IVC Evidensia

With the growing number of sustainability leads across our markets being guided by our Group Sustainability & ESG Director, Sarah Heath, we continue to shape how our veterinary care can play a bigger role in supporting wider sustainability goals and creating a positive impact across our profession and at a local level too. Throughout the Group our colleagues are at the heart of our Positive Pawprint Strategy, together striving for meaningful progress for our people, our patients, our planet and the communities we’re part of. Take a look at some of our Group's sustainability initiatives and achievements this quarter.

At the heart of our more complete care strategy is a focus on preventative care. As part of that, our wellness screening programme is designed specifically for healthy adult cats and dogs who show no outward signs of clinical disease. It's a proactive screening tool that can identify hidden health concerns at an early stage, enabling earlier treatment and improving health outcomes. By the end of 2025, more than 50,000 screenings had been completed across the UK. One case audit revealed that the majority of screenings uncovered clinically significant findings requiring further diagnostics, treatment or lifestyle changes, demonstrating the extraordinary value of the programme. Following its success in improving animal health, wellness screening is now being adapted for rollout across our other markets, helping to deliver the same improvements in care on a global scale. 

Our Care Frameworks are born from taking our team's clinical expertise, research and lived experience to design a set of principles that support decision-making and create consistency across each of our markets, with 2025 being a landmark year for them. Now live across 11 countries, our growing portfolio of 96 Care Frameworks provides teams with practical, tailored recommendations for common conditions. Helping aid decision-making and align the best possible standard of care across our markets. Their holistic approach integrates evidence-based veterinary medicine with animal welfare, client communication, operational guidance and behavioural science. They also contribute to our sustainability goals, helping reduce antimicrobial use in conditions such as dental disease, while supporting the guided use of low-flow anaesthesia techniques. While we continue to test and refine our Care Frameworks, development by our Quality Improvement teams shows no signs of slowing down, with feedback from clinics proving to be “invaluable in identifying areas where we can further enhance patient care.” - Jayne Schouten, Clinical Director at Letchworth Vets in the UK. 

As the largest veterinary Group in the UK, Europe and Canada, it puts us in a unique position to share clinical expertise at pace. Whether that's supporting and empowering our teams through investment in our Learning Hub, providing on-demand training and facilitating the sharing of best standards of care across the network. Or bringing lived clinical experience and new evidence together to develop care frameworks that aid decision-making and support tailored care for each of our patients. Externally, it’s about pushing the boundaries of veterinary science through research projects and sharing knowledge with the wider veterinary profession. Whether that’s investment in research published in leading journals, or our own publications shared at conferences around the globe. 

Improving patient outcomes isn't just about treating illness, it's about preventing it. Across our network, one of the pillars of our More Complete Care strategy is a focus on preventive healthcare, including regular vaccinations, health checks, wellness screenings and dental care. Together, these proactive measures help our teams identify potential health issues earlier and more importantly, prevent them altogether - empowering us to live up to our purpose of Healthy Animals, Happy Owners. But as veterinary medicine continues to evolve, we'd love to hear from the wider veterinary community on what you believe the greatest impact on patient outcomes will be over the next 5 years. Please vote in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Throughout the year, we make time to celebrate and support Pride across all the countries we operate in. Whether it be in small day to day actions or wider initiatives, we’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels seen, supported, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. As part of our People Promise to be a great place to work, we have established a number of Diversity and Inclusion focus groups - one of which is for our LGBTQIA+ communities. These committees have helped us strive to embed inclusion in everything we do - with resources that help our teams across the network learn, celebrate, and show visible allyship in meaningful ways. With Pride celebrations happening throughout the world in various months, these are just some of the ways our teams have been embracing and supporting our LGBTQIA+ colleagues and beyond.

Brilliant work from the team at CHV des Cordeliers, having completed a successful operation using a technique not yet seen in veterinary medicine. The team adopted near-infrared fluorescence imaging, a technique more commonly used in human medicine, to see a tumour more clearly in a 7-year-old Golden Retriever. This helped them identify where the tumour ended and healthy tissue began, enabling them to protect surrounding neurological structures while removing the tumour in full. This is outstanding work by all involved, helping to push the boundaries of what better veterinary care looks like. By adapting advanced tools used in human medicine, the team has been able to support more precise neurosurgical procedures and continue delivering the best long-term outcomes for the animals in our care.

Great work from the team at IVC Evidensia France on providing an excellent hands-on training programme focused on mastering echocardiography techniques, supported by Mindray Animal Medical. The programme focused on advanced diagnostic equipment, including the Vetus 80 and Vetus 9 systems, highlighting the value of learning various ultrasound modes such as Doppler and 2D imaging to support the diagnosis of cardiac pathologies. As we continue to provide the best state-of-the-art equipment to our teams, the focus remains on collaboration. It’s great to see veterinary professionals with varying levels of experience coming together to exchange knowledge, develop their skills, and learn from one another. Ultimately supporting earlier diagnosis and more informed clinical decision-making, helping our teams further improve long-term outcomes for the animals in our care. 

Earlier this month was our IVC Evidensia Farm Vets Congress at Manchester United Football Club - Old Trafford. A brilliant two days bringing together our farm vets, their teams, and group leaders for another opportunity to connect, share expertise, and learn from one another.    We are lucky to have such an incredible network of talent, all striving to engage, inspire, and develop our colleagues every day. A big thank you to all our partners for their support in helping to run the event.    Take a watch below to hear some of the main talking points from this year's congress and what our farm vets will be taking back to their practices.