BACKGROUND

Currently, when a pet owner of a companion animal, such as a dog, cat or bird, needs to see a veterinarian (vet), the pet owner usually must schedule a standard appointment in which the pet owner travels to seethe vet at the vet's brick-and-mortar clinic. In addition to the journey to the vet clinic being burdensome on the pet owner, the pet owner must also transport the companion animal to the vet clinic which adds to the complexity of seeing the vet with the companion animal. It is well known that companion animals traveling in a vehicle can disrupt a respective companion animal's behavior and/or mood.

Another problem in the art occurs when vets sell products to pet owners. Often, vets provide incentives for pet owners to purchase products directly from the vets to encourage and/or foster relationships among the pet owners. Exemplary incentives for purchasing products directly from vets includes coupons and/or rebates. However, paper based coupons and/or rebates are often too burdensome to track by pet owners. The time and challenge to receive value from submitting paper-based rebates through standard postal, paper mailing systems is quite excessive and often prohibitive for the ordinary pet owner.

Therefore, what is needed in the art is a system and method for managing communications between a veterinarian and a pet owner including video communications such that the video communications may eliminate a need for the pet owner to visit the brick-and-mortar clinic of the veterinarian. Another need exists in the art to eliminate paper-based coupons and rebates, such that value can be received from the pet owner electronically instead of relying on paper-based communications to secure the value.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and system for managing communications between a veterinarian (vet) and a pet owner including video communications may integrate pet medical records access along with allowing a vet to view as well as annotate pet medical records during a video consultation with the pet owner. Either the vet or the pet owner may set up a video conference between each other. The method and system may establish a video conference in which a vet may access the video conference with a desktop computer while the pet owner accesses the video conference a portable computing device (PCD) [i.e. a mobile phone, a tablet PC, or other hand-held computing device].

A video conference may be established by the pet owner, usually, after payment information from a financial card [credit card, debit card, reward card, etc.] or other payment provider is supplied to the system which verifies that the information is accurate. The method and system usually does not charge the pet owner for the video conference scheduled with the vet until the video conference is completed between the vet and the pet owner.

A video conference may be established by the vet and usually at no cost to the pet owner when the vet initiates a need for a video conference. The vet may immediately reach the pet owner by a video conference call by initiating a call from the desktop application of the system which is available to the vet.

The method and system also provide a platform wherein both the vet and pet owner may exchange text based messages as well as images such as photographs captured with a portable computing device, like a mobile phone. The vet may send messages from a desktop computer while the pet owner may send messages from a hand-held portable computing device, such as a mobile phone.

The method and system may also provide the vet as well as the pet owner with access to the pet medical records originated by the vet for care of the companion animal. The pet owner may be provided with view only access of the pet medical records on the portable computing device while the vet may be provide with full access, that includes, viewing, editing, and annotating pet medical records for a companion animal.

The method and system may also integrate the ability to schedule a video conference with the ability to electronically redeem coupons and/or rebates issued electronically from the vet to the pet owner. That is, when a pet owner purchases pet products and/or services from a vet, the vet may issue electronic coupons for new products and/or services as well as electronic rebates for products and/or services which were purchased by the pet owner.

Using the portable computing device (PCD), a pet owner may see past purchased products and/or services with the system as well as rebates or coupons associated with these past purchased products. For rebates, the pet owner may select a rebate on a display screen of the portable computing device for redemption and the system may automatically upload the rebate once selected by the pet owner.

The pet owner may then be sent a message from the system once the rebate is approved for redemption and then the pet owner with the portable computing device may redeem value from the rebate associated with the past purchased product from the vet. The pet owner may select with the portable computing device how this value may be received: in the form of currency added to a financial card [credit card, debit card, stored value card, etc.], currency added to a financial account [i.e. a bank account etc.], or in the form of loyalty points associated with the account tracked by the method and system.

With the method and system, a vet clinic may utilize its existing off-the-shelf, third party practice management systems (PMS) for creating, storing, and appending pet medical records for companion animals. The method and system may access the existing practice management system and keep copies of such records that were originated by the existing practice management system. The method and system may supply annotated records and upload these annotated records to the existing practice management system.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.

