Company: PetRays Veterinary Telemedicine Consultants, The Woodlands, TX
Company Description: PetRays is the recognized leader in veterinary telemedicine services. The telemedicine services offered by PetRays are specifically designed to help veterinarians improve the speed and quality of animal healthcare.
Nomination Category: Products & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Health & Pharmaceuticals - Service

Nomination Title: PetRays New Service - STAT

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 500 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date.

PetRays Veterinary Telemedicine Consultants (PetRays) makes Board Certified Veterinary Specialists available to virtually every veterinary practice world wide. PetRays was founded in 2006 with the mission of providing high quality healthcare to animals and domestic pets in a timely manner and with a great sense of urgency.

In 2008, PetRays provided a priority level of service that would essentially guarantee a specialist consultation delivered to the referring clinic in one hour or less. Through multiple surveys and customer feedback in 2008, it was clear that a new service was necessary to meet the demands of the veterinary industry and, more specifically, the PetRays clients. In 2009 -2010, PetRays made the new 30 minute STAT service available for those clinics that needed results in real time. The clinic that requests this high priority handling is charged a nominal fee to ensure its priority processing.

The typical client that chooses this is a clinic that has an animal under anesthesia and needs immediate results or an emergency clinic that may be treating a critically ill domestic pet, livestock, thoroughbred race horse, or even an ill stricken seeing guide dog for the blind. Since the introduction of this service, PetRays has experienced approximately 18% of all consults being ordered with STAT priority.

The STAT service has proven essential in many instances in helping veterinarians make life saving treatment decisions that simply could not have been made prior to the implementation and availability of this invaluable service. This STAT service and handling of consults allows domestic pets to be seen and treated with the same level of skill and with the same sense of urgency as the companion pet’s human owner would receive at the local community hospital. This STAT service further helps PetRays strive to achieve its previously stated mission.

While competitors in the veterinary telemedicine market offer “STAT” service, the competition does not offer it a 30 minute turnaround. In human trauma centers, trauma patients are processed and treated with the greatest sense of urgency as “The Golden Hour” is well known to be the short window of opportunity to save lives and make a positive impact on patients who have immediately life threatening injuries. “The Golden Hour” applies to immediately life threatening injuries to domestic pets as well. Therefore, the 30 minute turnaround time is not only a valuable service, but may be the critical step in treating a pet owners injured “best friend” in time to make a positive impact and help achieve a positive outcome.

Anyone who has ever lost a loving pet understands the importance of this invaluable service that PetRays makes available to virtually every veterinarian world wide who chooses to make PetRays a part of their team. Every PetRays employee is also a pet owner. The PetRays team processes every STAT request with the greatest sense of urgency and treats these animals as if each was one of our own personal pets.

In summary, PetRays STAT service saves lives and only nominally increases the cost of healthcare.

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No supporting documents as this is a service to veterinary clinics.

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

Melissa Fields Tugwell: PetRays co-founder. Most recently, she was awarded Best Young Entrepreneur at the 2009 Stevie’s for Women in Business and 2010 Stevie winner for Sales Director of the Year and the 2010 Sales and Customer Service Awards.

Frank Powell, MD: PetRays board member and co-founder.

Anne Bahr , DVM: Chief Radiologist and Chief Medical Officer for PetRays.