How AI-Powered Documentation is Improving Veterinary Wellbeing | Episode 63 | Reviving Vet Med

Veterinary medical record documentation is a major source of stress — often piling up after hours and impacting both care quality and veterinarian wellbeing. In this episode, Dr. Katie Gallagher, general practice vet and co-founder of Scribenote, shares how her AI-powered scribe tool is helping vets stay present with patients, catch up on records faster, and reclaim personal time.

We explore why medical record documentation is so challenging, how AI can support (not replace) veterinary teams, and what the future of tech in veterinary medicine might look like. Whether you're curious, skeptical, or just overwhelmed by your record backlog, this episode offers a practical, hopeful look at working smarter — not harder.

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Resources
Solving the Documentation Dilemma to Enhance Wellbeing in Veterinary Medicine (blog): https://revivingvetmed.com/ai-scribe-software-veterinary-medicine/

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Transcript

Still writing medical records manually, Imagine reducing the mental load of a full day's patient care. With Scribenote, the AI powered veterinary soap creator, you can streamline record keeping effortlessly as if you had a personal scribe. I recently used Scribenote during a hectic string of emergency shifts when I managed over 20 cases in 12-hour days. It drastically cut down my medical record completion time, letting me focus more on patient care and less on paperwork. Scribenote has truly transformed my workflow. Born from a desire to help, Scribenote now supports veterinary clinics across North America. It is dedicated to improving veterinary wellness and reducing burnout. Try it now at scribenote.com with a free trial of 50 records for Reviving Vet Med listeners. Use the link in the show notes for 100 free notes, 50 more than the trial book. 

A no obligation demo call and see how Scribenote can simplify your day. Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Reviving Vet Med. In today's episode, we are going to be discussing something that all of us in veterinary practice struggle with and that is keeping up with our giant piles of medical records. So for today's episode, I am really excited to be in conversation with Dr. Katie Gallagher. Katie Gallagher is a general practice veterinarian in Southern Ontario who graduated in 2016 from the Ontario Veterinary College. Katie is co-founder of Scribenote and now works with the company and in the clinic to improve the product and make it as useful as possible for her colleagues. She believes in a future where veterinarians have more joy because they get to go home on time. 

Katie and I have a great conversation about the challenges that medical records can create in terms of the mental health and wellness of veterinarians, and we talk about the ways that AI Scribe software can be of benefit. So with that said, I am really excited to share this information with you. So let's go ahead and get into the episode. Foreign this is the Reviving Vet Med podcast and I'm your host, Dr. Marie Holowaychuk. My mission is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of veterinary professionals around the world. All right. Hi Katie, it is so wonderful to have you on the podcast with me today. I'm going to just jump right into it with our first question and that is what inspired you to tackle the challenge of medical record keeping in vet medicine? 

Okay, so first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm really happy to be here chatting with you today. Well, to answer that question, I'd say it wasn't really a plan. So this, the origin story goes a bit like this. Back in 2019. I had been out of school for a few years, and I was constantly staying late at work, you know, finishing records. So much so that my staff would joke that I should have a kennel in the back to sleep there because I basically felt like I never left. And it was Christmas break in 2019, and my brother asked to follow me around at the clinic to see why I was always there for so long. And, and so I asked my boss and brought him with me on a 10-hour shift. 

He basically was a fly on the wall during that whole day. So came into every exam with me, stood in the corner of the room. You know how exam rooms are really small so, you know, multiple pets with an extra person. I always ask permission obviously. And at the end of the day we sat down to do records, and he turned to me while I was typing those up and said, wow, you're doing everything twice. Like you're duplicating this work. You're talking to your clients. Everything that you're going through is already being captured in the exam room. Like, what a difficult thing to have to write it all down at the end of such a busy day. Like, I'm sure there's data that's being lost and you know, I'm going to solve this problem for you. Give me 10 years. 

So that was 2019 and you know, the technology wasn't quite where it needed to be at the time. Him and one of our other co-founders started immediately working on the problem and they were even like human in the loop scribes for me for a while. But we realized like that wasn't really scalable and our first automated product was, I guess released in 2023. We had like a beta group in March and immediately when I started using it drastically improved my medical record time. And I text him, probably one of the first days I used it that I was leaving work on time and was able to get home. So it's been a very strange trajectory but very exciting and I'm glad it didn't take him 10 years, no doubt.

Wow, that is amazing. What a wonderful brother. You know, seeing a problem and attempting to fix it and fixing it really. And still continuing to fix it today. I'm so curious, what do you think makes keeping up with medical records such a challenge for veterinarians? I've had the experience going into an ER shift and seeing, you know, a dozen cases, 15 cases, and then having hours and hours past the end of my shift, staying there almost like a second shift for the medical records. Why is it such a challenge? 

