Data_Sheet_1_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同等效果。互联网上易于获取的宠物医疗保健信息，主人未能理解定期的健康评估能够确保其宠物的福祉，以及主人将慢性疾病的症状与正常衰老混淆，这些因素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（健康状态）可能有助于兽医预防医学的发展。本出版物描述了在线通用HRQL测量工具（VetMetrica™）集成警报系统的开发与实践应用，该系统为两个年龄组（年轻/中年，≤7岁和老年，≥8岁）的HRQL的四个领域——精力/热情（E/E）、快乐/满足（H/C）、活跃/舒适（A/C）和冷静/放松（C/R）——生成评分。警报通过电子邮件向主人提供早期预警，表明健康状况可能出现了显著恶化。该模型准确预测了93%和83%的患病年轻/中年犬和老年犬的健康状况，健康犬的预测准确率为83%。通过专为促进主人与兽医之间互联互通而设计的白标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年之间的犬进行了分析。其中，5,002只被主人认为是完全健康的，但警报触发了其中1,343只（27%），其中75%为年轻/中年犬，25%为老年犬，这表明尽管有急性伤害，许多中年犬可能一直遭受着未被发现慢性疾病，如骨关节炎。这项工作证明了通过PetDialog™应用程序提供的VetMetrica™的使用，该应用程序支持24/7远程健康监测，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，同时激发主人更加积极地寻求兽医的关注。