The future of veterinary medicine is human

By Christine Won

Uncertainty is in the air. Artificial intelligence is creeping into the workforce and inflation is eating into salaries, but one thing will remain in the veterinary profession: people.

Empowering the people behind the profession emerged as a common theme at the 2025 AVMA Veterinary Business and Economic Forum, held October 8-9 in Denver.

The forum was intended to provide veterinary professionals with strategic insight and practical tools to evaluate the health of their business and adjust course if needed, said Dr. Michael Q. Bailey, AVMA president, in his welcome address.

"Equally important, the forum fosters a collaborative ecosystem," he said, "where every member of the veterinary health care team can engage with like-minded professionals, exchange ideas, and develop actionable solutions for managing the evolving intersection of health care delivery and economic forces."

Change the veterinary narrative

Prioritize the people at the center of veterinary medicine, said Josh Vaisman, founder of Flourish Veterinary Consulting in Firestone, Colorado. In his closing keynote at the forum, he discussed balancing three pillars for a successful and sustainable business: people, purpose, and profit.

Noting the dominant narrative in veterinary medicine is too often one of burnout, compassion fatigue, and mental health challenges, Vaisman said, "We need a different narrative."

He realized that conclusion after his own career experience. While managing two animal hospitals years ago, Vaisman said he prioritized profit over people and purpose. The outcome was burnout for himself and eroded trust from his team: "Ninety-eight percent of that team was grateful I was leaving. That's not the story I want to tell."

He cited research showing that organizations prioritizing people over profits outperform their profit-first peers in valuation and profitability.

"The future of veterinary success is human," Vaisman said. "If we want to succeed, people must succeed. If we want to have an impact, people must be empowered to deliver. Every business endeavor is, first and foremost, a human endeavor."

Grow an orchard

Vaisman gave the analogy of a piece of fruit. Some may see the fruit and ask, "How can I squeeze as much juice out as possible for a satiating drink right now?" While another may look at the same piece of fruit and think, "How can I grow an orchard?"

To grow that orchard, he talked about essential "nutrients" to build a human-centered veterinary practice, such as psychological safety, shared purpose, and positive communication, as modeled by the University of Arkansas's Julien Mirivel, PhD.

Vaisman recommended incorporating Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson's team psychological safety assessment into annual workplace surveys.

He emphasized the importance of alternative perspectives in the workplace, where employees feel they have a voice and can speak up "about anything that will help us better deliver on our expected outcomes, our mission, and ultimately, our profitability."

Vaisman told the story of a drug-dose error. Being able to discuss the mistake openly without fear of repercussion turned the error into a learning opportunity, and the practice evolved from that incident to adopt a now-permanent policy: Two pairs of eyes on every drug dose.

"We never had another drug-dose error again," Vaisman said. "That's the power of voice in our organizations: It empowers people to overcome and grow from their humanity. Here we are imperfect, and we will never be perfect, but we will be better together as we approach veterinary excellence."

In a separate workshop on building culture, Dr. Michele Drake, founder of The Drake Center for Veterinary Care in Encinitas, California, also urged employers to meet employees' psychological needs, including a sense of belonging and self-esteem, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs to help them achieve that final tier of self-fulfillment.

Put people first

Vaisman called a profit-first system a "fear-driven protectionist" approach in the face of headwinds, such as inflation and economic uncertainty, that seeks to protect company margins above all else—at a human cost he argued is not worth paying.

Vaisman said one veterinarian who stepped away from clinical practice to focus on the people pillar described her purpose as "to take care of those that walk through the back door, so they can take care of whoever comes through the front door." That practice, he said, received three unsolicited requests in one year from veterinarians wanting to work for them when they weren't even hiring.

A people-first system does not ignore profits—it's not all "Kumbaya, puppies, and kittens," Vaisman said. Rather, it's about shifting priorities.

That means engaging, equipping, and empowering employees to deliver on company outcomes. Vaisman also called for "structured, visible, and routine" opportunities for staff to level up in their organizations.

"Performance comes after—as a result, it's delayed, but performance does improve over time," he said, adding that higher levels of engagement and retention save the organization money in the long-term with lower recruitment and training costs, and an overall reduced loss of intellectual capital. "It works. Human-first outperforms profit-first in the long run."