2026 Veterinary Trends: Balancing Innovation, AI, and Cultural Shifts

In this special episode of Vet Life Reimagined, we look toward the horizon of 2026 with a distinguished panel of industry leaders to explore the shifts facing our clinics, teams, and the industry at large.

Resources:

• Video episode on YouTube
• Candise Goodwin 
• Dr. Michael Bailey 
• Dr. Jennifer Quammen 
• Dr. Jen Quammen’s previous episode on Vet Life Reimagined March 17, 2025 (audio) (video)
• Tricia Gorham, CVT, MS 
• Marie Holowaychuk, DVM, DACVECC, CYT 
• Marie’s previous episode on Vet Life Reimagined March 27, 2023 (audio) (video)

References:

• PetDesk 2025 Pet Parent Research Report
• HABRI and Chewy study Reveals Tech-Forward Solutions to Strengthen the HAB (Oct 2025)
• Dr. Kwane Stewart, The Street Vet LinkedIn
• Dr. Bailey reads about Santa’s Veterinarian to children
• Marie Holowaychuk’s book, A Compassionate Calling: What It Really Means to Be a Veterinarian. 

Vetsie, the AI-powered tool for veterinarians, made by veterinarians.  Learn more or apply at Vetsie.com and use promo code Vetlife to get your first month for just $1. 

Transcript

Megan Sprinkle: [00:00:00] Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. As we look towards the horizon of 2026, the veterinary profession finds itself at a pivotal tipping point, balancing rapid technological integration with a critical need for systemic cultural change. Following the success of last year's trends episode, which became our most downloaded episode to date, I am pleased to bring this special format back. To provide a comprehensive outlook on the year ahead, I've invited a distinguished panel of experts to share their thoughts on how we can better prepare for the shifts facing our clinics, our teams, us individually and our industry at large.

Our panel features a mix of familiar voices and new leadership perspectives for the podcast, such as Candise Goodwin, founder of Outlier Advisors, Dr. Michael Q. Bailey. Current AVMA President returning guest, Dr. Jennifer Quammen, AVMA, President-Elect and Chief Veterinary Officer at Otto [00:01:00] Tricia Gorham, CVT, and President of the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators.

Finally returning guest, Dr. Marie Holowaychuk, ECC specialist and mental health advocate. Each of our new guests will be featured in their own full length episode coming in 2026, where we will dive deeper into their personal career journeys. Make sure that you are following the show to ensure that you don't miss those amazing conversations.

For more information on the References throughout the episode, please refer to the show notes for all relevant links. And finally, thank you so much for your continued support of the podcast for me and for your commitment to this profession. Let's explore what 2026 has in store.

I'm excited to bring on Candise Goodwin, the founder of Outlier Advisors, and someone who has helped shape growth strategies across the pet and veterinary industries. Over her career, Candise has [00:02:00] worked for and with major companies like Merck and Petco, as well as innovative startups .

Candise's perspective is unlike most you get to hear from. Candise has a talent for spotting shifts in the market early and helping teams turn those changes into real opportunities. She understands where the industry is headed and what it will take for veterinary businesses and professionals to stay competitive and a rapidly involving landscape.

So here is Candise Goodwin. 

Candise Goodwin: I think 2026 is gonna be another really interesting year for the pet industry, and I think we're gonna have really great times and we're gonna have some challenging times. But I think at its core, um, what I see is we're gonna have to figure out a way to come together with the veterinary health professionals, with pet owners.

I do think we're at somewhat of a tipping point with the ability to continue to help pets at the scale that I know the veterinary profession wants, and the consumer pet parents' frustration with the ability to get the care they. Think their pet needs. Yeah, nice. Um, and [00:03:00] so I think it's gonna be a really interesting year overall.

I think the people that can really understand kind of the changes that have happened and are happening with pet parents are gonna be the ones who are gonna have a much better year. Not just financially, I just think mentally and emotionally. 'cause I know there's a lot of friction out there as well. 

Megan Sprinkle: Do you mind elaborating a little bit on that friction and kind of how you're seeing people try to address that?

Candise Goodwin: Yeah, no, thanks. That's a great question. You know, I mean, I think there's some good data out there and I always love to support kind of my opinions with data, but Pet Desk did a really great report earlier last year or this year, um, and I don't think a lot of people noticed it or paid attention to it, and maybe I'm wrong, but there's just so much good data out there that sometimes things get missed.

And so I used it in a presentation recently, um, really to show that pet owners are really frustrated with the ability to receive the care they want for their pets. And so the pet desk data does a great job of just really highlighting. The amount of folks that are looking to switch veterinarians, quite frankly, which is, which is different, right?

Like we've had this long-term [00:04:00] belief that, you know, you find a veterinarian and you stay with them forever, and they're kind of the family vet. And I've been lucky enough to have that with my pets in the past, but that's no longer the case, I think. And so that friction, they do a good job of highlighting where those gaps are, and it really is everything from, you know, the technology isn't in place to make it easy and frictionless for me to get the care I need to.

