Ako embraces the Māori philosophy that lives are made better when students and teachers learn from each other. We started AkoVet because we believe that animal and human lives are all made better when animal owners, veterinary professionals, and industry experts share their knowledge to improve the quality of care we provide to the animals we care about.
Well, that and we were just getting tired of folks complaining about the need for a better system to manage animal health information in New Zealand and finally decided to do something about it.
What are you talking about?
We know there is currently a big gap between what science says we should be doing to care for our animals and what we often actually end up doing to care for our animals.
As animal owners, this is sometimes because we just don’t know what we don’t know even though we have good intentions. Sometimes, we also face challenges in getting the right support we need to make the best decisions for our animals. In the digital age, where anyone with internet access can post animal health and welfare advice online, how do we know what information we can trust? Even if we do find reliable resources that are relevant to New Zealand, how do we translate those very general guidelines into specific actions we can take? What if we can’t afford to work with a veterinary professional or we have trouble finding one who can provide the services we need for our animals?
As veterinary professionals, we face our own set of challenges. On any given day, we are often expected to be a general practitioner, surgeon, anaesthetist, radiologist, internist, epidemiologist, and behaviourist to animals that come in all different shapes and sizes. There is more demand for our services than we have the capacity to provide, and our clients are struggling more than ever to afford appropriate care. We need to keep track of an overwhelming amount of information on the latest evidence-based approaches to medicine or new legal requirements for practice, and much of the information we can access is not relevant to the New Zealand situation. We’re spending more time than ever on paperwork rather than patient care.
So how can we do things differently?
We believe we can make a positive change for animals and people by changing the way we communicate animal health and welfare information with each other. Basically, we’re designing a system based on the basic principles of behaviour change:
Make it easy
Pulling everything we need to know to care for our animals into a single location so we don't have to spend hours searching the internet
Make it personal
Providing tailored advice and recommendations so we can see how the science applies to our situation
Make it social
Learning from and leaning on people who have experience with the challenges we’re facing so we don’t have to make decisions alone
Make it matter
Knowing that what we’re doing is making a difference to our animals as well as the wider community
Make it fun
Enjoying the journey regardless of where we end up as our destination.
The information will be communicated back in the form of resource libraries, software tools, and educational modules for animal owners and veterinary professionals.
Doesn’t ____(insert organisation/website/software name)____ already do that?
Not quite. There are many online veterinary encyclopaedias, textbooks, and blog-style websites with hundreds of articles about individual diseases, but it can be really difficult to know what you need to look up, and the advice that’s given is often too general to know how to apply it to our own situation. Most of the software tools that are available allow us to visualise data but don’t actually provide us with much in the way of decision support.
Instead, we are first building a series of resource roadmaps that provide a high-level overview that helps you navigate all the issues you need to know about caring for the different animal species in sickness and health. For each topic, we then dive into the smaller details of what science currently says is the best way to manage the issues and combine them with the information you share about your experiences with how these recommendations work in the real world.
For each common clinical problem like vomiting or lameness, we are also building animal care pathways that will help guide you step-by-step through diagnosing and treating the underlying problem. Anonymised data that is captured through the software tools will be analysed to help us understand how we can better prevent, diagnose, and manage different medical and behavioural issues to feed back into the recommendations being produced by the software.
Why did you set up AkoVet as an independent company?
The short answer is because this initiative falls outside the scope of core business activities for most existing organisations in New Zealand, and we couldn’t find one with the resources, interest, or capability to drive it. We registered AkoVet as an NZ Limited Company in August 2023 because it was the simplest legal entity we could create that would allow us to apply for grants and explore other funding opportunities for making this initiative financially sustainable in the long term.
We will most likely apply for charitable status in the future since one of our key reasons for existing is the advancement of education around animal health and welfare that benefits the wider community, but we were worried that the additional rules and regulations for charities would act as a significant barrier to getting this initiative off the ground at this stage.
Do you still intend to work with other organisations?
Absolutely. We just needed to resolve several issues around Intellectual Property and Conflicts of Interest with our employers before we could go public with the initiative.
How are you planning to make this financially sustainable?
This has definitely been a major concern for us. We’ve been involved in way too many research and extension projects that have produced amazing resources that are no longer updated or available because there was no plan in place to maintain them after the initial funding ran out.
Through a Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures grant (SFFF 19-051), we were able to make a similar start with AkoVet by developing resources for backyard poultry keepers and veterinarians in New Zealand. We were incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the Sprout Accelerator Cohort XI in spring 2023. We are grateful to our mentors (Chelsea Hirst and Bridgit Hawkins) as well as the Sprout team, advisors, and our fellow cohort companies for their patience and support in helping us build a business model that might actually mean we can make this work.
We intend to keep the resource libraries freely available to everyone who registers through the AkoVet website because we don’t want cost to be a barrier for anyone to access the information they need to make a difference in the lives of the animals under their care. To cover the development and maintenance costs, we are (1) applying for non-dilutive funding through government and industry grants, (2) approaching commercial organisations and industry groups for sponsorship or in-kind support, and (3) exploring different subscription models for the educational modules and software tools.
Who are you, by the way?
Oh, right…..we probably should have introduced ourselves earlier. We are veterinarians and animal owners who understand how difficult it can be to make the best decisions for the animals under our care. We wanted to use the additional knowledge and skills we’ve gained through our current roles in academia and industry to create resources that have a positive impact on the outcomes for animals, owners, and veterinary professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Where to next for AkoVet?
At the moment, we’re still working with backyard poultry as our prototype species for getting all the features and functionalities in place to build a community around the resource development – it’s definitely a complex system to design! We’re also in the process of preparing funding applications to help us support the development of resources for the other species. Stay tuned for further updates.
How can I get involed?
If you fit into any of the following categories, we would love to have your help growing this platform into something greater to support everyone involved in animal care:
Animal Owner or Farmer
Individuals who are making decisions and providing care for their own animals
Practicing Veterinarian
New Zealand registered veterinarians working in clinical practice providing services to client animals
Allied Veterinary Professsional
Individuals working as veterinary nurses, technologists, technicians, or assistants in clinical practice
Consultant or Rural Professional
Individuals providing animal health or consultancy services to animal owners or farmers
Industry or Technical Expert
Animal health professionals working for government, industry organisations, pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic laboratories, crown research institutes, and/or universities
As we continue to grow and expand our resource portfolio, we will be looking for help in particular with:
- Developing and reviewing medical content to make it even more relevant to New Zealand
- Completing short surveys about your experiences with different aspects of animal care
- Sharing stories, case studies, and photos that can help the community learn
- Providing feedback on the prototype versions of the software tools
To register your interest in participating, please create a free account on the AkoVet website and make sure you have opted in to receiving e-mail updates.
