Data_Sheet_2_Development of an Early Warning System for Owners Using a Validated Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQL) Instrument for Companion Animals and Its Use in a Large Cohort of Dogs.xlsx

Preventive measures in human healthcare are recognized as a means of providing early detection of disease, however, the veterinary profession has not been as effective in communicating the benefits of preventive measures to pet owners. Readily available pet healthcare information on the internet, owners not understanding that regular health evaluations can ensure the well-being of their pets and owners confusing the signs of chronic disease with normal aging have contributed to declining numbers of veterinary visits. The use of web-based generic health–related quality of life (HRQL) measures to evaluate health status (wellness) remotely could facilitate veterinary preventive medicine. This publication describes the development and practical application of an integrated alert system for an online generic HRQL measurement instrument (VetMetrica™) which generates scores in four domains of HRQL—Energetic/Enthusiastic (E/E), Happy/Content (H/C), Active/Comfortable (A/C), and Calm/Relaxed (C/R)—for 2 age groups (young/middle-aged, ≤7 years and old, ≥8 years). The alert provides an early warning, via email to owners, that a potentially significant deterioration in health status has occurred. The model accurately predicted the health status of 93 and 83% of sick young/middle aged and old dogs respectively, with healthy dogs predicted with 83% accuracy. HRQL data, collected via a white-labeled veterinary clinic branded app designed to facilitate connected care between owner and veterinarian, were analyzed for 6,108 dogs, aged between 6 weeks and 16 years. Of these 5,002 were deemed to be in perfect health by their owners, yet the alert was triggered for 1,343 (27%) of these, 75% of which were young/middle-aged and 25% were old, indicating that acute injuries notwithstanding, many middle aged dogs may have been suffering from undetected chronic disease such as osteoarthritis. This work has demonstrated that the use of VetMetrica™ delivered via the PetDialog™ app, which supports 24/7 remote health monitoring is an efficient way for vets to provide all their owners with the opportunity to monitor their animal's wellness throughout their lifetime, providing the vet with a mechanism to identify health problems early while stimulating owners to be more proactive in seeking veterinary attention.

人类医疗保健中的预防措施被视为疾病早期检测的手段，然而，兽医行业在向宠物主人传达预防措施益处方面尚未达到预期效果。互联网上 readily available 的宠物医疗保健信息，宠物主人对定期健康评估确保其宠物福祉的认识不足，以及将慢性疾病的征兆与正常老化混淆，共同导致了兽医就诊人数的下降。利用基于网络的通用健康相关生活质量（HRQL）指标远程评估健康状况（福祉）的方法，有望促进兽医预防医学的发展。本文阐述了集成警报系统在在线通用 HRQL 评估工具（VetMetrica™）开发及实际应用中的构建，该工具针对 HRQL 的四个领域——活力/热情（E/E）、快乐/满足（H/C）、活跃/舒适（A/C）和冷静/放松（C/R）——为两个年龄段（年轻/中年，≤7 岁，及老年，≥8 岁）生成评分。警报通过电子邮件向主人发出早期预警，提示健康状态可能发生了显著恶化。该模型准确预测了 93% 和 83% 的生病的年轻/中年和老年狗的健康状态，健康狗的预测准确率也达到 83%。通过专为促进主人与兽医之间连通护理而设计的白色标签兽医诊所品牌应用程序收集的 HRQL 数据，对 6,108 只年龄在 6 周至 16 岁之间的狗进行了分析。其中，5,002 只被主人认为处于完全健康状态，然而，警报触发了 1,343 只（27%）中的 75% 为年轻/中年狗，25% 为老年狗，表明尽管有急性伤害，许多中年狗可能一直遭受未被发现的慢性疾病，如骨关节炎。这项研究证明了通过支持 24/7 远程健康监测的 PetDialog™ 应用程序提供的 VetMetrica™ 的使用，是兽医为所有主人提供在其宠物一生中监测其动物福祉的有效方式，并为兽医提供了一种早期识别健康问题的机制，同时刺激主人更加积极主动地寻求兽医关注。