I just don't really believe they care about my pets like I do, um, at the end of a day. And I think. There's a lot of systemic things going on that are making it harder. So I think that's one piece of the puzzle that I'm using the data to kind of measure, you know, where, where the friction points are chew.

We also did a really great study with Hari recently that really shows those exact same pain points, but in a different lens. So I think when multiple folks are seeing the same thing, that's pretty validating that, you know, that's really what's happening out there. And then I think. The last trend I see is really, I call it the rise of the DIY pet parent.

And what we were seeing is, you know, there's more solutions than ever for pet parents to kind of be in control of their pet's health without having to go to a veterinary clinic, which is good and bad, right? Because I think at the end of the [00:05:00] day, we should have more solutions in pet owners' hands, but obviously veterinarians to be the ones really helping pet owners understand what the health needs are of their pet.

So, um, when I say DOA pet parent, I mean, if you have walked around a pet star recently. You know, big bucks. I don't care if it's Walmart or Petco. We see things that we didn't see three years ago from a product perspective available for pet parents to treat their own pet's health needs, things like, um, not just supplements.

Obviously we have an explosion of supplements, but things like antiemetics, things like bandages, things like, gosh, Dougie, aspirin, do Benadryl labeled as, you know, allergy relief for dogs. Again, I think as we see people frustrated that they're not able to get the care, there's a lot of companies that are capitalizing on the ability for those products to live out in the ethos for pet parents to 

Megan Sprinkle: have access to.

You highlighted some challenges is that we're gonna face that you mentioned earlier, you know, if you could rule the world and, and could say this is one of the biggest things that if we focused here, [00:06:00] uh, in this next year, that we could really. Resolve some of those pain points, everything from the pet owner's perspective, but also the veterinary perspective.

What would you say? 

Candise Goodwin: Oh gosh. I, you know, I think there's some big issues we're gonna have to undertake, and I don't see those getting fixed in 2026. I think that really the pet healthcare system is pretty broken, which is not surprising. 'cause you know, human healthcare isn't all that great either. But there's some systemic challenges out there that we haven't addressed for years, and I think as this industry has grown up, those make bigger fis, I guess so to speak.

I don't have high hopes we're gonna fix some of the systemic problems. And I mean, you know, we can talk more about those, but I do think, you know, broken systems beat good people every time is like one of my favorite sayings. And I think ultimately we're gonna have to figure out how to fix some of those systems.

And, and those are everything from, you know, the way that we incentivize veterinarians to the way corporate medicine is playing a role to the way that. We have no lack of data sharing. I mean, there's just so many big rocks. But what I am excited about and hopeful about is [00:07:00] I just love veterinarians and I love the veterinary profession, and I've been so blessed to, you know, follow it into like this space.

And I think that what I know to be true about veterinarians and, and anyone that works in pet health is that they're so passionate about what they do and really making a difference for that pet in front of 'em. You know, what I think is gonna be really important this year is that people. Actually just take a minute and we don't try and do all the things and we don't try and add on more.

I encourage companies and folks to, you know, don't take on the 10 things on your list, like pick one thing and do it really well. And I think that's gonna be important as we think about what's gonna be the difference this year for folks. Also think that, um, you know, for veterinarians per specifically, I think that we've seen such a change in the veterinary profession since I've been in this industry 15 years, and I think that.

What hasn't changed is that veterinarians are some of the, the kindest, smartest, most creative people that I know. And, um, what I hope for 2026 is that veterinarians will be [00:08:00] able to trust themselves more and ask more questions and just slow down with pet parents and try and understand what their goals are and what they really wanna need for their pet.

And I know that's really hard to do with all of the broken system around them, but. I think that's the gratifying part, and I think that's really where we see people happier and pets healthier at the end of the day. And so, yeah, I think it's that asking questions and slowing down and, and really the other thing I'm hopeful about is that I, I think that veterinarians need to find more systems of support for themselves and their healthcare teams.

And so this notion of community, I think is gonna be even more important, which is what I love about what you do is you highlight a lot of different, you know. Ways that people can be involved and connected. But I think we talk about AI this, or a new technology, like that's all great, but I'm most excited about what that would free up from a humanitarian perspective or humanity perspective, where we could have the ability to just see the person in front of us, like what are they really trying to do for their pa?

Like what do they mean to them? How are they [00:09:00] living their life with them and what can I do right now with the budget they have to meet their needs? We have more new science and better diagnostics. But at the end of the day, like you have to ask yourself, is that really what's best for this pet right now?

Uh, you know, they're standing in front of me with a pet owner who has a real budget that they're gonna have to meet the needs of that pet, um, as well. And I'll say I was lucky enough to see Quan Stewart, you know, the street vet speak twice in the last 12 months. And most recently it just struck me in a different way of just you, you what that pet needs right now that's in front of you and no judgment.

And so. I think that's really the advice I have for 2026 is let's just focus on what everyone gets up every day to do, is to really take care of pets. And the way to do that is really connect with the people.

