Today we’d like to introduce you to Shadi Ireifej.

Hi Shadi, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

I was born in Yonkers, New York as a first generation son of immigrants from the Middle East. My mother is from Lebanon and my father is from Jordan. They taught me the most vital of values imperative to a child trying to figure this world out. I learned diligence, dedication, and common sense from my parents. Throughout my educational pathway, I developed a love for science and learning about the natural world around us. In high school I was most inspired by my biology teachers who heightened my interest in this field, prompting me to decide on a career focused on science. Displaying a love of animals, genetics and biology, my mother encouraged me to apply for a position at a local veterinary clinic. I was inspired to pursue veterinary medicine thanks to a doctor who performed surgeries at that clinic once a week. He would allow me the opportunity to practice suturing and helping in the operating room. I devoted a large part of my undergraduate experience to my studies so that I could be a formidable candidate for veterinary school. During my second attempt at applying to veterinary college, I managed to get accepted into Cornell University, College of veterinary Medicine. This was an incredible honor as Cornell is considered the number one veterinary school. It was during my veterinary educational career that I found a love for surgery and was made aware of the opportunity for veterinarians to specialize in a specific field in the veterinary space. I decided to pursue a specialization in small animal surgery. After completing three one year internships upon graduating from Cornell, I finally landed a highly sought after residency for small animal surgery. After three years and a third attempt at passing the surgery board exam, I officially became board-certified in small animal surgery. During this time I was developing the basis of what would become VetTriage alongside one of my good friends. After deciding that clinical practice was no longer enjoyable for me, we launched the first ever veterinary telehealth company in 2019. Since launching VetTriage, we continue to be the only veterinary telehealth platform that offers live video consults with doctors of veterinary medicine, offer services on a global scale, cares for Spanish pet owners, offers services for equine owners, and offers telementoring and teleconsulting services with veterinarians on a 24/7/365 basis. We have virtually cared for 50 different animal types, helped pet owners from over 20 different countries, and in totality have serviced almost 200,000 pet owners within the five years of our existence.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

Every aspect of my path forward has encountered obstacles along the way. During first or second grade, I was told by my teacher that I would not amount to anything because I was unable to write non-cursive letters to fit the solid and dotted lines on a notebook page. During my middle school and high school time, I realize that many students in my honors classes displayed an intellectual prowess with that exceeded mine. I had to work very hard in my undergraduate career in order to achieve a great point average that would be considered acceptable for veterinary school. I had to apply twice to get into veterinary school. Once I entered veterinary school, I realized how intelligence and studious my classmates were, as I struggled through the courses during the first 2 to 3 years in veterinary school. Attempting to be accepted in a residency also carries with it an immense amount of competition, which is why I had to complete three internships in order to achieve that. The surgical boards that are required in order to receive your board certification were very challenging to me, requiring three attempts in order for me to pass them. From my residency onwards, I practiced in numerous veterinary hospitals and struggled to find a facility that I felt content in dedicating myself to. And finally, all of the expected and typical challenges that one faces when launching their own company, especially a company as novel as VetTriage, I experienced and continue to experience today. Some of these struggles include, and are not limited to, work-life imbalance, managing a large staff, continuously promoting the company, and trying to find that balance between reinvesting in the company while also providing some quality of life for myself.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about VetTriage?

VetTriage was the first veterinary telehealth company to exist. We are a 24/7/365 video telehealth platform where pet owners can speak to veterinarians immediately and live on video. It is a web-based platform that is agnostic to any device, and no app is required to access it. Upon creating an account and paying the fee, the pet owner will be connected to our veterinarians in under a minute. From day one, VetTriage has serviced any animal type and helped concerned owners from all around the world. The platform has three goals; the first is to spearhead the movement in veterinary telehealth, the second is to provide access to veterinary care to any and all pet owners across the globe, and third is to partner with veterinary facilities in order to support them by offering triage services with our platform. All of these features set us apart by a large scale in comparison to other veterinary telehealth platforms. What we are most proud of perhaps is that we’ve never sacrificed what we consider the gold standard for virtual veterinary care in order to benefit for short term gain. We have stayed true to our underlying roots and our three goals since the beginning, not aiming to compete with veterinary brick and mortar facilities, but to complement them and what they are trying to achieve when finding that balance between assisting their clients and their pets to the best of their ability without sacrificing their own quality of life as veterinary professionals. We want your readers who own pets to think of us as their first step when experiencing a pet concern in order to be better directed with next steps. With those readers who are in the veterinary field, we want to partner with your facility and formulate a method that is unique to your hospital, clinic, shelter, university, and organization so that we can tackle any struggles you are facing as a team. In fact, we have serviced almost 200,000 concerned pet owners in under five years and we are now partnered with approximately 1000 groups across the world.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?

Veterinary telehealth will eventually be common knowledge for any pet owner. Virtual care will expand into fields such as telerobotics and telesurgery, augmented reality, virtual reality, telediagnostics and telemonitoring, and so much more. There will be an increasing push for pet owners to be able to monitor their own pets at home so that diseases and trauma can be identified earlier than ever before. And through that diagnostic access pet owners will be able to access veterinarians at the push of a button. We are also already seeing a shift when it comes to virtual work whereby many veterinarians and veterinary technicians are seeking positions that are virtual in nature. Finally, the veterinary academic world will undergo major changes to not only continue to educate their students on virtual care, work-life imbalance, business management, and so much more, but also discover and adopt methods to increase veterinary class size, promote virtual education and experiences, and support veterinary students beyond the time they graduate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.VetTriage.com
• Instagram: @vettriage
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/televeterinarian
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vettriage
• Twitter: https://x.com/VTriage
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.shadiireifej
• Other: https://vettriage.com/horse/