Yeah, well, exactly like you said, there are not enough hours in the day. There really aren't, especially when you're back-to-back in appointments when things are complicated. The other day I was at work, and I saw 10 cases in five hours. And that was not only normal healthy pets, because those we know, the documentation, like you still have to do the job about communicating and preventative health care but adding in blood work and X rays and things like that, when you've got all these cases back-to-back, becomes really challenging, especially when things are kind of urgent. Right. 

So obviously like your priority cases, you work up in that instant, you do the bloods, the blood in the rads, and you get those results to that client, even if it means bumping your appointments back a little bit to kind of continue moving forward with the case. I find a lot of times cost is the big factor there. Like if people don't have funds and we need to do some things step wise, then you know, it takes even longer. Right? We have to get the blood, go over the results, the blood, make a new plan, and so partnered with your clients and talking about costs and making decisions for next steps is one reason then the booking. You know, we've got 30-minute, 40-minute appointments to deal with multiple health concerns. 

Often again, because people, first of all don't really have this unlimited time to bring their pets in every other week, you know what I mean? They save all their concerns for one visit, which is fair, but it adds a lot, you know, and then I'd say probably animal behavior. Like if we've got pets that are more fearful, we have to take time, coax them to be more comfortable, need more hands. God, there are so many reasons. To me, it's always been the last thing that I've focused on because being in the appointment, communicating with the client, like building that partnership and educating that is way more important to me than what I write down. Which probably you shouldn't tell the licensing bodies about that, but the records were obviously important, but I just never got to them in my allotted 30 minutes. Does that make sense? 

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. And yeah, I mean, 30, 40 minutes if you're lucky, right? Sometimes people are doing appointments every 15, 20 minutes. And like you said, just the nature of vet medicine, where you have the patient being the pet or the animal, and then the proxy, which is the client, and it's very complicated, it makes the process not very efficient. When we have to go back and forth between hands on the patient and connecting with the families. And like you said, you throw fearful animals into the mix or cost constrained owners into the mix and then it becomes even more inefficient. You know, I have connected with individuals in our community who have fallen so behind on their records like we're talking months behind on their records. And I make a point of never leaving the hospital without an unfinished record. 

It's just a policy that I've always stuck to mostly because in ER you just never know when that patient might come back and what they might need in the process. How do you feel that falling behind on records impacts both the quality of care in vet medicine and the quality of life or the mental health for the veterinarian themselves? 

Yeah. So even just hearing you say months behind on records, like, gives me a bit of anxiety. I think the most I've ever been behind, and this was obviously well before Scribe Note is maybe a week. And I think realistically it reduces your accuracy hugely. Even if you're taking notes during the appointment. Like, first of all, how easy is it to be on the floor with a giant dog and scribbling things down as you're doing them? And then again, if you're wanting to be really present and thorough in your exams and your client communication, writing kind of takes away from that a little bit. So super stressful to be that far behind. I think, I think there's another, you know, staying late to finish records all the time gets really quite exhausting and definitely leads to burnout as well. 

As if I have a day off a week or if I'm on like on home at the weekend, I shouldn't be finishing up on records, it adds to that, you know, you feel like you're never done. So yeah, I think realistically, like the inaccuracy of leaving records for a long time and then the constant stress and pressure to you have this thing looming over your head and they just seem to snowball, right? Like you don't finish records for one shift, well then you're behind immediately when you start the next shift and it's just like this level of stress that you just don't really need. 

Yeah, no, I 100% agree. It's very anxiety provoking for me as well. Even hearing people say that they've been behind that long. I mean, for me it's hard enough to remember the information from just a few patients ago. Nevermind, like a few weeks ago I saw this patient. That's just impossible for me. And I think, you know, you and I have talked before that there Is this requirement from licensing bodies that you are supposed to have your records done within 24 hours, depending on where you practice. And so there is this legal requirement or this regulatory requirement that you do have these medical records complete. 

So I think that's another stressor for individuals that don't want any sort of board complaint or if a board complaint does come to fruition and they ended up completing the records much later, like you said, they're not going to be nearly as accurate. Well, all of this brings us to the big question, which is what is the solution? And as you shared, you know, you and your brother have created this company that has this Scribe AI Supported Scribe software to help with medical record keeping. I would love to hear if you can give a bit of an overview about AI Supported Scribe software and how it works in terms of supporting documentation. 