Megan Sprinkle: Our next guest is Dr. Michael Q. Bailey, the current president of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Dr. Bailey is a distinguished veterinary educator, clinician and board certified radiologist, and notably the first radiologist [00:10:00] and first black AVMA president. Throughout his presidency, he has emphasized raising awareness of the indispensable role veterinarians play in society, and inspiring the next generation of professionals entering the field.

His leadership sits at the intersection of innovation, education, and advocacy, giving him a unique vantage point on the challenges and opportunities shaping veterinary medicine. Whether it's elevating the profession's visibility, supporting the workforce, or championing innovation, Dr.

Bailey brings a forward thinking, inclusive vision that resonates across the industry. Here is Dr. Bailey to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year and his vision for 2026. 

Michael Q Bailey: Believe it or not, that's a very big ask, and the reason is as a veterinary radiologist, as a veterinarian, as a user of services.

As the [00:11:00] president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, I've seen a lot of things and still processing a lot of 'em. What are the things that I've seen? I have been fortunate to visit a lot of states, uh, north, south, east, west. I've probably gone as far north, as far as states as Alaska, as far south as Florida, and even though it's not a state Puerto Rico.

Then a lot of places in between. But I have also been international for AVMA and a lot of people think the president gets to go at all these junkets and whatnot. The trips are hard. So for example, in Brazil, wonderful country, but you spend most of your time in conference rooms and you don't get to see the sun in the sand that everybody thinks about.

Brazil was for the uh, world Small Animal Association, C Ciphers for the Federation [00:12:00] of European veterinarians. Once again, cyphers is beautiful. For the 10 minutes I got outside to see the sun because we're discussing the veterinary issues, and those are just a sample two very widely diverse samples. The thing which I have found is that our concerns in veterinary medicine are very similar no matter where in the world we're located.

So whether it's workforce issues, wellness issues, diseases, the us, we have a concern about new world screw worm entering the continental United States. It's already in North America, in uh, Europe. They're concerned about foot and mouth disease. A disease, which we don't think about, but if depending on how they respond to it, it could affect international trade.

Why do I bring that up? Because veterinarians, whether you realize it or not, we're so important for international [00:13:00] trade. What we do keeps food security so that we can transport food, not just across state borders, but international borders and around the world, and it's amazing. Talking with individuals who are thinking at such high levels about this, and it's also humbling to realize that the disease, like foot and mouth disease we've been talking about for centuries, we still don't have a cure for.

And then we have ai, and I'm putting quotations around this for those who don't see that, because depending on the audience you're talking to, that could mean artificial insemination could mean. Avian influenza or can mean artificial intelligence. And I have been in sessions where I've talked about all three at the same time.

And as a radiologist, I'm more comfortable talking about one aspect of AI versus another aspect of ai. But I have [00:14:00] had to try and, um, be intelligent about the discussion of it. But one of the things which I have. Really appreciated about the travels, and I don't think everybody thinks about this all the time, is we are a very diverse population, not just world, but even in veterinary medicine.

We're extremely diverse globally, and we have to realize that what may be important to me, what drives me every day may be different than what drives somebody else. We have to be sure that we approach individuals in a way where we can drive our issues together and realize that we don't want to separate ourselves from individuals who we may have a difference in opinion.

We want to be able to continue to work with them. And that's one of the things which I have tried to, uh, develop myself. [00:15:00] How do I make sure that I keep the door open to everybody because. I'm not gonna agree with everybody, but I wanna work with everybody Ask away. First is listening. You have to listen to what their side is.

And I'm saying that not just to me, but I'm saying that to both sides. And imagine there may be a group may represent 25% of your association, whatever that may be, who really, really is passionate about something and says that it has to be this way. 

Megan Sprinkle: I'm very passionate about bringing together different voices, so I was curious to hear what Dr.

Bailey thought was the key to success when it comes to gathering people with such a range of opinions together for a productive conversation and action. 

Michael Q Bailey: You have to listen to them, see what it is and say, okay, I understand where you're coming from, but realize that we have another 25% who may know nothing about what your [00:16:00] issue is.

And they're not going one way or the other. They just don't know anything. Another 25% who may be exactly opposite than what you are and another 25% who has been listening, but they need education so that they can decide where they're going to sit. So you have to work with individuals and say, if you want individuals to adopt even some of your platform, maybe not entirely your platform.

First, decide what it is that you can put together so you can communicate, so you can educate. Because we are, for all intents and purposes, we are intellectual beings. We don't like being screamed at. We don't like being told what to do, but we do like to learn. So let's give people what they want and that is material for them to learn with.

And the bad thing about. Today's politics is we have a lot of misinformation out there. So we have to [00:17:00] learn how we can deal with that misinformation and show people how that misinformation may not be the best for what it is that they want to accomplish. So what is it that we want to accomplish? We want everybody to be healthy and happy and to prosper.

Let's, I know that's very high and altruistic, but you, you have to show people if you do it this way. We're going to leave a certain number of individuals, health aside, let's say, and by doing it this way, we may not get 100% of the individual's health the way we want it to be, but we're going to get in the high nineties and there may not be any way to get 100% of what everybody wants.

