Dr. Jake Rodgers | Rodgers Veterinary Care
In This Episode
In this episode of the Veterinary Innovation Podcast, Shawn Wilkie and Dr. Ivan Zak explore insights from Dr. Jake Rodgers, a relief veterinarian licensed in five states and founder of Rodgers Veterinary Care and Vet Buddies. Having practiced across general practice, urgent care, emergency, and access-to-care settings nationwide, Dr. Rodgers identified a recurring challenge facing practices: client communication and patient care consistently break down in the 364 days between annual clinic visits.
Dr. Rodgers introduces Vet Buddies, a care coordination platform that bridges this gap by assigning pet owners a dedicated veterinary student working under clinical DVM supervision. Unlike standard telehealth hotlines or automated apps, the platform centers around a living medical record managed by a real person who delivers proactive follow-up and guidance. The discussion covers how this model equips veterinary students with practical client communication training and case ownership, offloads administrative communication drag from practitioners, and establishes a horizontal network that supports independent practice ownership. Furthermore, Dr. Rodgers highlights how AI tools like Claude are reshaping practice workflows, arguing that as technological tools become more complex, the need for autonomous human judgment and relationship-driven care coordination becomes even more vital.
Learn more about Vet Buddies.
Dr. Jake Rodgers recommends ”Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari.
Topics Discussed:
- Between-visit care coordination
- Veterinary student mentorship
- Relief practice workflows
- AI and human workflows