Join us on August 18 from 11:30 AM–12:30 PM
as our Showcase Finalists take the stage at the Hoofman Theater Learning Hub in Exhibit Hall, Level 3 of the Music City Center.
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear their presentations live!
Meet the finalists in our Clinical Outcomes Showcase, featuring standout ideas from veterinarians, veterinary technicians, veterinary organizations and rising scholars. Entries were reviewed through a double-blind judging process and scored for originality, impact and potential to improve patient care.
Now it’s your turn—explore the ideas and vote for your favorite.
Marcus’s idea focuses on taking veterinary medicine beyond the walls of the clinic and directly into underserved and lower-access communities.
Through outdoor community events, veterinary professionals would provide demonstrations, basic services, education, and meaningful opportunities for families and children to interact with the profession. His proposal aims to build trust between veterinary teams and communities that may not regularly seek veterinary care, while also introducing young people to possible careers in veterinary medicine.
Jordyn is working to advance the standard of care for one of veterinary medicine’s smallest and most vulnerable patient populations: neonatal kittens.
His work focuses on increasing education and hands-on training for veterinary students, technicians, veterinarians, shelter teams, and foster caregivers who care for kittens from birth through eight weeks of age. His goal is to increase confidence, improve the recognition of pediatric conditions, and ensure that young feline patients receive the same thoughtful, evidence-based care expected for animals at every other stage of life.
His training has already reached veterinary programs, emergency hospitals, students, and foster communities—with participants reporting greater confidence and creativity when treating neonatal patients.
Kristen’s idea addresses a familiar challenge in feline hospitalization: cats often experience less stress when they have a place to hide, but traditional hiding boxes can make it difficult for hospital teams to continuously observe the patient.
Her proposed solution is a clear hideaway box lined with perforated privacy film. The cat would experience the security of an enclosed, darkened space, while the veterinary team could still see inside and monitor the patient.
Amanda’s idea focuses on improving access to veterinary care by addressing a barrier that is not always medical: transportation.
Her proposal combines a medication and prescription-diet courier service with transportation assistance for clients who may be elderly, have limited mobility, lack reliable transportation, or struggle to bring multiple pets to the hospital.
By helping clients obtain medications on time and attend important follow-up appointments, the program could improve treatment compliance, support earlier intervention, strengthen chronic disease management, and reduce preventable medical emergencies.
Sarah identified a common challenge with early detection testing: clients do not always arrive with the urine or stool samples needed to complete the recommended screening.
Her team created prepaid sample-collection kits containing the supplies and instructions clients need to collect and return urine, stool, or both after their appointment.
The solution is simple, organized, and easy for a hospital team to implement. In 2025 alone, more than 1,000 prepaid samples were returned to the hospital for analysis—helping the team complete testing, detect disease earlier, and monitor chronic conditions more consistently.
Alyscia developed Pawfect Stay, a digital intake platform designed to replace manual boarding paperwork with a centralized, automated experience.
The platform allows pet owners to create profiles, manage bookings, submit waivers, provide vaccination records, and document medications, dietary needs, and other important care instructions before arrival.
By moving this information into a structured digital system, Pawfect Stay aims to strengthen infection control, reduce medication and transcription errors, maintain nutritional consistency, minimize stressful check-in delays, and provide faster access to critical information during an emergency.
Taylor reimagined the hospital’s surgical and dental schedule to create more opportunities for comprehensive oral health assessments and treatments while improving patient safety and team efficiency.
By introducing dedicated COHAT afternoons and separating routine dental cleanings from more complex oral surgeries, the hospital can complete more dental procedures, identify disease earlier, and reduce the amount of time patients spend under anesthesia.
The new model also gives veterinarians more direct oversight throughout each procedure, helps doctors build confidence in dentistry, and allows clients to better understand the value of preventive dental care through full-mouth radiographs and before-and-after results.
Dr. Thornberry and her team developed a two-part approach to pre-surgical preparation that includes completing bloodwork before the day of surgery and providing families with a customized Comfort Pack of medications to administer before their pet arrives.
By reviewing laboratory results ahead of time, the veterinary team can identify concerns, speak with the family without the pressure of surgery morning, and make any necessary adjustments to the diagnostic or treatment plan.
The Comfort Pack also helps patients arrive calmer, more comfortable, and better prepared for anesthesia—while reducing vomiting, anxiety, windup pain, and avoidable delays for the surgical team.
It is a proactive model designed to create more informed owners, more comfortable patients, stronger communication, and a smoother, safer surgery day.
Dr. Chatterjee developed Petster, an AI-powered clinical education and medical-record companion designed to extend veterinary guidance beyond the clinic and into a pet’s everyday life.
Petster gives owners access to interactive, veterinarian-aligned education related to their pet’s medical history, allowing them to explore symptoms, preventive care, diagnostics, and treatment considerations before, during, and between appointments.
The goal is not to replace the veterinarian, but to help clients better understand recommendations, recognize concerns earlier, and make more informed decisions without relying on unreliable internet searches.
In one example, a client who was initially hesitant to schedule an echocardiogram used Petster to better understand the recommendation and contacted the clinic later that same day to move forward.
Dr. Gruenwald’s innovation introduces a standardized preventive wellness approach into every exotic-animal encounter—even appointments that were originally scheduled for illness, grooming, or another non-wellness concern.
Her framework evaluates species-specific husbandry, nutrition, preventive risks, and age-appropriate screening needs for small mammals, reptiles, birds, and aquatic species. Clients also receive tailored educational resources and recommendations for future wellness care.
This approach addresses a major challenge in exotic medicine: many of these patients are not presented until they are already sick, allowing husbandry-related conditions and early disease to go unnoticed.
Through routine weight tracking, body-condition assessment, nutritional counseling, and early screening, Dr. Gruenwald has identified disease sooner, improved acceptance of diagnostics, and helped prevent recurring husbandry-related conditions.
Her work has also created change beyond the exam room. Following her educational outreach, a local pet store transitioned its budgies and parakeets to pelleted diets—helping new owners begin with healthier nutrition from the start.
