Dr Samantha Webster

Sam spent three years in mixed practice before deciding to concentrate on small animals. Four more years followed in small animal first opinion practice, in the UK and in Australia. Different countries and different caseloads, with the same pattern underneath. Owners were struggling to afford care, and vets were struggling to provide it.

She joined Vet-AI in 2019 because their mission matched the problem she had been watching, and she has spent the years since on one question. How can technology make veterinary care easier to reach and easier to afford, for owners and for the profession.

She is careful about what that technology is for. Digital care will not replace physical practice, which she calls the core of delivering veterinary care. She compares a triage tool to an x-ray machine. It does one job very well, and it belongs alongside a practice rather than instead of one.

Triage is the job she thinks it does best. Out-of-hours care has changed a great deal in two decades. It has gone from the local vet getting out of bed at 2am to fully equipped emergency hospitals running all night. The care is better and it costs more. That is why she thinks it matters that an owner can find out at 3am whether a trip is actually needed.

Her subject is first opinion primary care, and reducing the barriers of access and cost that sit around it. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons has recently approved speciality training in primary care. That recognises it as a discipline in its own right, alongside the traditional specialisms.

Australia gave her a comparison she still uses. Ticks there carry a bug that can cause paralysis, and that risk means owners are better informed. They talk to their vets more often and more casually, which is the habit she would import.