So basically the principle of it is we have an app that you can record from on your phone or an iPad or another tablet, as well as recordings from like a web browser. And you press the button, record your appointment as normal, review your exam findings out loud and things like that, and then at the end press stop and you get a fully formatted medical record without any additional chit chat. So you can still have a good relationship with your clients. You can talk to them about, you know, the weather or sports or their kids or anything like that and it will filter out anything that is not medically relevant. So really wanting to like reduce how much change you have to make in your workflow. It's super easy. 

And the goal is that the AI takes everything in that transcript so that recording and condenses it and filters it into the right categories. That's a broad, very broad overview and there's lots of features. So can use it for not only your medical records, but your phone calls, your dental procedures, your abdominal ultrasounds, etcetera. 

Yeah, it's amazing. I think Scribenote in particular, I'm of course biased because I've used the software myself for many months now. And it's so funny because I look at the transcript in terms of what it's actually recording and then I look at my medical record and you can see all of the fluff like you said, that we talk about with our families, with our owners, when we're doing our appointments and how it makes this beautifully written, concise, detailed medical record. It's just mind boggling to me. You know, as somebody who's very evidence based, who's done a lot of research and specifically in this field of mental health and wellness. I'm curious, what is the research supporting the wellbeing and mental health benefits of scribe software or AI assisted documentation either for clinicians or veterinarians? What's out there? 

So obviously I haven't read everything there is to read on this but I do think that there's a lot of positive research out there so far and I think there is lots that still needs to be done. So from what I've seen, you know, in human medicine we can see like better patient experience which is a big one where the doctor doesn't have to be constantly typing, they can potentially listen and again partner in. I don't remember the last time I went to the doctor and actually had someone like just have a conversation with me, right. So I think that's a big thing. And then obviously less time spent doing records outside of work hours. I think in the one study I read it was called pajama time, like time not in the, I'm not in the hospital or in the clinic. 

So that home time where you really shouldn't be taking your work home with you because we obviously know these professions are high level of like reduced work life balance as it is trying to get them home on time without having to bring their follow ups home. So like I said, I think more does need to be done and I think sometimes it's going to be a bit challenging to do that research because some of the things are more like intangible, right? Like how people are feeling, how you just are less exhausted at the end of the day because you don't have as much to remember, you don't have as much that feels like it's you know, on your shoulders at the end of the day. 

And, and I sure that's a bit of a harder, more subjective and not objective type of research and probably will need to be like more retrospective, right. Like comparing however many years in practice without and then with et cetera. So I think that sure needs to come in some point and we actually have some research stuff in the works. Like obviously again it takes a long time to kind of set up proper studies and things like that. But the one thing I wanted to bring up is that I think focusing on the mental health aspect and how much we can reduce like the burden and the stress and the difficulties in the field is much better than looking at how much more we can see how much more we can bill how much, you know, like I think it's off the mark realistically. 

It brings it back to like profit which Obviously every business needs to make money, but I think most vets, and I probably all vets, are always working hard and doing their absolute max every shift. And so just to like take something off their plate is the better way to approach it and not this. Let's get you this tool so you can do more for us. That's one of the things that I've been thinking about with regards to research. Maybe we should focus more on what it can do for us in terms of self-care. 

I love that. I think the mental health benefits can't be understated. I as again, someone who's used software like this, scribe notes and others that are out there. It is such a weight off my mind to know that this is recorded. Even if I can't get back to this, let's say before the end of today, for whatever reason, I know that it's there. I know I don't have to have that mental exhaustion and that fatigue of trying to store it in my head. It's there. I will get to it. It's at least somewhat documented. 

If I've been able to cut and paste whatever is there, even if I haven't proofread it and that is just in a huge alleviation and then not having the anxiety of oh my gosh, there's all these records and they're piling up and I don't even remember what I did this morning, nevermind what I did last week. So yeah, for sure, the efficiency. If you can get home for more pajama time. I love this. I love this for all of us. What a great analogy. What kind of feedback have you received from the veterinarians you've connected with who've used Scribenote? Because I know that you connect a lot with your users. You're always making new improvements to the software and introducing new tools and other things. What stands out for you that you could share to make this really tangible for people?

So we have an internal channel in our team messaging. It's called the Wall of Love. And basically any positive feedback we get goes there just to help us remind ourselves why we do what we do right? Because the people in this profession are really amazing. They're really hardworking people. And we just have to keep remembering that we can continue to help them make their day easier. So there's definitely some pieces of feedback that make me smile a lot. And I think the most recent one that I've heard from a veterinarian whose team was starting to pilot Scribe Note was a bit skeptical at first. 

