May 26, 2026 · 54 min · 9 segments
In this episode of The Urban Zoo, Bill McBain and Dr. Tiffany Rennick explore the evolving world of animal care and welfare. The conversation covers the rise of veterinary telemedicine through…
Sharon QuinnGuest
Bill McBainHost
Erin RyanGuest
Tiffany RenickHost
Our guest today is Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Sharon Quinn, who is CEO of Vetwise and a member of the board of directors of the Veterinary Virtual Care Association, chairing the association's Canadian committee.
So we've brought Dr. Quinn on the show today because telemedicine is becoming much more prevalent in the veterinary profession, and even before COVID we were experiencing doctor shortages and trying to find solutions to provide accessible care for our patients and our clients.
And then COVID hit, and it just made an already challenging situation much more difficult.
So we actually founded, uh, my eldest son and I co-founded Smart Vet back in 2018.
We knew telemedicine was going to become something we needed to think about as a profession, and it was really important to me that there was veterinary leadership in terms of how that evolved over time, um, because it's, you know, we want to make sure it's done responsibly.
And so we launched it in 2018, not really exactly sure where it was going ahead, and at that time it was more as a resource for hospitals.
We always knew we wanted to help hospitals to provide care, and that our objective was not to go directly to the pet own- the pet owner.
We obviously provide help to pet owners, but we always wanted to help the veterinary profession to alleviate some of, some of their concerns and some of their kind of pain points and, and, you know, things that made it difficult for them.
But at that time back in 2018 it was still a very new idea, and we developed a platform and, and really just kind of did it very part-time.
And then of course when COVID hit in 2020 and hospitals were forced to, you know, not allow, um, pet owners inside and, and sometimes shut down because of COVID exposures and all of those things, obviously there was a, a massive need for telemedicine.
And then, um, it was mainly at that time, hospitals using it to provide care to their own patients, and then as we continued to work with those hospitals, we f- discovered, as you know well, through COVID with, uh, the boom in the pet population and the veterinarian shortage being exacerbated and the inability to do as much, you know, traveling and all of those things, the, the access to care crisis became really, really exacerbated.
Our guest today is Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Dr. Sharon Quinn, who is CEO of Vetwise and a member of the board of directors of the Veterinary Virtual Care Association, chairing the association's Canadian committee.
So we've brought Dr. Quinn on the show today because telemedicine is becoming much more prevalent in the veterinary profession, and even before COVID we were experiencing doctor shortages and trying to find solutions to provide accessible care for our patients and our clients.
And then COVID hit, and it just made an already challenging situation much more difficult.
So we actually founded, uh, my eldest son and I co-founded Smart Vet back in 2018.
We knew telemedicine was going to become something we needed to think about as a profession, and it was really important to me that there was veterinary leadership in terms of how that evolved over time, um, because it's, you know, we want to make sure it's done responsibly.
And so we launched it in 2018, not really exactly sure where it was going ahead, and at that time it was more as a resource for hospitals.
We always knew we wanted to help hospitals to provide care, and that our objective was not to go directly to the pet own- the pet owner.
We obviously provide help to pet owners, but we always wanted to help the veterinary profession to alleviate some of, some of their concerns and some of their kind of pain points and, and, you know, things that made it difficult for them.
But at that time back in 2018 it was still a very new idea, and we developed a platform and, and really just kind of did it very part-time.
And then of course when COVID hit in 2020 and hospitals were forced to, you know, not allow, um, pet owners inside and, and sometimes shut down because of COVID exposures and all of those things, obviously there was a, a massive need for telemedicine.
And then, um, it was mainly at that time, hospitals using it to provide care to their own patients, and then as we continued to work with those hospitals, we f- discovered, as you know well, through COVID with, uh, the boom in the pet population and the veterinarian shortage being exacerbated and the inability to do as much, you know, traveling and all of those things, the, the access to care crisis became really, really exacerbated.
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