Veterinary students develop first digital platform to manage animal health records in Arab world

AMMAN — Driven by their desire to improve animal healthcare in Jordan, Abdalrahman Almomani and Yara Katout launched VetCare, the first digital platform for veterinary practice management in the Arab world. 

The platform allows veterinarians to set up profiles for the pets that visit their clinics and upload a digital copy of their medical records, according to Almomani.

Each pet will have a distinct registration number assigned by its vet, associated with a profile that contains detailed information on its medical and surgical history, such as past and current treatment plans, past and current medications, vaccination history, allergies, age and vitals, including height, weight and temperature, along with any other relevant information, Almomani said.

Both Almomani and Katout are veterinary medicine students at the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). 

JUST houses Jordan’s only Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, which was established in 1990 as “a response to the national objective of improving animal health and productivity”, according to its website. 

Almomani came up with the idea during his first clinical year at JUST’s Veterinary Health Centre (VHC), which provides students with real-world clinical training and offers veterinary services to the public. 

During this experience, he noticed that the absence of an “efficient” system to manage pets’ medical records prevented veterinarians from providing their patients with the best possible medical care. 

“This lack of information can be dangerous, as it makes it very difficult for vets to diagnose animals and decide on the appropriate course of treatment,” he told The Jordan Times. 

VetCare aims to enhance the quality of animal care and facilitate the work of vets by providing them with on-demand access to pets’ medical records, which allows them to make “well-informed” medical decisions, he added. 

VetCare’s team is currently working to add a QR code feature to further facilitate this process, in addition to other services that aim to assist pet owners in adoption and breeding processes by making them more organised and efficient, he continued.

“This will ensure that pets don’t end up on the streets if their current owners can no longer take care of them, and it will hopefully encourage the adoption of stray animals,” he said. 

VetCare has been accepted as a startup company in the business Incubator and accelerator programme at Jordan Start, which aims to support entrepreneurs in the fields of manufacturing and services, according to Almomani.