And then after I think a week or two, they reached out to him to get some feedback on how things were going and he replied, you are going to have to pry this from my cold dead hands because I will never practice without it. So even people who are skeptical about using it I think find it more helpful than they initially thought. And you're right, like we do make a ton of improvements and it's usually based on user feedback because that's how the whole product started. And you know, obviously it's nice to have boots on the ground and like a general understanding of what is needed, what issues we're facing, like how can we improve productivity? Like how can we take off some more burden from the veterinarians and the technician support staff who are using us? 

So if you guys have any feedback or anything that you'd like to see. Wish list items, we have a whole wish list that people put in and we're trying always to check things off there. It's just obviously time and engineering effort that takes and we don't like to release features that are half good. They have to be like fully useful, fully intuitive and kind of go along with our mentality when we put things out there. But yeah, most of the time people are just saying things like, it's life changing, let's help them to get home and spend time with their family, like sit down and have dinner with their family. Again, people who told us that they finally have the one weekend day that they usually set aside to do records, to do other things like their hobbies. So it's really rewarding. 

One of the first, I think back at one of the first conferences. So like back in 2023 when we first launched, I had someone come up to me and I think if I remember correctly, they were in behavior medicine and they basically almost started crying like that this was such a big thing and took up so much of their time. And so it can be really impactful for people because it is required and we do need to put effort into it to keep on top of our records. Just taking that off people's plates. It's been really awesome to see all the good feedback. 

I love that. Well, I'm convinced I am definitely not one of the skeptics out there. I too will not practice without this software again. Let's get practical. What is the best way for a busy clinic to get started with software like this? Do you have any tips to help smooth out that transition? 

So I, I'd say there's a few things that you should look into. If you're looking into starting with an AI scribe. So what is the platform's ability to support you? Like, do they have people that are available to help? We have support in app and on our website. Like people that we work with that are able to quickly solve problems. For people that are starting to get set up, is their effort put it into like help documents and videos and is it intuitive and easy for you to use? Like, does it reduce the ability of you to need to change your workflow? Because I think a big thing about adopting any new software, it's like how much do I have to change to get this into my routine? 

Because we all know routine is what helps us stay sane first of all, but also feel like a bit of comfort in our day to day. Right. So just having something that you can easily add in that's reliable is important too. So I think all of those things, looking into all of those things are good and obviously like having a team that has connection to the industry is important because there are a lot of different companies now. And yeah, I think just doing your due diligence there is important too. Right. You know where things are coming from. 

Yeah. You want to be able to work with a team that knows a little bit about Vet Med and the unique challenges that we face. Absolutely, absolutely. Let's say that there are practice owners or managers or other. Other leaders that are listening and they want their teams to start using this. Like they're tired of seeing their associates stay hours and hours after their shifts and yet there is resistance there. How could they get their team members to embrace this kind of technology? 

So first of all, kudos to them if they're approaching it from this perspective. Sometimes it's not what we see, but I'm really happy when it is. I think being open to it and like potentially helping to facilitate pilot program and training and getting those things set up just so that it doesn't feel so overwhelming sometimes I'm sure it can feel like the top-down direction, you know, like this is something else we want you to do when you're already doing a lot. So it may feel like it comes from a place like that, but I think when teams are promoting this, like when leadership is bringing this to the table, that it's important to make sure you just give it a chance, keep an open mind. Right. Because it certainly helps people, I think more than they think it will. 

So I guess just being open to making time for training and providing the necessary support and resources so that you're not Just thrown in, like a trial by fire kind of thing. 

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I know you talked a little bit about hesitations before, and that was a big hesitation for me is like, how am I going to fit this into my workflow? Like, I have my way of doing things and is this just going to slow me down? What if the technology fails me? Or whatever it might be? And so there is a little bit of a learning curve and a little bit of fear of the unknown if you haven't used it before. And curious, what other hesitations that you've heard of from people who are maybe still a little bit reluctant to use software like this within their practices and how would you address that? 

So I think that we've heard a little bit of criticism in a few areas where, oh, this is going to try, like, take jobs away from human scribes, from reception, from assistance. And I think ultimately that is definitely not our goal. Being a vet on the floor, I've worked in clinics where we've had somebody in the room assisting us. And half the time those people have, like, that is one of their several jobs, right? That is not the only thing that they're doing. Often they get pulled away. Often it might not be their passion to stand in there and type when you're going through your exam and things. 

So I think freeing up people in the clinic that are really needed and really highly trained to do the jobs that they love to help keep them in this field for longer is more of what we're trying to do. And also helping to relieve the administrative burden for the doctors. And any support staff can use it as well. I think that's one thing to remember. Maybe just taking a step back and looking at it from a perspective of not all new companies are trying to take your jobs. Like, we're trying to augment what we do, right? Improve the lives of the people who make this profession possible. Right. So that, I think, is a big thing. Does that answer your question? Or. 

