Specialist opinions
Not open yet. We are approving the first specialists now, so the specialist option in Send this case is on screen but greyed out, and the Specialists page does not show its send buttons until we open. Everything below describes how it works once it opens; nothing on this page can be used today. You can still browse Specialist opinions in the gallery sidebar to see who is listed and what it costs, and if you are a board-certified specialist yourself you can apply now — see the end of this page.
You can send a case to a board-certified specialist, who reads the whole case and writes back with what they would do. It is a paid remote opinion, arranged through Librevet: you keep the films, the plan and their reply together on the case, and nothing leaves the app.
This is not a video consult, and it is not owner-facing. It is one vet asking another vet a clinical question, in writing, about a case both of them can see.
What is telereferral?
One vet advising another at a distance, which is what a specialist opinion is — some people call it a teleconsult. It is a written opinion on a case you send, from a board-certified specialist. There is no video call, and the animal’s owner is not part of it: the opinion is for you.
How do I send a case to a specialist?
Two ways in, and they end up on the same screen.
From the case, which is the usual one:
- Open the case, or find it in your gallery.
- Click Send this case — the share icon on the case card, or the same button in the toolbar above the film. On a phone or tablet, tap … on the card and choose Send for a specialist opinion.
- Choose A specialist, for an opinion.
- Pick the discipline, choose what you want (a full plan, or a full plan with 30-day follow-up), and say what you want to know.
- Pay, and the case goes out.
From the Specialists page, when you want to see who is available first: open Specialist opinions in the gallery sidebar and click Send a case for an opinion. It asks which case, and then you are on the same screen as step 4 above. Each specialist’s own listing also has an Ask button, which takes you there with that person already chosen.
Either way the case is the thing being sent, so you can only send a case you own. A case a colleague has shared with you cannot be sent for an opinion: inside it, Send this case shows A specialist, for an opinion greyed out with Make your own copy first. Make your own copy if you need to.
The Specialists page is also just somewhere to look: who is listed, in which disciplines, what a certificate in each means, and what an opinion costs. Nothing there charges you until you reach the last screen and press Pay and send.
Who are the specialists?
Every specialist in the directory has applied to Librevet, uploaded proof of board certification, and been approved by us. The certificate is checked by a person; it is not a self-declared title.
What “board-certified” means depends on where they trained. At the moment we accept these three, and no others:
- United States — a diplomate of the relevant American college (for example ACVS for surgery, ACVIM for internal medicine or neurology).
- Europe — a diplomate of the relevant European college (ECVS, ECVN, and so on).
- Australia and New Zealand — a Fellow of the ANZCVS in the relevant subject. Membership is not the same qualification and is not accepted.
The directory shows each specialist’s name, qualification, where they work if they have said, and the disciplines they take. Their certificate itself is private — only Librevet sees it.
What does it cost?
There are two things you can buy, both priced in US dollars for everybody, wherever you are:
- Full plan — they read the whole case and say what they would do differently, in enough detail to follow.
- Full plan with 30-day follow-up — the same, plus one round of questions back, and a look at any follow-up images or results you add within 30 days.
Both prices are shown on the case’s Send page before you pay; the Specialists page shows the starting price. Stripe’s payment page adds any sales tax on top and handles your local currency. You pay when you send, and nothing is charged for browsing, asking who is available, or writing the question.
You can withdraw a request with Withdraw and refund at any time until it is answered, whether or not a specialist has taken it on, and you are refunded in full. If a specialist declines it, you are refunded too.
How long does it take?
Sent to whoever is free first: within a day of a specialist taking the case on. That clock starts when somebody claims the case, not when you send it. A case nobody has picked up yet is not late — it is waiting, and you can withdraw it at any point for a full refund.
Sent to a specialist you named: within two days of the case reaching them, which is when your payment goes through.
If a specialist claims a case and then goes quiet, we chase them: one reminder when the promised turnaround passes, and a day after that the case is taken back off them — their access is revoked, and a pool case goes back into the pool for somebody else to claim.
