerpts from the interview. 

What inspired you to develop this veterinary management software?

The inspiration came from one of my friends who is a veterinary doctor. At that time I was developing software for human health information systems for the  hospitals. He came up with the fact why not to develop something for their profession, the veterinary field. Even Though it is very far from human health information systems after he explained to me about the internal similarities in the animal and human systems where we can easily develop a similar system for the veterinary domain.Then I thought why not give it a try to develop a veterinary health information system and then he introduced me to a few veterinary doctors, veterans in the field who are working at University of Peradeniya, Veterinary Medicine faculty, the only faculty in Sri Lanka. A few veterinary doctors, Dr. Jagath Wijesiri, Dr. Chandika Wickramasinghe, Prof. Mrs. Nayana Wijesundara, Dr. Madura Munasinghe, Prof. Anil Pushpakumara, Prof. Ashoka Dangolla, Dr. Namalika Karunaratne, Dr. Eranda Rajapaksha,  and Dr. Rasanjali Perera who has contributed throughout the process..After having a discussion with them, I realised that it’s a great thing to make an app for the animals since they can’t speak out about their illness like the humans do. Plus,there are so many people whowork on human requirements in comparison to the requirements of dogs and other pets.

Can you explain the features of the “Vet pulz” app?

This app is for the veterinary management system for clinics and doctors.

Comprehensive Patient Management: Easily access and update patient records, medical history, lab results, and treatment plans, ensuring accurate and up-to-date information at your fingertips.

Appointment Scheduling Made Simple: Effortlessly manage appointments, send reminders to clients, and optimize your schedule to reduce no-shows and improve overall efficiency.

Inventory Control and Ordering: Maintain precise control over your inventory with automated alerts for low stock levels, streamline reordering processes, and reduce waste and unnecessary expenses.

Integrated Billing and Invoicing: Generate professional invoices, track payments, and easily manage billing for various services, helping you streamline financial operations and enhance revenue.

Reporting and Analytics: Gain valuable insights into your practice's performance through detailed reports and analytics, allowing you to make informed decisions and optimise your business strategies

Moreover, the Pet Pulz is its sister app that offers the following features:

Online Appointment Scheduling: This feature allows pet owners to book appointments with veterinarians or other pet care professionals through the app. Users can check the available time slots, choose a suitable date and time, and schedule appointments for their pets conveniently.

Patient Record Management: The app includes a system for managing and maintaining pet health records. Pet owners can store important information about their pets, such as medical history, treatments, allergies, and any other relevant data. This feature helps to keep a comprehensive record of a pet's health and medical needs in one place.

Vaccination Reminders: Pet Pulz provides vaccination reminder functionality to ensure that pet owners never miss essential vaccinations for their pets. The app sends timely notifications and reminders about upcoming vaccinations or booster shots, helping to keep pets up to date on their immunizations.

TelePlus - Connect Doctor through Video Conference: This feature, named TelePlus, allows pet owners to connect with veterinarians or pet care experts through video conferencing. Pet owners can have virtual consultations with professionals, discuss their pet's health concerns, receive advice, and even get a preliminary assessment for non-urgent cases, all from the comfort of their homes.

What is the main challenge you face in developing the system? What makes the process more interesting to achieve?

I must say the main challenge was to understand the domain. Since the veterinary field is very remote for us. Veterinary medicine is not that familiar like human medicine in Sri Lanka. Plus there are many ways to access human information from many hospitals and many doctors but in the veterinary domain, it's really difficult to get that kind of information. From the system point of view, there is not a big challenge since all these things are IT related systems and so on.

Veterinary doctors are more different from the doctors who treat people. They are more nature lovers where working with them is actually interesting.

How does it cater to the unique needs of Sri Lankan veterinary practices?