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I hear you. I definitely. I think that's when people hear AI, that's the first thing they think of, right? Is like, oh, you know, job stealers. And as somebody who owns a business myself and really strives to be very efficient, I'm always thinking of, do I really need to be doing this task, or could I find someone else or some sort of technology to do this task for me or to make this task more efficient? And I just think about like, you painted the picture of an assistant standing in the room, typing on the computer. And I'm just like, how big of a waste of time is that? 

When they could be assisting with procedures or maybe even seeing their own appointments or connecting with clients on the phone versus standing in the room and typing into a computer when we've got software to do that now. So that's very helpful, thank you. I'm curious, you know, speaking of AI in general and some of the misgivings and concerns that people have, what do you see as the future for AI? AI powered tools in veterinary medicine?

Yeah, so that's a big question. So these tools are, first of all, I'm going to be honest, probably way over my head. I am not the engineer. I did not go to school for any of the technology things. And like, it blows my mind what some of this stuff can do, but they're changing every day. And so I don't even think we can currently fathom what things are going to look like in five years. But I think the big onus is on people who are knowledgeable in this field and like, you know, the engineers and the people who are driving this technology leadership to continue to innovate, to help our teams and to help in veterinary medicine. 

We definitely have some things up our sleeve that we're working on and I'm not going to go into those too much just because I don't want to release any trade secrets too early. But you know, there are, I think, big things coming and I really think technology will help to move things forward. Like, it has been fairly stagnant. I think, like, if we look back over the last 20 years, we have some legacy software out there and fair enough. You know, there's a lot of issues in the profession. Software wasn't on the forefront and the technology wasn't where it needed to be to get there. But now it is, and I think things are changing rapidly. So it's really exciting.

And to be on a team like that helps to promote that and helps to kind of drive that change has been really rewarding, just a very unique experience, one that I never really thought I would have. 

I love that. Well, I am very excited to see what is coming down the pipe. I definitely have been leveraging technology more and more in my business for efficiency and it's very daunting. I'm definitely not a person that would claim to be tech savvy, but once I get the hang of these tools, it is just mind blowing in terms of how was I ever working before without this, you know, So I Love this. Well, one last question for you, Katie. For those who are curious about trying Scribe Note, where's the best place for them to learn more? 

Okay, so we have a few places. We have a website, so www.scribenote.com. There's a ton of help documents on there. The website is also beautifully designed by one of our co-founders who really has an eye for all of the branding. So have a look at that. And then we do have Facebook and Instagram. Check out our YouTube for sure. There's a ton of little tips and tricks videos that are all really short. They're mostly all of me doing like little product feature walkthroughs. And you know, we know that people are busy, they don't have time to sit down and watch a half an hour demo. So we've tried to break things up into really small segments to help people learn the tools and be able to pick them up and use them really easily. So definitely a few places to check this out. 

And then they can also reach out to our support team, which we have, like I said, in app or on the website. So yeah, lots of areas where they can reach out to us and we're happy to hear from people. 

I love this. Well, Katie, this is such helpful information. Such a great conversation. I've been wanting to chat with you for a while about this big behemoth that we have in vet medicine, being our medical records, and how transformative your software has been. And I want to thank you so much for taking the time away from your important work at Scribenote to come and talk to us today. And I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us. 

Thanks so much, Marie. It's been a pleasure. And yeah, I hope that everybody gives us a try and makes their life better while they're doing that. 

Thanks, Katie.

You're welcome.

So that's it for this episode of Reviving Vet Med. I hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Katie and that you have a new understanding of the ways in which AI Scribe technology can help you streamline your medical records. If you do one thing after listening to this episode, I hope that it's to forward it to a colleague or a co-worker who you think would also benefit from it. Also, we would really appreciate it if you would subscribe to the podcast so that you can get episodes as soon as they drop. If you're interested in reading a blog that Dr. Katie Gallagher wrote for Reviving Veterinary Medicine or connecting with her and other Scribenote folks on social media, I will link to all of those things in the show notes. 

You can also follow Reviving Vet Med on social media for more tips and strategies for wellbeing in vet medicine. If you have any questions about today's episode, suggestions for future topics, or inquiries about sponsorship, please email us at podcast@revivingvetmed.com I'd like to thank the team at Bear Beat Productions for producing this episode, and I'd also like to thank you for listening. I hope you'll tune in next time. In the meantime, take care of yourself. Bye for now.