I’m thrilled to share some big news: Instinct has acquired VetMedux (the company behind Plumb’s, Plumb’s Pro, and Clinician’s Brief) in order to better support veterinary hospitals, caretakers, and the important work that they do.

While we recognize that this is a significant change, it is also a natural next step in the evolution of both of our companies.

VetMedux (previously Brief Media) and Plumb’s were founded by industry visionaries Elizabeth Green, MBA, and Donald Plumb, PharmD, respectively. Over the past decade I have worked with Beth, Dr. Plumb, and the talented VetMedux teams in various partnerships to help solve challenges for veterinary hospitals.

Today, that partnership takes a new and exciting leap forward, powered by the common mission of creating a better future for veterinary caretakers.

In the coming months as we bring these two amazing organizations together for the long term, Instinct EMR, Plumb’s, Clinician’s Brief, and the teams behind them will join forces, and we can’t wait to share what this means for hospitals and veterinary professionals everywhere.

The State of Veterinary Care in 2024

Why are we doing this, you ask? The landscape for operating veterinary centers and providing high quality animal care is shifting rapidly. Caretakers themselves are faced with well-documented high levels of stress and the resulting dire consequences. Among the many challenges veterinary practices face, increasing staffing pressure in the face of booming demand for services ranks at the top. 

Veterinary centers are urgently reevaluating the tools they provide their teams to help them do their jobs better, more efficiently, and with greater support. At the heart of these tools sits veterinary practice management software.

But veterinary software is no longer just a system for scheduling and billing. It has become the set of critical tools we use to care for our patients—and it’s time we design them that way.

So when we launched Instinct EMR in 2021, our approach was different.

First, Instinct is veterinarian-led, and everything we build continues to be guided by practitioners who acutely understand the needs of those of us in the trenches. Second, we’ve focused on turbocharging hospital operations through first-of-their-kind decision support systems built into the software.

Over the years, this has included powerful features like our leading Treatment Plan, drug and patient safety warning systems, live predictive financial estimates, calculators, and of course, our industry-first Plumb’s integration.

Naturally, we’ve heard that hospitals love these advancements, and want us to bring more of them into Instinct products. And in doing so, we strongly believe that we can have a meaningful impact on caretaker and practice stressors.

Instinct, Plumb’s, Plumb’s Pro, and Clinician’s Brief are coming together to do exactly that.

Two Mission-Aligned Companies Become One

In addition to deeply understanding the importance of Plumb’s and Clinician's Brief as a practicing veterinarian, I have a lot of history with the VetMedux teams.

Prior to founding Instinct, I served as their Director of New Product Development working side by side with their team during the launch of the digital version of Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs.

I was also intimately involved in the early planning of Plumb’s Pro, a new product launched in 2021 that includes all of Plumb’s but with additional authoritative monographs on diseases and treatments beyond drugs, aiming to be a one-stop-shop for trusted and constantly updated point-of-care referencing for veterinarians.

Plumb’s Pro is an ambitious undertaking finally bringing a clinical resource like UpToDate to veterinary caretakers. UpToDate provides our human health counterparts with a trusted point-of-care reference covering all things diseases, treatment recommendations, drugs and more. It’s peer-reviewed, authored by domain experts, available digitally, and kept constantly updated.

Until the launch of Plumb’s Pro, veterinary medicine has lacked a similar tool with a comparable editorial team behind it and with the integrated gold-standard drug reference, update frequency, breadth, and ease-of-access it promises.

Over the past few years, I’ve proudly watched the VetMedux team grow Plumb’s and Plumb’s Pro. I’m a frequent user of their tools in practice myself and a champion of what they stand for.

So when Beth first approached me about her thoughtful plan to find a partner with the ability to take these important brands to the next level, we began to explore the exciting possibilities of joining forces. During our conversations, the alignment of our missions to “care for the caretakers” of the world’s veterinary centers stood out, and the dream started to evolve into a bold and ambitious vision.

What This Means for Veterinary Hospitals

Going forward, Instinct is clearly no longer just a practice software company. Instead, we're building mission-critical, essential tools for the veterinary caretakers of today and tomorrow.

Plumb’s and Clinician’s Brief are two of the most trusted and essential references in our industry, and we are committed to keeping them widely available, aiming to strengthen them under Instinct’s ownership.

Instinct has a strong track record of putting our customers first. We continue to offer our award-winning Instinct Treatment Plan platform to any hospital, supporting both a stand-alone version and an integrated version that connects to other practice management systems, in addition to being built into Instinct EMR.

We also plan to double down on the trusted, constantly updated content and exceptional service that Plumb's, Plumb's Pro, and Clinician's Brief are known for.

Finally, as we take this next step forward, we’re being very thoughtful about making sure that we protect the important work we’re doing on Instinct EMR for our hospitals without disruption or distraction. To that end, Instinct and VetMedux will operate as two deeply coordinated divisions as we plot a better future for veterinary centers everywhere.

Instinct’s Exciting Future

So what is going to change? Much like we’re doing with Instinct EMR, we plan to invest in product advancements constantly over the coming years, in order to take our new family of products to the next level for the industry that we care intensely about.

Our mantra is going to be more and better. These tools are now even more veterinary-led, have even more technology expertise behind them, have even better resources to invest, have even more amazing teammates supporting them, and have an even better future with unlimited potential together.

For hospitals already using Instinct and VetMedux products, this means a very exciting future. In the coming years, we’re planning deep content integrations for Instinct hospitals, and we’re looking forward to bringing users of Clinician’s Brief, Plumb’s, and Plumb’s Pro even more innovative product development.

Beyond that, together we offer incredible new resources and a much bigger team (newly 130+ strong) to further invest in innovative product development and our expert 24/7/365 support.

As we enter this next phase, we envision a future where veterinary centers everywhere can rely on high quality software that actually helps rather than hinders — helps us provide better care, run better practices, educate animal owners, and care for our caretakers.

We know this is a significant leap forward, and we believe it's these kinds of bold moves that enable us to forge something meaningful and transformative for our industry. Instinct is well on our way, and now with Plumb’s, Plumb’s Pro, and Clinician’s Brief, that’s exactly what we’re building for you.

Thank you for your trust and support. To an exciting future!

Read more about Instinct and VetMedux in our press release.