So realize that high nineties is darn good. So, I know that sounds al altruistic, but I think it really comes down to we have to, we hope that everybody's willing to listen and that everybody's willing to learn and we have to be sure [00:18:00] that we are ready to supply the educational information to them so that if they wanna learn, they can digest it at their own rate.

So I guess at the bottom line it comes down to, I feel I'm an educator. And education articles, books, and having conversations with people is the best way to shape minds. I don't even wanna say change minds, because somebody may have a good, strong opinion, but you can move them. If you can move them from an extreme in one view towards the middle of, uh, one view that may get us towards that 90 plus percent curate.

What may be, 

Megan Sprinkle: uh. Getting a little more tactical. I asked Dr. Bailey, if there was one thing to focus on in 2026, what could be the greatest impact driver to achieve the big vision? 

Michael Q Bailey: The place where you have the greatest impact is [00:19:00] probably gonna be at sixth grade.

What do I mean by sixth grade? Talking with the kids and, uh. Kids have a way of taking information and modeling it the way that they feel that they need, but they are open to listening. So, I'm sorry. Adults, I'm going to the kids and yeah, they're not ready to, to enter college or even into a professional program, but they're here thinking about what it is that they want to do and how they may impact.

It may be their immediate community, but in the long run, as they get older and older, they'll think about broader and broader communities. But I still say if we only had resources to focus on one thing, I would focus on the sixth grade. 

Megan Sprinkle: While this was a surprising answer for me, we are a profession where a large number of us say, we decided we were interested in veterinary [00:20:00] medicine before we were 12 years old.

And Dr. Bailey seems to be acting upon his advice. Not only did I see him reading a book about Santa's veterinarian to children for Christmas, he also shares another interaction with kids playing in a different area of science. 

Michael Q Bailey: That's where I think people have not made too firm a, uh, a modeling of what life needs to be, and they're open to listen and they're open to try things.

I just, this past weekend spent time on a, uh, Apache reservation at a drone competition. Oh my middle school kids and high school kids showing me how they're piling these drones and programming these drones and the the thing, which was great seeing them do that. The thing which was disappointing to me is when I asked them, do you see any way you could use that in life sciences?

They didn't know. 'cause nobody had spoken to them about that. So that's why I think we, veterinarians. I'm telling you, [00:21:00] you should go to drone competitions and talk to the kids and tell them how that particular area has so much use in the life sciences. You'd learn something yourself too. And uh, I was just amazed looking at these kids.

I mean, they're sitting there with their computers and their programming so that these drones can fly autonomously around courses and whatnot. It's amazing. So I, I still say that's where we would have our greatest bang. Where would avm a be best? They would be best putting time and resources into going to things like drone competitions, robotic competitions.

I don't think most people know that the first FDA approved surgical robot was designed, built and programmed by a veterinarian. So. I, I'm just really taking history and saying we need to expand upon that 

Megan Sprinkle: in case you're thinking I'm way past sixth grade. Is there something for the rest of us? I asked Dr.

Bailey, what's [00:22:00] another thing that he would like to accomplish this year as president of AVMA? 

Michael Q Bailey: You know, I've, I'm halfway through my presidencies for, for AVMA right now. People might be looking at this even after, um, out of my presidency. I'm gonna tell you a continuation of what I have been doing, and that's a matter of media presence.

We need to make sure that people know what it is that veterinarians do. Many people do not know, and I, I'm sorry, colleagues, some of us don't know what all of us do. What am I I talking about? Well, there's a lot of people outside of our profession who don't know if there's veterinary radiologists.

There's people specialize in radiology and veterinary medicine. Yes. And talk about what they do, and they realize that we do the same thing for animals, that people do for them. But then it also comes down to, I many times ask a very simple question to the general public, why do [00:23:00] veterinarians vaccinate dogs and cats against rabies?

And the answer that I get is to protect them from rabies. And I say, you're absolutely right. But that's not the primary reason. The primary reason is to protect people. So, what am I talking about? I'm talking about we need to have a full court press to make sure that kids, adults, politicians, educators, know what it is that veterinarians do, and realize that if all the veterinarians in this world all of a sudden disappeared, the world would not be a better place because we do so much to protect.

Public health directly or indirectly to human contact, but I'm putting it that way. 'cause there's a lot of things we do that directly impacts human contact. Our public health veterinarians are dealing with human diseases every day. They're looking, they're monitoring, they're trying to help design the [00:24:00] next, uh, cure.

We have veterinarians and countries around the world looking for where the human animal interface is coming. Without going into my, my deep thoughts, it comes down to we need to know people, we need to continue. We need to have a full court press on letting everybody know that even though we are a relatively small profession, there's 110,000 veterinarians in AVMA.

There's 130,000 veterinarians in America. We need people to know that the small profession. Impacts their everyday life. The reason that they have food on their table, clean water coming out of their tap, that we don't have diseases being brought into their house by their dog or their cat, or even their bird is because there's veterinarians and then veterinarians are designing those next world things.

