PDSA, the vet charity for pets in need, has estimated that there are 11.1 million dogs in the UK and 10.5 million cats. More than half (51%) of the 5,387 pet owners surveyed for the PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) report say they are worried about being able to afford the cost of veterinary care for their pet.
Such statistics illustrate that there is a market opportunity in pet care, which technology firms are looking to address. Some of the innovation draws on work that is being done in human healthcare.
Through its Unleashed Network, a number of startups were invited by the accelerator initiative run by pet food company Purina to showcase their technology at the London Vet Show that ran November 19-20 at Excel. The companies demonstrating in the Unleashed startup village supported by Purina accelerator lab included AI for Pet, Sylvester.ai and VEA.
Pet health technology company AI for Pet is using advanced vision artificial intelligence (AI) to transform simple smartphone images and videos into real-time health insights.
Ronnie Hyun, vice-president at AI for Pet, said: “We are using vision AI. People take a picture using a mobile phone and we then analyse the image.”
The application identifies clinical signals based on images of eyes, skin and teeth, as well as gait analysis. Hyun said the clinical signals provide differential diagnostic information, which can be used to provide guidance for specific optimised pet care. The company is also able to provide veterinary clinics with data-driven pet care, which offers recommendations and personalisation.
Sylvester.ai specialises in an AI model that reads the visual facial cues of domestic short-haired cats. Discussing the technology, Rachel Fisher, operators and product lead at Sylvester.ai, said: “The company has been working on a model that can assess if a cat is in pain or in anxiety or in distress.”
Aimed primarily at cat owners and cat sitters, the web version of the application launched in July and the company is now distributing a mobile app version. The company’s goal is to grow usage – to date, around 10,000 people use Sylvester.ai, but Fisher wants the app to be widely used to increase the quality of the dataset.
“We have data licence agreements with multiple shelters where we have access to medicalised cats with their disease states, ages and pain levels and we’re really working on building this,” said Fisher, who believes that a data set of this kind has never been built before. “None of this research is as prevalent as it needs to be for the amount of cats that are owned by people.”
VEA has built a system that integrates patient data with AI to automate notes and diagnostics, streamlining diagnostic suggestions and customising treatment plans for wellness, prevention and therapeutic care.
Sylveser.ai, VEA and AI for Pet are examples of how artificial intelligence is making big inroads into pet healthcare.
Data protection for pets
Discussing the AI revolution in pet health, Kim Bill, head of Nestlé Purina accelerator lab, said: “Startups used to use a lot of simple algorithms and decision trees in their workflow. But in the last couple of years, we are seeing more AI and GenAI (generative AI) playing a very big role. I think that almost every startup uses GenAI in one way or another to improve the quality of its offerings.”
But as Bill points out, they are all using AI in different ways. Among the areas startups need to navigate is personally identifiable information. While the pets themselves are not strictly covered by data protection laws, their owners are, which, in Europe, means engaging with the General Data Protection Regulation.
“Animal data is linked to the owner,” Bill said. Among the topics being discussed at a pre-show event was GDPR and compliance. “The startup world and veterinary clinics are very wary of personally identifiable data. Everybody wants to be in compliance and it being taken very seriously. But I don’t think this is an area they cannot work through because it’s just like human health.”
Beyond AI, another growing area of interest in pet healthcare is the use of internet of things (IoT) devices. Tracking devices that fit around dog collars are readily available, and Purina accelerator Lab lead Jeanne Chatelle said the technology is now being applied to track health symptoms as well, making it applicable in the proactive pet health sector.
She said there are also other connected devices which, for example, help pet owners to understand how much the pet is drinking or eating, adding: “We see the emergence of different IiT devices here and there.”
One such device, VetChip, is a smart version of the microchip used to identify cats and dogs. VetChip said the device works as a biosensor, which is placed under the skin and provides animal health information similar to wearable human health monitors such as FitBit. Pet owners and vets are provided with access to real-time health analytics and alerts via the cloud using the VetChip app.
What is clear from the conversations Computer Weekly had during the London Vet Show is that AI and IoT are set to revolutionise people’s ability to understand how their pets are feeling and the overall health of their pets. Such insights could help pet owners to take preventative measures to ensure their pets remain healthy, and so help to reduce costly vet bills.
