The latest veterinary app aiming to save customers hundreds launches in Leeds

A new app designed to make pet healthcare more accessible has launched this month.

Brought to the market by Leeds-based vet-tech startup Vet-AI, ‘Joii’ is an artificial intelligence application aiming to transform the UK and global vet market.

Technology entrepreneur Paul Hallett, along with renowned veterinarians Robert Dawson and Sarah Warren, formed Vet-AI in 2017.

They have since built a team of 19 specialists including OBE award-winning entrepreneur Jonathan Sands, computational physicist Trevor Hardcastle, as well as Josh Sephton.

Chief data scientist at Vet-AI, Trevor Hardcastle, said: “Our AI is going to gain insight that has never been attained before. We are building the biggest and most reliable global pet healthcare database on the planet.

“That makes us different because we will have more data than any individual practice. It’s about the quality and consistency of the data, so we can start creating preventative intervention strategies.”

Joii will enable initial diagnosis from home and save pet owners up to 60 per cent on normal vet fees, with access to 70 per cent of the normal services. It uses complex algorithms, written by vets which help guide owners to the right outcome for their pet.

This, coupled with the AI technology underlying the app, will mean pet owners can access immediate care for their animals and hopefully stop the dangerous practice of searching online for symptoms and self-diagnosing.

A clinical trial by Vet-AI, the firm behind Joii, revealed that, in many cases, equally accurate diagnoses can be made by vets through a video consultation as can be made by vets giving a physical examination.

An in-house survey conducted across the firm’s three different social media platforms also evidenced the fact that pet owners avoid the vets because of price, and numbers of people would access care more frequently if it was cheaper and more accessible.

Joii is available for download now.