I mean, I already mentioned artificial [00:25:00] intelligence. Not only are we using it in our practices. But veterinarians are writing the next programs. We're designing the next application that may be used in veterinary medicine or human medicine. And we have veterinarians that have gone into space and will go into space again, because if we go to the moon or if we go to Mars, we're gonna need veterinarians there to look out for the wellbeing of everybody that's there.

And by the way, our military veterinarians, let's not forget them, everybody thinks about, gee, the. MDs and the dos and the military who keep our folks healthy and patch them up if they get hurt. But it's the veterinarians who make sure that the military presence is strong and healthy so that they can deploy wherever they're needed.

So we make sure that they're ready for us, whereas the human medical team tries and makes sure that they stay healthy or are patched up if they become injured in some way. So I'm just [00:26:00] saying one hand. We need both our hands and we need all of our feet and our toes because veterinarians are all in the mix.

Megan Sprinkle: Dr. Bailey highlights some opportunities that don't take a lot of lift from us individually, whether it's sharing your profession at a career day at school, or listening to Vet Life reimagined to understand the diverse impact veterinary professionals make in the world. Also, make sure you are following the podcast so you can hear Dr.

Bailey's career journey in an upcoming episode.

Next we have a returning guest, Dr. Jennifer Quammen, the AVMA President Elect. She'll take on the role of A BMA President this year in June, and she has a thoughtful forward looking approach to veterinary medicine. Dr. Kwaman has worn a lot of hats over the years and is currently a practicing clinician and chief veterinary officer for the AI company Otto.

With all of her multiple roles, she has a clear sense of what's coming in 2026, Dr. Kwaman has a way of [00:27:00] connecting the big picture with what it means day to day in practice.

Make sure you listen to Dr. Kalman's previous episode on about life reimagine, and now on to Dr. Kwaman.

Jennifer Quammen: When I'm sort of thinking about, 2026 and like where we're headed, I wanna see that veterinary medicine is using tools and models and things that actually let VE Med do the things that we've always wanted to do. And so I guess a little bit of what I mean by that is like there's some of this clutter of a lot of the administrative things that we're having to do every day, at least in clinical practice, right?

If you do surgery, you've got the surgery report, you see outpatient, you've gotta get the chart done. You know, all of those things have to happen. But how are we helping ourselves or how are we using tools to help us get that, uh, summary done? And to actually make those notes make sense for us, but also for our pet owners.

I think the, the future in my mind is how do we see and utilize. Artificial intelligence [00:28:00] technologies as our either individual or clinic facing co-pilots to a certain degree. And so I think that's some of the big stuff that's coming. I don't think AI is going away. I think it's just no longer. I feel like 2025 was the year of the scribe, and I think 2026 is gonna be the year of the pilot, if that makes sense.

Can you explain pilot? I don't know if everybody might know what that means. Totally. Yeah. So, um, I think in terms of, um, you know, just like if you have an administrative assistant to help you kind of manage your schedule and all those things in the physical real world, a lot of us are having AI or artificial intelligence tools to help us kind of pilot either our schedules for work, may keeping track of, you know, how do I schedule a lunch with a friend in the next three weeks?

Help me find the time on both of our schedules. Match. And so I see this pilot as a way that we can help ourselves in the way that makes sense for our practice. So help me to get my notes done. When are the best times for me in the next five days to [00:29:00] schedule an appointment with one of my staff members?

You know, all those things that we can really just. Those little minute details of we're making a list and checking it off, how can that pilot or that, again, that sort of agent kind of help us to do those things more effectively and more efficiently without that mental burden. That's where I'm seeing it going.

This 

Megan Sprinkle: impact, yes, it's gonna support the clinician, but it's. Potentially gonna have a larger impact when, when it comes to relationships too, I think you, you had some interest around the client veterinary relationship. Do you wanna chat a little bit on where you think that that might be going in the future?

And, and maybe what veterinarians should, and I'm sure they're already feeling it a little bit, but where, where do you kind of see the profession going in that perspective? 

Jennifer Quammen: Yeah, so from my point of view, I think our, our relationship with our clients, at least in clinical practice, can have become a little bit transactional from both sides, from our sides and our client's perspective.

They're coming in once or twice a [00:30:00] year. They know they need X, Y, Z procedure or or wellness things, and then they're kind of off and going. And that tends to be the two times in the year when we talk to them. I think where we can utilize this. Copilot or some of these companions is really helping us to keep that relationship going throughout the entire year.

So rather than the clients feeling the burden of, I've gotta get every question answered in this 10 minutes now, and you feeling like, as a clinician, I've gotta get all these things to you right this minute, we can actually expand that beyond our clinic walls. And so I really think of it as more having a continual relationship, quite honestly.

The conversation throughout the year versus like, here's the problem, here's the solution. We can now have a much more full and robust conversation. And again, these technology tools can help us to capture those things, to educate our clients and to make sure those are all getting back into our medical records, our client notes, all of those things to help us all out.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. And kind of thoroughly your, your [00:31:00] third face. In the profession around working with AVMA. Mm-hmm. Do you have anything you can share when it comes to maybe events coming in 2026 that you wanna share? 

Jennifer Quammen: Yeah. Thank you. Uh, there is a lot of course happening with AVMA. Um, there's a lot happening in the profession.

