Advanced diagnostics at Willowbrook Animal Clinic

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Dr. John Palescandolo vividly recalls the day a distraught pet owner visited the Willowbrook Animal Clinic in Fairfield, New Jersey, because of a growth on her dog’s body. 

“This was an older dog with swollen lymph nodes and a tumor,” says Dr. Palescandolo, a veterinarian for more than 30 years. “We took a sample and used the Vetscan Imagyst® to get results fast. It turned out to be an aggressive cancer, and we were able to start the pet on chemotherapy that same day.”  

Vetscan Imagyst is a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence (AI) technology that allows veterinarians to conduct a variety of diagnostic tests and get results in minutes or hours.  

“If we didn’t have Vetscan Imagyst, we would have had to wait a week to get results on the sample and the cancer could have spread. We saved the dog’s life. In that moment, we realized the technology was a gamechanger for our practice,” says Dr. Palescandolo. 

Seeing 9,000 cases a year

Veterinarians and staff at the Willowbrook Animal Clinic see approximately 9,000 cases a year. “We’re very busy and keep office hours six days a week and have an emergency call line,” says Dr. Palescandolo. “Pet owners allow us – and expect us – to take really good care of their pets, because they’re part of the family. And we love pets too.” 

Willowbrook team members all have stories about how animals have impacted their own lives. For example, Dr. Ilka Bott-Wentworth, who joined the clinic in 2023, was raised on a dairy farm and grew up with sheep, donkeys, chickens, dogs, and peacocks, “Taking care of animals is in my blood.”  

Dr. Bott-Wentworth and others at Willowbrook use Vetscan Imagyst to run tests on pets’ urine, blood, tissue, feces and skin. “It’s great to have the quick turnaround time. The pet owner isn’t worrying for four days about their fur baby’s health. Instead, they get an accurate diagnosis before they leave the office.”  

Clinics that use Vetscan Imagyst also have access to a global network of board-certified experts to provide additional support and consultation as needed.  

Benefits for a busy practice  

To support a thriving clinic, veterinarians and staff at Willowbrook are fascinated with technology that can help them provide better results for patients and improve workflow at the clinic. Maddie Carnaghi Palescandolo is the Practice Manager at Willowbrook who first came across Vetscan Imagyst at a veterinary conference. “I love technology, and I wanted to be the first to use Vetscan Imagyst, because I knew it would make our lives much easier,” she says. “It’s practical and not time-consuming to use. It’s an amazing, intelligent microscope.” 

With Vetscan Imagyst, a veterinarian or technician simply places a sample from the pet on a slide, loads it into a scanner and steps back while the machine does the rest. A series of images are uploaded to the cloud, and AI algorithms analyze them. Within minutes, a comprehensive report is in the veterinarian’s hands.  

The equipment takes up little space on the office counter and is easy to use. “There is no learning curve,” says Dr. Palescandolo.  

Most importantly, the diagnostic results are reliable. “In the past, we would send off samples to a lab, wait for days and sometimes get back inconclusive results, which meant we had to test again,” says Dr. Joseph Osei, who recently joined the Willowbrook veterinary team. “But with Vetscan Imagyst, I can do better medicine, at a more efficient and effective rate.”  

Dr. Osei shares a case in which a pet owner brought a cat into the clinic. “This was a senior, overweight cat who had a growth, and the pet owner thought this was going to be the worst-case scenario. Instead, with Vetscan Imagyst, we found out quickly the mass was benign, and we worked together on a tailored care plan, including finding a time to remove the mass when it was convenient for the pet owner.”  

Having the technology also cuts down on repeat visits for the pet owner and the pet. “AI sometimes gets a bad rap for taking jobs – but it’s not taking a job. It’s helping everyone do the job better,” says Dr. Osei. 

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