Identifying policy alternatives to enable the virtual establishment of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship.

Abstract

This research seeks to identify an existing policy stream around the establishment of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) through telemedicine to provide evidence of, and advance policy alternatives for, states and countries looking to allow this practice responsibly. This is seen as an important step for access to veterinary care, particularly for cats. The multiple streams policy framework requires identification of a centering event, problem stream, policy stream and politics stream in order to have the necessary conditions for policy change to occur. This research identifies that policy stream through thematic content analysis. State-level policies from across the entire USA that address the virtual establishment of a physician-patient relationship were analyzed to provide themes that could be applied to similar policies in veterinary medicine. Ten key themes were identified and further organized into four high-order concepts through the thematic content analysis. Detailed accounting of the specific policy alternatives is provided in the supplementary materials. The themes and concepts presented provide evidence of a robust policy stream. This content analysis, and the supporting supplementary details, provide many options to guide states in the development of sound policies for the virtual establishment of a VCPR by drawing from the more matured field of human medicine.