I, I think, you know, and you and I talked about this a little bit in the lead up that I, I think 2025 was a year where we've had a lot of like ups and downs. It feels like everything is changing and I think 26 is gonna be the year where things finally just. Settle. We can look around and say, what do I want from this?

What do I not want from this? In terms of a AVMA, exciting things, we have our leadership conference in January. We will have our convention this year in Anaheim, California, and so I expect that will bring a lot of folks this summer out to sunny California. And that will be, for me, an exciting personal moment because that will be the opportunity for me to transition into the President role.

But the event I think overall will be really great. In terms of big things AVMA's, [00:32:00] uh, dealing with or conversations we're having on the board level, I think there's still advocacy topics and in particular, I think the conversations around veterinary technicians and, you know, is their title protection is their credentialing.

What does that look like across our country? I think conversations around the veterinary client patient relationship, the VCPR, like those are still happening. I think that is going to continue. Um, and of course, the places that AVMA advocates are based on what our membership is telling us they want to see.

And so we are looking forward to conversations with our House of Delegates. Members of others can, can get their point of view there. So we make sure that we're bringing those conversations to the broader audience. And so. Lots and lots of work that's happening on the backend at AVMA. But yeah, I'm pretty excited about convention.

I know there's a whole cohort of Disney people who are very, very excited about Anaheims. Oh, and as a rollercoaster buff, I'm in that zone as well. 

Megan Sprinkle: Uh, I am [00:33:00] super excited. Hopefully I'll get to attend this year too. Yeah. So is there anything else that, um, as you kind of reflect on the future and maybe even your, you know, your personal career, anything that you wanna share with the profession before we stop?

Jennifer Quammen: Yeah, thanks so much. I think the things I would like to share is just remember we're, we're all in this together. We're learning together. This, I hope, is a point where we can continue to be collaborative and cooperative with one another. There are many different points of view, but at the end of the day, you know, what is our veterinarian's oath put us here to do, and how do we kind of lead that conversation, be that with our clients, our colleagues, or even most, we completely disagree with.

I think there's an opportunity for us to all continue to learn and collaborate, even if it's not your point of view. It's good to have the conversation with someone else because I think a richer solution comes out of those, uh, kind of conversations. I.

Megan Sprinkle: Up next is another unique perspective. I'm Trish Gorham. I'm a credential veterinary technician from the state of Florida. [00:34:00] Tricia, A CBT and with a Master's in Adult Education is a nationally recognized leader in veterinary technician education. Tricia has been in veterinary medicine for 30 years and currently serves as the president of the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators and has important leadership roles at the College of Veterinary Technology at St.

Petersburg College. , She brings a passionate boots on the ground view of the challenges and opportunities facing veterinary technicians today.

And her insights help illuminate the evolving role of veterinary technicians in the profession. ?

Tricia Gorham: Yeah, so 2026. I look forward to the momentum that veterinary technicians have moving forward. I think in the last five years we've seen a grow of respect. A grow of knowledge about what veterinary technicians can do, and there's lots of different job opportunities for veterinary technicians in all different roles within Vet Med, and people are recognizing that, and I think the entire veterinary community [00:35:00] is rallying around the need for veterinary technicians and the knowledge that they are the heart of the veterinary hospitals.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, you are are currently the president of the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators, and you are finishing up a, a six year term, uh, representing at A BMA. So you have some eyes and ears into some big major players that could be significant with changes and, and things coming. So from that perspective.

Do you see anything that these organizations are working on that you would like to mention to kind of have us all be paying attention to as we move into the new year? 

Tricia Gorham: Yeah, so the Association of Vet Tech Educators, our whole philosophy is one community, and that one community goal is to bring everyone to the table that has a voice in veterinary medicine, veterinary, the vet tech educators.

We have the, the future of veterinary technicians, right? We have [00:36:00] the students that are gonna be out there. So bringing all of the entities that are involved with Vet Med together to the table to talk about these issues that are concerning veterinary technicians or veterinary medicine, one table in a positive manner, where we're showing how we can work together and everyone have a voice to move the needles so that everyone is positive and in helping to grow the profession of veterinary technicians.

Megan Sprinkle: You talked about educators and, and you're right there at the future because you're bringing in the the next generation of veterinary technicians. You also commented earlier to me that you really love the recruiting part of it as well. So what do you think we need to do to be successful in continuing to recruit people into this space?

Tricia Gorham: It's education. The, the bottom line is education. We need to educate the public about what veterinary technicians are. We need to educate the entire veterinary community about what veterinary [00:37:00] technicians are, because there's, there's entities out there that actually do not know how veterinary technicians are educated, what their roles are, and the entire veterinary community needs to know that.

One way I see is working with AVMA and A-A-V-M-C, which is the Vet Colleges together to help educate the vet students. On how to properly utilize veterinary technicians. How veterinary technicians are educated and how they're credentialed in their individual states is super important. I think as we move forward in this process.

And I think when everyone has a better understanding of our roles and our educational process and our credentialing process, I think the profession is gonna continue to grow that very important educational piece. 