Sri Lanka is still dependent on pen and paper, the manual system. Moreover, as consultations for doctors are very high it's really difficult to get them into systems, even though it is a more effective way to refer to the past health problems at hand. However, Sri Lanka can’t facilitate the new systems since most of the clinics have very less staff to enter data into the system. However, taking those issues heavily into consideration, we designed this system. There are huge queues in Sri Lankan clinics and in such a situation, a system like this will help to record historical data, clinical data of the patient which will be efficient for doctors and patients. These kinds of systems are really important to doctors who genuinely care about patients' treatments. Otherwise actually when you go to a doctor, the doctor just gets the case only for that day and they don't look at what has happened previously. But sometimes actually this previous history is very important in treating the patient.

Can you highlight any specific features or functionalities that are particularly useful for veterinary clinics in Sri Lanka?

Mainly when a case comes to these doctors, the patients carry their reports in hand but with the system they can have this information with the case record. They can keep the reports as attachments and whenever there is a wound or surgery or something, they can attach an image of it or a video clip of it to the case. In addition, when they actually give vaccinations, they can keep the vaccination information and they will get reminders when the next vaccination day gets close by. They can check the expiry dates of the drugs. As an example, your dog may have been vaccinated once and sometimes you will not remember the next vaccination day. But when you have this kind of system, both parties will be reminded well in advance.The owners can take care of their pets very easily. So those are the benefits actually doctors will get. The doctors can keep a record on how frequently the patient visits them, what kind of illness this pet had previously, and the vaccination records, everything in a nutshell in one system. The doctors will be benefited to get a kind of holistic view and treat the patient precisely rather than firefighting. 

Sri Lanka is planning to go on digitisation. What kind of influence can the app make on the government sector? 

The app is totally in line with the Government's digitisation plan. Actually they have Government public veterinary clinics in every city having this kind of system, they can actually keep all information loaded, they can link. And this is a cloud-based software solution. So then actually they can amalgamate data from different clinics and get an area-wise information.They can go very far if they have this kind of system rather than manual paper-based system. Manual paper-based systems are really cumbersome and come with a lot of limitations.

How does the software handle Sri Lanka's specific payment methods and billing practices in veterinary clinics? Are there any pricing options or packages tailored for the specific needs and budgets of veterinary practices in Sri Lanka?

Nowadays, people are moving towards credit cards, debit cards, and other payment mechanisms, online payment mechanisms. The software supports these mechanisms. In this system, we are working with PayHere, a company renowned for digital payment platforms.

We are connected to them and the people can use any payment mechanism. Most popular things are credit cards and debit cards. 

The “Vet pulz” which is for the veterinary management system for clinics and doctors. They have to pay a monthly subscription fee for the app. The “Pet Pulz” app which is designed for the pet owners is free for one to two pets and there are no strings attached. But If you have many, they have to pay a small premium. We have not yet decided but it will be a nominal fee.

What kind of technical support and training services do you offer to veterinary practices in Sri Lanka during and after the implementation of the software?

Before the implementation, we will send our team to see the requirement, analyse the requirement, and then the installation will take place. One of our trained officers will be there with the clinic's team to take them through the system and to groom them by training. We have the system installed in Peradeniya. Whenever they give us a call, within a couple of days we visit them and see what their requirement is and attempt to complete the requirement.

Are there any partnerships or collaborations with local veterinary associations or organisations in Sri Lanka to support the adoption of your software?

We don't have such links or partnerships yet, but we are planning  to go with Sri Lanka Veterinary Association (SLVA) because that's the closest entity to us as we have worked with them from the beginning. Moreover we have partnered with the Crown Pet Hospital and other 6-7 clinics have joined hands with us so far. Currently, our marketing team is promoting this among the SLVA members. Moreover, we are also in discussions with the Colombo Kennels Association. 

Are you planning to upgrade this more in the future? What is the end goal of this software?

When the user requirements grow once we put this up to the market. The users will find out what we are lacking in the app. And they will suggest the necessary upgrades where we will work for those. Moreover, we are also thinking of upgrading certain features in this app in the next version and taking into account the suggestions that would come from the pet owners.

This is the push and pull. We push certain features and they will also ask for some features from their points of view. In the future, we are also planning to connect with pharmacies as well.

We hope to elevate the level of the pet care industry and to elevate the level of treatment. We also believe in the future that the app will indirectly force the human doctors to use a similar kind of system to record past health issues of their patients.