Jason Szumski spotlights a new path from clinic to AI startup

CURRENT FULL VERSION: A new episode of Vet Life Reimagined puts a spotlight on one of veterinary medicine’s emerging career archetypes: the early-career clinician who is also building technology for the profession. Host Dr. Megan Sprinkle interviews Dr. Jason Szumski about going straight from vet school into practice while co-founding VetSOAP, a veterinarian-led AI scribe company focused on automating SOAP-note creation. The episode presents Szumski not as a departure from veterinary medicine, but as an example of how some younger veterinarians are trying to solve practice pain points from inside the profession. That framing also fits the show’s broader editorial arc, which has recently explored both nontraditional veterinary careers and AI as a “co-pilot” that should support, not replace, the human side of care. (music.amazon.co.jp)

That framing matters because the backdrop is a profession still wrestling with workload, burnout, and documentation drag. The University of Illinois, which profiled Szumski and co-founder Dr. Aaron Smiley in 2024, described VetSOAP as a response to the difficult transition from veterinary school into clinical practice. In that profile, the founders positioned the software as a way to improve both efficiency and care quality by generating records from audio recordings and surfacing relevant guidance from curated information sources. More broadly, that pitch aligns with a wider conversation in veterinary media about how to make care delivery safer and more sustainable for both people and pets, rather than simply layering more expectations onto already strained teams. (vetmed.illinois.edu)

The new podcast adds more detail to the company’s positioning. According to the episode description, Szumski says VetSOAP was built without outside investors, private equity, or an MBA, and that the platform is now used by thousands of veterinary professionals each day. On the company’s website, VetSOAP says its notes are editable, requires no formal training to get started, and can support remote access and telemedicine workflows. The product is priced at $50 per user per month, underscoring that this is being marketed as an operational tool for everyday practice, not an experimental pilot. (music.amazon.co.jp)

The broader industry context suggests Szumski’s story is arriving at the right moment. Veterinary business and innovation outlets have increasingly treated AI scribes as one of the most immediate and lower-risk applications of AI in practice. Today’s Veterinary Business, for example, has highlighted scribes as a practical answer to the profession’s documentation deficit, while a separate innovation report described scribing as a comparatively low-risk use case because it targets administrative work more than diagnosis or treatment decisions. Vet Life Reimagined has been making a parallel argument from a different angle: in recent episodes with leaders such as Dr. Mike Mossop and Dr. Christie Long, the show has emphasized that innovation should enhance relationship-centered care, help teams listen better, and create more sustainable jobs rather than chasing technology for its own sake. Those distinctions are important as practices sort through a crowded AI market and try to separate workflow tools from clinical decision-support claims. (todaysveterinarybusiness.com)

There is also a note of caution running through the conversation around AI documentation. While enthusiasm is growing, veterinary recordkeeping standards have not changed just because the first draft is machine-generated. AVMA policy emphasizes that adequate written or electronic treatment records must be maintained, and that veterinary informatics systems should support confidentiality, interoperability, and continuity of care. In practice, that means any AI scribe still has to fit into a workflow where the veterinarian reviews the note, confirms accuracy, and remains accountable for the final medical record. That caution is echoed in Dr. Andy Roark’s Cone of Shame discussion on what is really happening when teams use AI scribes: even supporters who say the tools make practice more enjoyable by removing disliked administrative work are looking to human medicine’s longer track record for lessons about where benefits are real, where risks emerge, and how overreliance could create new problems if implementation gets sloppy. (avma.org)

A second, related thread in the profession is whether technology is helping teams work better or simply normalizing higher throughput expectations. That concern shows up beyond AI coverage. In another recent Cone of Shame episode, guests discussing the AAVMC Spectrum of Care Initiative argued for training veterinarians toward “golden outcomes, not a gold standard” and for meeting clients where they are, with practical competence and context-sensitive care. Read alongside the AI-scribe conversation, that perspective is a useful reminder that efficiency tools should support better care delivery in the real world, not just enable practices to ask clinicians to do more with less. (todaysveterinarybusiness.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is less about one founder story and more about a shift in who is shaping veterinary innovation. Szumski’s path suggests that recent graduates are not waiting to accumulate decades of seniority before building tools, companies, and alternative career tracks. If those tools genuinely reduce time spent charting, they could help practices reclaim doctor time, improve record completeness, and make clinical schedules more sustainable. But the upside depends on disciplined implementation, including privacy review, staff training, note auditing, and clear expectations that AI supports care delivery rather than substitutes for clinical thinking. It also depends on whether practices use those gains to strengthen patient care, team wellbeing, and client communication, which is the broader standard many veterinary innovation leaders are increasingly applying to new technology. (music.amazon.co.jp)

The workforce angle is especially relevant in education and retention. New graduates often enter a profession that expects medical rigor, emotional labor, and business fluency all at once. Stories like this one may resonate because they widen the definition of a viable veterinary career: full-time clinician, yes, but also builder, operator, and translator between medicine and technology. That idea is reinforced by other recent Vet Life Reimagined guests, including leaders who entered veterinary medicine after careers in software or business and now help redesign care models from inside large organizations. For practices and veterinary schools, that may raise a useful question: are we preparing veterinarians not only to deliver care, but also to redesign the systems around care? That inference is consistent with the way Vet Life Reimagined has been covering nontraditional veterinary careers and AI as a “co-pilot” theme across recent episodes. (music.amazon.co.jp)

What to watch: The next phase will be less about AI novelty and more about proof, including whether veterinary scribes can demonstrate reliable accuracy, responsible data handling, and measurable reductions in documentation burden without creating new compliance or quality risks. Just as important will be whether practices deploy them in ways that preserve relationship-centered care, support spectrum-of-care decision-making, and convert efficiency gains into a more sustainable workday rather than a denser one. (todaysveterinarybusiness.com)