Davies Vinny, Scott E Marian, Wiseman-Orr M. Lesley, Wright Andrea K, Reid Jacqueline
School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Front Vet Sci. 2020 Sep 24;7:575795. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.575795. eCollection 2020.
Preventive measures in human healthcare are recognized as a means of providing early detection of disease, however, the veterinary profession has not been as effective in communicating the benefits of preventive measures to pet owners. Readily available pet healthcare information on the internet, owners not understanding that regular health evaluations can ensure the well-being of their pets and owners confusing the signs of chronic disease with normal aging have contributed to declining numbers of veterinary visits. The use of web-based generic health-related quality of life (HRQL) measures to evaluate health status (wellness) remotely could facilitate veterinary preventive medicine. This publication describes the development and practical application of an integrated alert system for an online generic HRQL measurement instrument (VetMetrica™) which generates scores in four domains of HRQL-Energetic/Enthusiastic (E/E), Happy/Content (H/C), Active/Comfortable (A/C), and Calm/Relaxed (C/R)-for 2 age groups (young/middle-aged, ≤7 years and old, ≥8 years). The alert provides an early warning, via email to owners, that a potentially significant deterioration in health status has occurred. The model accurately predicted the health status of 93 and 83% of sick young/middle aged and old dogs respectively, with healthy dogs predicted with 83% accuracy. HRQL data, collected via a white-labeled veterinary clinic branded app designed to facilitate connected care between owner and veterinarian, were analyzed for 6,108 dogs, aged between 6 weeks and 16 years. Of these 5,002 were deemed to be in perfect health by their owners, yet the alert was triggered for 1,343 (27%) of these, 75% of which were young/middle-aged and 25% were old, indicating that acute injuries notwithstanding, many middle aged dogs may have been suffering from undetected chronic disease such as osteoarthritis. This work has demonstrated that the use of VetMetrica™ delivered via the PetDialog™ app, which supports 24/7 remote health monitoring is an efficient way for vets to provide all their owners with the opportunity to monitor their animal's wellness throughout their lifetime, providing the vet with a mechanism to identify health problems early while stimulating owners to be more proactive in seeking veterinary attention.
人类医疗保健中的预防措施被视为一种早期疾病检测手段，然而，兽医行业在向宠物主人传达预防措施的益处方面效果不佳。互联网上随时可得的宠物保健信息、主人不理解定期健康评估能确保宠物健康以及主人将慢性病症状与正常衰老相混淆，都导致了看兽医的次数减少。使用基于网络的通用健康相关生活质量（HRQL）指标来远程评估健康状况（健康程度），有助于兽医预防医学的发展。本出版物描述了一种用于在线通用HRQL测量工具（VetMetrica™）的集成警报系统的开发和实际应用，该工具针对两个年龄组（年轻/中年，≤7岁和老年，≥8岁）在HRQL的四个领域——精力充沛/热情（E/E）、快乐/满足（H/C）、活跃/舒适（A/C）和平静/放松（C/R）生成分数。该警报通过电子邮件向主人提供早期预警，提示健康状况可能已出现显著恶化。该模型分别准确预测了93%的患病年轻/中年犬和83%的患病老年犬的健康状况，对健康犬的预测准确率为83%。通过一款白标兽医诊所品牌应用程序收集了6108只年龄在6周至16岁之间的犬的HRQL数据，该应用旨在促进主人与兽医之间的联合护理。在这些犬中，5002只被主人认为完全健康，但其中1343只（27%）触发了警报，其中75%为年轻/中年犬，25%为老年犬，这表明尽管有急性损伤，但许多中年犬可能一直患有未被检测出的慢性病，如骨关节炎。这项工作表明，通过支持全天候远程健康监测的PetDialog™应用程序使用VetMetrica™，是兽医为所有主人提供机会在宠物一生中监测其健康状况的有效方式，为兽医提供了一种早期识别健康问题的机制，同时促使主人更积极地寻求兽医关注。
