We just got back from the New York State Veterinary Conference. This conference is a joint venture between the New York State Veterinary Medical Society and the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, NY. It’s right in our back yard, and it was a great opportunity to talk to veterinarians and others in the veterinary industry. While our booth was in a secondary gallery, we received a lot of interest and made some new connections.
Here’s what we learned:
We were approached several times by ambulatory veterinarians. We discovered this group of veterinarians has a great need for a simple, easy to use system that will help them keep track of their records and transactions on the road. Because of the difficulty of entering data on the move, many still used paper systems that sometimes required hours of tedious re-entry. We think this may be a good niche for Menagerie PM, since we have a shared focus on simplicity and providing ubiquitous access through a cloud-hosted service.
Speaking of “the cloud”, we also heard this term repeated to us several times. It seems mainstream awareness has risen for cloud-based services, most likely through examples such as Google, Amazon, Apple, and Netflix. As software developers we have been developing on cloud-based infrastructure for a while, so it is great to go out and find that people are showing interest in it. We were asked some good questions about security and data protection, and as more services move to the cloud, the IT industry continues to develop new approaches and answers to these questions. While some adaptation is necessary, on the whole we feel that the benefits to moving to cloud-hosted services are overwhelming.
We met a lot of conference goers who were excited about a web-based cloud-hosted solution, and liked our philosophy of UI simplicity, We received many suggestions, and one attendee even sat down with us to compare his current system with Menagerie Whiteboard. Another group whose interest was piqued were financial consultants and accountants. These folks help veterinarians manage their business and regularly struggle to get important data out of the existing practice management systems. This often involves manually re-entering print-outs of financial data. They realize that digital systems should make this easier, not harder, and we were advised to incorporate the AAHA chart of accounts and easy Quickbook export functionality. Some services such as Freshbooks and Outright allow accountants to log directly in to the client records system so they have direct access to this information. We think there is a lot we can do to improvement and streamline this crucial relationship between veterinarians and their advisors.
All told we had a lot of fun exhibiting. We were a little nervous since this was the first time we had exhibited anywhere, but I think it was the perfect venue. With a last minute run to Staples, I think our booth actually turned out to be quite well outfitted. Our banner was large and highly visible and we found the perfect stand to demo Menagerie Whiteboard on the iPad. Because of this positive experience we are definitely on the lookout for other opportunities to exhibit and demo Menagerie Whiteboard and previews of our new Menagerie PM practice management system.
Aaron & Michal
The MenagerieVet Team
Menagerie Whiteboard - Our standalone digital whiteboard for managing patient workflow. Works on all modern browsers, and keeps all workstations synchronized in real time. Now FREE, sign up and try it out!
Menagerie PM - Our new web-based cloud-hosted practice management service. We’d love to hear what you need in a practice management system. Please sign up to our mailing list to receive status updates as development progresses.
Filed under menagerie menagerievet veterinary whiteboard practice management
We’ll have some news shortly, but here is a preview of Menagerie Whiteboard on the iPad. We’ve revamped and streamlined the UI, we hope you like it. :)
Menagerie Whiteboard Online edition
Today we released Menagerie Whiteboard Online edition! The online edition is a subscription service, and allows you to access Menagerie Whiteboard from any workstation, desktop or mobile device. And just like the downloadable version, all workstations are kept in sync.
Menagerie Whiteboard online version from Incandescent Software on Vimeo.
Here’s why you may want to give Menagerie Whiteboard Online a try:
- No local installation or upgrades necessary
- Menagerie Whiteboard is always up to date with new features as we roll them out
- Menagerie Whiteboard can be accessed from any internet-enabled device, whether a desktop or mobile device (or even a tablet)
- Menagerie Whiteboard is completely platform independent. Access the whiteboard from a modern browser on any platform (currently: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, IE 8)
- 1 month free trial - first month is on us, cancel any time
Beta?
Online services often launch a “beta” period to generate buzz. In reality, software is always in beta. Since we developed Menagerie Whiteboard with web technologies, it’s been web-ready since day one. In fact, it’s been so straightforward to enable an online solution, that we decided to go ahead and launch now, and get it in people’s hands.
Sign Up Now
If you are a new customer, simply sign up online. You’ll get your own online whiteboard, and a free month to try it out at your practice.
Early adopter? Let us know if you’d like to test out the newest features and enhancements. We’ll roll them out to you first.
Existing customer? If you have purchased the downloadable Basic edition, we will pro-rate your subscription. If you don’t hear from us first, please get in touch with us and we’ll set you up: support@menagerievet.com
Non-Profit organization? We’d like to support your work. We now offer a free plan for non-profit organizations. You can get in reach us through the sign up page or contact us directly to tell us about your organization: support@menagerievet.com
As always you can reach us online at http://menagerievet.com and
Take care :)
Aaron & Michal
The MenagerieVet Team
Wonder what Menagerie Whiteboard looks like on the iPad? Wonder no more! :)
courtesy of ipadpeek.com
Menagerie Whiteboard 1.0.1 has been released!
Version 1.0.1 features many user interface refinements informed by real-world usage (see below for the rundown), and is available for purchase online at http://menagerievet.com.
We put together a short video showcasing usage of the whiteboard:
As always, you can follow us on twitter @menagerievet and give us feedback at our UserVoice site.
A big thank you goes out to Dr. Wood and the staff at Crossroads Veterinary Clinic for trialing our software and giving us valuable feedback. Please say howdy to them.
Journos: see the press release here
Read on for 1.0.1 enhancements…
Read more …
Please watch our video which covers all Menagerie Whiteboard features.
Here’s a little preview of the new features and enhancements that will be coming out in version 1.0.1, based on user feedback:
Patient checkin reason
A reason can now be supplied when manually checking in a patient:
Patient information editing
Patient record information can now be edited after the patient has been checked in, by clicking on the edit icon on the far right of the patient row.
Todos
The Notes text area has been replaced with a more useful Todos facility. Todos will allow you to enter tasks or notes that can be checked off (or deleted).
Standardized physical exam fields
The physical exam fields have been standardized and made more consistent across procedure types:
Bloodwork type
Type of bloodwork can now be specified for In-house and Outgoing bloodwork.
Surgical Premeds type and time
Medication type and time can now be specified for surgical premeds.
Bacterial culture ready checkbox
Since bacterial culture takes some time, we added another checkbox to indicate when the culture was ready.
Exact phrase search
For external integrations, exact phrase search is now supported. This allows you to search specifically for an entire phrase, which will help you find the single Fluffy or Smith you were looking for.
Deceased patient filtering
For external integrations, we preclude deceased patients.
If you have feedback on these features, or suggestions for new ones, please let us know what you think!
An Engineer’s Guide to Cats
