Applying data to antimicrobial stewardship

Mars Veterinary Health recently published its’ 2025 Science Impact Report, which provided a review of the company’s veterinary research and global initiatives that aim to advance veterinary science and clinical practice. In a dvm360 interview, recorded at the 2026 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida, Dottie Brown, DVM, MS, DACVS, vice president of science and innovation for Mars Veterinary Health, discussed how the company is using medical records to address this One Health issue.

The following is a transcript of this video:

dvm360: How is Mars Veterinary Health applying patient data to antimicrobial stewardship?

Dottie Brown, DVM, MS, DACVS: We really lean into One Health. So the concept that the environment, pets, people, we're all we're all connected, and antimicrobial stewardship is a really important component to that. And we know there are guidelines out there. We know there are things that we should be doing. We know that sometimes things aren't happening the way that's intended. And we can get a lot of insights from our medical records around what's actually happening. And that's the great thing about having millions of pets visits every year, and being able to look at that in our medical record system, sometimes a little bit of what's missing is the why to that. Why is it happening that way? And we need to do a bit of a deeper dive right into that real world data that we have.

We think, as an example, about dermatology, and we know that's a space where, throughout their lives, animals are repeatedly put on antibiotics. And why, right? Is it a condition specific thing? Is there something about the disease that we need to interrogate and manage differently? Is there something about the treatment perch that we do differently? Is there something about the education of either the owner or the veterinary profession or both that we need to do so really leaning into the why is where we need to go now that we like have this baseline data around what we're doing. And again, it's a really important priority. This antimicrobial stewardship is a really important thing for us to get a handle on, because the impact is all three, right? Pets, people [and] planet.

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