Megan Sprinkle: And then the big question is retention, right? So what? What is happening right now? What are things again that up to this point and going into the new year, are being the focus around retention?

Tricia Gorham: So retention is [00:38:00] lots of different aspects. Number one, wellbeing. Of course, veterinary technicians need to be educated on their own wellbeing and how to make themselves happy, right? In the veterinary practice, veterinary practices need to know how to support their veterinary technicians as far as wellbeing.

Also veterinary technicians need to think about what their long-term goals are, and if they're not happy in a practice or in a specific situation. There's so many different opportunities out there in Vet Men that they could mix things up to keep themselves excited about the profession. If you're in GP and you're not excited anymore about that, that aspect of veterinary medicine go into specialty, go into pharmaceutical sales, go into something else that helps excite you again about the profession.

That's what I've done my entire career is mixing up when I feel like I'm getting stagnant. I look for opportunities to grow myself, either through education or different opportunities. Volunteer. Let your voice be heard in the veterinary [00:39:00] community, even if it's one small committee within your state organization.

Start there because there's so much support in those organizations now that you can have your voice heard. It will continue to excite you. 

Megan Sprinkle: Well, I happen to stumble across an announcement. It's been several months now, but there was a, a new partnership this past year with Chewy that was around launching an online community designed to empower veterinary.

Technician, educators, any updates on that or any, any good thing that we could send people to? 

Tricia Gorham: Yes. We just recently launched our resource exchange, which is an online community for vet tech educators and our members of the A BTE. Chewy was a huge sponsor of that as they are very supportive of veterinary technicians within their organization.

So Chewy is supportive. They have their own area within our resource exchange where they help provide [00:40:00] educational materials that faculty can embed into their classes or those that are educating in the veterinary community because vet tech educators are not just at colleges, right? They're out in the clinical sites, educating, they're out in the community, educating.

So we have lots of different types of educators, of veterinary technicians. So this resource exchange is going to allow educators of all aspects come to one area to find educational resources and documents that they need, or exchange ideas with other educators. So we're really excited that we just launched that.

That is a members only area, but anyone involved in any type of veterinary technician education can certainly join our community and we encourage that. 

Megan Sprinkle: That's super exciting. Congratulations on that. Yeah, I'm sure that was a lot of work. 

Tricia Gorham: It was. It was a long time coming, but we finally launched it and thanks to Chewy's support for that, because I'm not sure we could do it without them.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Excellent. So any final thing that you [00:41:00] wanna make sure people are thinking about as we're kind of in this transition between 2025 and 2026? Yeah. What should we be excited for looking for? 

Tricia Gorham: People should be excited about the positive movement of veterinary technicians, about the. The support that we're getting from all aspects of veterinary medicine, including the AVMA that is being super supportive of veterinary technicians.

Now, you know, everything moves us toward a positive aspect and we need to remain positive. One thing I really try to focus on is that our students must see positivity from our veterinary leaders, and that's veterinarians, veterinary technicians, veterinary assistant. Anyone involved in the veterinary community, we have to keep moving forward in a positive manner and, and talking in the positives so that our, our wellbeing is better, our excitement about the profession stays there, and then we get that retention that we need from all aspects, and that's the veterinarians and the veterinary technicians.

Megan Sprinkle: Our next guest is someone whose voice has [00:42:00] shaped the conversation around veterinary wellbeing for years. Dr. Marie Holowaychuk is an emergency and critical care specialist based in Canada, and she's been a steadfast advocate for creating healthier, more sustainable careers in veterinary medicine.

Now, you may notice her audio dips a bit. Marie lives in a part of Canada where the internet doesn't always cooperate, but we're genuinely grateful we were able to capture her perspective for this episode.

It's thoughtful, grounded, and exactly the kind of insight that feels especially meaningful as we head into a new year. Marie also recently released a new book, a Compassionate Calling. What it really means to be a veterinarian, which explores the emotional realities of the profession with honesty and heart.

You'll find a link to the book along with the references from today's conversation, and Marie's previous episode on the show, all in the show notes. So now on to Marie.

Marie Holowaychuk: I think, we are at a point in vet medicine where, when it comes [00:43:00] to the mental health and wellbeing of ourselves, our team members, our workplaces, that we've had some big struggles over the last several years, and those struggles. Have included ranging from compassion fatigue and moral stress to burnout and people leaving the profession or people shifting of clinical practice or certainly at a full-time clinical practice.

And so I think if you ask people what their biggest struggles are right now, they would tell you that yes, it is turned out and it is also short staffing. There's a lot of, deficiencies, especially in rural practices and in academia, in specialty and in some of these unique positions that, that are out there.

And so I think. I think there's been a lot of time in retrospect to look over the last couple of years in terms of are the challenges and what do we need moving forward, and there's some debate [00:44:00] as to whether or not we need more veterinary professionals. I think groups like the American Vet Me Association would say that we just need to take better care of the professionals.

We have to prevent attrition. , And we need to utilize and elevate some of our team members, like our technicians and nurses into doing more for our practices. And so there's a lot of things that are coming down the pipe. I think, you know, one of the biggest. Things is that have many new veterinary schools that are set to open in 2026.

