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Veterinary medicine is being urged to move beyond treating crises after they appear and toward a proactive, relationship-centred model that helps dogs and cats stay healthier for longer. Speakers at the Purina Institute Global Summit in Lausanne said preventive care could improve pets’ healthspan, quality of life and lifespan while reducing avoidable stress for veterinary teams and clients.
What happened at the Lausanne summit
Vet Times reporter James Westgate described the discussions in a report published on 10 June 2026, following the Purina Institute Global Summit on 27–28 May. The meeting focused on how veterinary professionals can make preventive health easier for clients to understand and follow.
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The proposed change is not a replacement for emergency or diagnostic medicine. It is a shift in emphasis: identify risks earlier, maintain an ongoing relationship with the household and make appropriate actions—such as vaccinations, monitoring and medication—easier to complete before a crisis develops.
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Why preventive care matters to pets and veterinary teams
Audrey Ruple, professor of veterinary medical informatics at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, discussed analyses of Dog Aging Project data and US pet-insurance claims. The report says that work linked preventive care with longer lives, better quality of life and protection against clinical stress and burnout.
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Ruple also described an ethical problem that affects small-animal practice: veterinarians may have to euthanise an animal for a disease that might have been prevented if the right measures had been taken earlier. In her words, “Most small animal veterinarians reported that ethical dilemmas as a leading cause of work-related stress.” A preventive model cannot remove every difficult decision, but it can create more opportunities to discuss risk before options narrow.
For owners, preventive health means more than an annual appointment. The specific plan depends on the pet’s age, species, lifestyle and existing conditions, but the conversation can include routine examinations, vaccination decisions, parasite control, weight and nutrition discussions, dental health, medication reviews and monitoring for changes at home.
Client follow-through is the central obstacle
Emergency-care physician Kit Delgado, director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, identified client uptake as a major barrier. A recommendation only protects a pet when the owner understands it, agrees with it and can complete it.
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Defaults that remove avoidable friction
Delgado said behavioural-economics approaches can improve adherence. One example was a 90-day prescription refill default, which the summit presentation reported as significantly increasing adherence. The report does not provide a numerical effect for that example, so clinics should treat the size of the benefit as context-dependent rather than guaranteed.
Messages that explain what is at stake
He also reported that loss-framed messages increased vaccine uptake by as much as 11 per cent in the presentation discussed by Vet Times. That figure is a summit-reported result, not a promise that every practice or vaccine campaign will achieve the same change. The practical lesson is to explain the consequences of missing protection clearly, without using fear or blaming owners.
Alison Lambert, founder of Onswitch, summarised the communication goal as: “make the right thing to do, the easy thing to do”. That can mean clear written instructions, convenient scheduling, reminders, refill arrangements and a chance to ask questions in plain language.
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Veterinary nurses can strengthen shared decisions
Natasha Janke, director of Colorado State University’s veterinary communication for professional excellence programme, said clients were significantly more engaged in decisions about their pet’s healthcare when a veterinary nurse participated in the conversation.
Her finding supports a team-based appointment model. A veterinarian may lead diagnosis and treatment decisions while a veterinary nurse helps elicit the owner’s concerns, explains how a plan fits daily life, checks understanding and identifies practical barriers. Janke described this as a major opportunity to use nurses’ skills during appointments, rather than treating preventive counselling as a task reserved for one professional.
For owners, it is reasonable to ask which member of the practice team can explain the preventive plan, demonstrate a medicine or monitoring routine and provide follow-up support. Shared decision-making should still leave the owner with a clear understanding of the options, uncertainties and next steps.
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Where connected pet technology may fit
Shawn Wilkie, CEO of Talkatoo, pointed to connected devices as a potential source of additional health information. He named smart feeders, GPS trackers and smart litter systems, and suggested that these technologies could increase information available to veterinary teams, encourage visits and strengthen relationships between clients and practices.
Those are opportunities described by the speaker, not established clinical outcomes. A device can supply useful context, but it does not diagnose disease or replace an examination. Before sharing data, owners and clinics should agree on what will be monitored, who will review it and what action would follow an concerning change.
| Tool category | Potential preventive-care use | Questions to settle with the clinic |
|---|---|---|
| Smart feeder | Provide a record of feeding activity that may help make changes in routine easier to discuss. | Is the data accurate enough for the decision being considered? Who reviews it, how often and what change warrants a call? |
| GPS tracker | Add location information that may help explain roaming, routine changes or a missing-pet incident. | Does the device collect only the information needed? How is the account secured, and can the practice use the data in its workflow? |
| Smart litter system | Offer additional information about litter-box use that could prompt an earlier conversation. | Can the readings be interpreted reliably for this individual cat, and will they support a veterinary conversation without being presented as a diagnosis? |
Across all three categories, owners should consider data quality and interpretability, their ability to maintain the device, compatibility with the veterinary practice’s workflow, privacy and security, ongoing costs and whether the information leads to a useful conversation rather than an unsupported diagnostic claim. The summit report does not establish prices, product performance or clinical-outcome benefits for any category.
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Biomarkers could reveal risk before symptoms
Brennen McKenzie, a veterinarian and longevity scientist, cited insulin levels as an example of biomarkers being used to predict frailty and chronic kidney disease. The value of a biomarker is that it may identify a risk signal before obvious symptoms appear, creating time for a veterinarian to decide whether further testing, monitoring or treatment is appropriate.
An insulin result is not, by itself, a diagnosis of frailty or kidney disease. Interpretation depends on the individual animal and the broader clinical picture. Biomarkers should therefore be used to support a veterinary assessment, not as a substitute for examination or as a reason to start treatment without professional advice.
What a preventive-care conversation can look like
- Start with the pet’s current routine. Tell the practice about food, exercise, medication, vaccination history, behaviour and any changes noticed at home.
- Ask which risks matter most now. Request priorities for the pet’s age, species, lifestyle and known conditions instead of treating every possible intervention as equally urgent.
- Agree on an action plan. Confirm what will be done, by whom, by what date and how reminders or refills will work.
- Define monitoring limits. If a device or biomarker is used, ask what it can and cannot show, who reviews the information and which findings require a call.
- Schedule the next touchpoint. Preventive care works as an ongoing relationship, so establish when the plan will be reviewed rather than waiting for a crisis.
The direction for veterinary practice
Marianne Lomberg, head of the Purina Institute, said the summit chose the topic to help the profession communicate more proactively and reduce fear and uncertainty around preventive care. The intended outcome is practical: more powerful conversations that can influence a patient’s future.
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