How we’re Teaming up to Deliver Unprecedented Pet Health Insights
Last year, my household grew by one: A little oatmeal-colored dog named Winston with bright eyes and an irresistible grin. He loves to play fetch, and he joins me at work whenever his social schedule allows. But no matter how much time we spend together, I can’t ask him how he’s feeling or what he’s been up to when I’m not around. That’s something I have in common with every other pet owner – no matter how strong our emotional bond may be with our pets, and despite the highest-tech pet monitors or most experienced pet sitters, we can’t always get the comprehensive pet health information and insights we want.
Today, we’re one step closer. We just announced a groundbreaking new, three-year study – Pet Insight Project – in partnership with Mars Petcare and Whistle, a wearable pet activity tracker that was built to help pet owners keep tabs on their pets’ activity throughout the day.
Unprecedented Pet Health and Activity Insights
Imagine if you could detect patterns in your dog’s scratching behavior that indicated a potential skin irritation and prompted you to take a trip to the veterinarian for evaluation. Or, if you could see your pet was drinking far more – or less – water than usual. What if you had technology that alerted you to unexpected changes in your pet’s balance, gait or sleep patterns? These are the possibilities we imagined in dreaming up Pet Insight Project – continuously capturing Whistle behavior data from hundreds of thousands of participating pets and marrying that activity with Banfield’s extensive electronic veterinary medical records database.
With the ultimate goal of discovering groundbreaking insights that enable a new era of proactive, preventive care for pets, this unparalleled study aims to help pet owners connect the dots for their furry companions through machine learning, data science and veterinary expertise to ideally understand when behavior may signal a change in a pet's health and make it possible for pet owners to partner even better and more proactively with their veterinarian on treatment.
At Banfield, preventive care and early disease diagnosis are what we’re all about. It’s why we created our signature service, Optimum Wellness Plans (OWPs), more than 30 years ago – and it’s why Pet Insight Project felt like such a natural extension of what drives our teams of highly skilled veterinary professionals day in and day out. By combining the features of Whistle FIT with Banfield’s pet health data and medical expertise, we realized we have an opportunity to potentially increase the level of insight pet owners and veterinarians have into the health and activity of pets.
Working Together to be Pet Heroes
Join us! We’re now enrolling canine participants in the United States – if your dog is on a Banfield wellness plan, sign up and claim your free Whistle FIT activity tracker. Learn more about the Pet Insight Project and how you can participate at www.petinsightproject.com, and check out the video below.
Better Data, Better Insights, Better Pet Health
I still can’t talk to Winston, but I’m hopeful that by staying in close partnership with his Banfield veterinarian and gaining additional insights into his behavior and, one day, what that could mean for his health, I will be able to understand more about what he’s not able to tell me today.
I’m thrilled to be able to play a part in ushering this new advancement into pet health, to share this capability with you, and to continue the work we do at Mars Petcare, Whistle and Banfield every day to fulfill our shared purpose: A Better World for Pets.