We will have, whether we need it or not, we will have more veterinarians and hopefully technicians and nurses entering the workforce. There has also been, I think, the biggest. Move towards own up conversations about mental health and burnout prevention than ever before. And I am glad to see that those conversations are targeting not just individuals in terms of individual self-care practices [00:45:00] and burnout prevention strategies and boundary setting and things like that, but that also there has been a shift towards looking specifically at systemic changes.

What can we do from an organizational perspective? To better the mental health and wellbeing of our teams and our workplaces. And so a lot of that research out of the Merck Animal Health Wellbeing Studies, really looking at the importance of healthy workplaces from communication perspectives.

Workload perspectives in terms of making sure there's sufficient time to do the work well and you know, creating cultures of belonging. And so with that, it was about a whole bunch of other topics, of course, that I think we're hopefully going to see talked about more, embrace more as we move into 2026.

And of course one of those is DEI or Diversity, equity and Inclusion, which I know has. Has been, a phase that has prompted a bit of backlash and I feel quite strongly about this [00:46:00] and certainly the research, whether people or not, demonstrates that we need more diversity in our profession.

We are serving a very diverse clientele, including farmers and people working with livestock to companion animal owners. And we need to better our clients and our customers that are coming into our practices and organizations, and we can't do that if we continue to be apparently white female population.

And so, more conversations around diversity, more organizations, and profits. Looking at ways to cultivate, the development of individuals from as early as grade school to be choosing science careers and then moving into careers in veterinary medicine. And we have a longs to go in that regard. and equity of course falls into that as well.

We definitely have more women than ever before in our profession. But we still pay gap when it comes to [00:47:00] men and women, in our profession. And so we wanna make sure to honor that as well as equity among folks that don't identify as either men nor women. And so, again, really wanting to hold space for all communities.

And that includes our neurodiverse individuals, which we're talking about more than ever before, and our individuals that are living with disabilities, including invisible disabilities, like mental health challenges. So, you know, I, I could go on and on, but all of these things have, of course, have an inclusive.

Work environment in vet medicine, meaning that we ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in veterinary medicine in whatever way they're capable. All of these things, again, are also going to result in ultimately that culture of belonging. So really wanting to keep the conversation going and I think we will keep the conversation going in that.

I think that there's also a lot of veterinary [00:48:00] schools who've been well established that are looking at significant. Curricular visions, next year and have started the process already in 2025. A lot of the information coming out when we look back on how we are graduating veterinarians and how, how well.

Able, they are to integrate into, , their, careers. We're seeing decencies when it comes to communication skills in certain aspects, certainly when it comes to business management, leadership and emotional intelligence. And so there are, you know, schools that are looking to be embrace that and.

Include those things into their curriculum and ideally into their core curriculum, not just as electives. You know, thankfully there are many schools as well that are, um, just, you know, in ways to introduce these conversations about selfcare and professional wellbeing throughout the curriculum, and especially in fourth year, I think, [00:49:00] when.

Students get into clinics and it becomes closer to real life. And one thing to tell a first year, you might be prone to burnout and you know, you need to set boundaries. But when you get in onto clinics and you start to live those experiences and you get closer to choosing jobs, then those conversations become much more important.

So I think that's definitely, those are things that individuals will be looking at bringing in, to their school curriculums as well as they revise it. It's so challenging. Like there's just so much information out there from a medical perspective and surgical perspective. And then we have, have to remember, can arm individuals with all of the medical and surgical knowledge in the world, but if they can't thrive personally and professionally, they're not gonna stay in the career of vet medicine for long term anyways.

So, you know, along those same lines, I'm also grateful that many schools are also investing more, and in fact, even naming courses that are around professional identity, [00:50:00] establishing, healthy professional identities and, and that. Being the core frame for their wellbeing programming. You know, how do we graduate veterinarians who can have these really challenge focused identities rather than diagnosis, find it fixed it focused mentality so that they can really thrive and, you know, stay in this professional firm because it's a hard one.

We all know that, but we need to find ways , to be able , to persist and persevere. I think the last thing that I would say that is going to continue to influence those working certainly in clinical practice on a regular basis is technology. I would be remiss not to talk about how AI intersects with wellbeing because you know, as somebody who has been working as an emergency and critical care specialist for 20 years, I can't tell you how my.

Work life has transformed being able to have technologies like scribe technologies that can take a hundred [00:51:00] page medical record and pull out the information that I need as a specialist. And it's been transformative. It has been game-changing, and it's been truly life saving, honestly, because it's been time saving.

I know. That there is more technologies that are coming out there down the pipe to make things even easier. So thanks to all the companies that are working hard at, at that. And, um, I think those are the, the biggest things. Just I, you know, as a mental health advocate, I'll just leave with a sentiment of more conversations around mental health.

I think we're talking about it more than ever. Let's continue to have conversations with our teams. Let's continue to check in. Let's meet a round, not just on the cases, but on each other and, um, you know, that's my biggest hope for 2026.