Can I choose which specialist gets it?
Yes, but the default is faster.
By default the case goes to every approved specialist in that discipline at once, and the first one to claim it does the work. That is a race, and it exists so cases get looked at promptly.
You can instead name specific specialists — up to five at once. That is the slower path, because you are waiting on one person’s diary rather than on whoever is free, so it is the one you opt into rather than the default. Naming more than one buys more than one opinion, and is charged per specialist; the race is always a single opinion, because only one of them can win it.
A specialist who is away says so, and cannot be chosen by name until they are back: their listing reads Away, or Away until the day they return. A case sent to everyone in the discipline can still be taken by anyone who is not away.
What do I get back?
A written report on the case, in five named sections:
- What you see — the images and history they were given, and anything already measured on them
- Do you agree? — your diagnosis, and where they would differ
- What you would do — the plan itself
- One section that depends on the discipline — Implant and size for orthopaedic surgery, Approach and materials for soft tissue surgery, and so on
- Anything to watch for — complications, alternatives, and when to refer instead of advising
Only What you would do is compulsory; a specialist fills in the rest where they have something to say. They can attach a file as well.
The reply arrives as a thread on the case inside Librevet, and you are emailed to say it has landed. It is not sent by WhatsApp, Teams or any other consumer messaging app — a patient’s case does not go into one, and the confidentiality terms specialists sign say so.
Where do I read the opinion when it comes back?
Open the case and press Specialist report in the top bar — the stethoscope, which appears once you have sent the case and wears a number while it is out with a specialist. A line under the page’s heading says where things have got to, and Read the opinion opens the reply: their report, the Questions and replies thread, and anything they attached. Until it is back the same line says Sent, or that a specialist is reading it, and See the request opens what you sent. Send this case lists it too, under Who has it now, and the case’s card in the gallery says Opinion back.
What if there is nobody listed in the discipline I need?
The directory lists every discipline the app knows about, including the ones nobody has listed for yet, and says which is which. A discipline with no approved specialist cannot be sent to — you would be paying to put a case into an empty room — but it is shown rather than hidden, because “nobody has listed for this yet” and “Librevet does not do this” are not the same sentence.
We add specialists as they are approved.
Does the specialist see the whole case?
Yes. Once a specialist has the case — a named one when your payment goes through, a pool one when they claim it — they open it the way a named colleague would: the films, the patient details, the signalment and history, your plan and measurements, the attachments, and the question you asked. They can work on the plan too, at the same time as you.
For a case sent to the pool, any approved specialist in that discipline can preview the films, the signalment and your question until somebody claims it — that is deliberate, so nobody has to claim a case blind. Once it is claimed, everyone else loses access and only the specialist holding it can see it.
Can I ask follow-up questions?
You can message the specialist in the case’s Questions and replies thread on either option, from the moment they have the case; they are emailed when you do.
The full plan with 30-day follow-up adds their commitment: one round of questions answered on the same case, and a look at any follow-up images or results you add within 30 days, saying whether the plan was achieved.
How do I become a specialist myself?
You need to be a diplomate of an American or European college, or a Fellow of the ANZCVS. No other qualification is accepted at the moment.
Go to Settings → Specialist work. That is where you apply: you tick the disciplines you take, upload proof of board certification and a photograph, and agree to what a listing commits you to. Librevet approves listings by hand.
It is not where you buy an opinion on your own case; that is always done from the case itself, or from Specialist opinions in the gallery sidebar.
I am a listed specialist. Where are the cases sent to me?
Once your listing is approved, Specialist work appears in the gallery sidebar, just under Specialist opinions, with a number beside it when something is waiting for you. On a phone it is in the menu, which shows a dot when something is waiting.
That page is your whole workspace: cases waiting in the pool for somebody to take, cases sent to you, what you have earned, and your listing. The email about a pool case opens that page directly. A case sent to you by name arrives as an ordinary has shared a case with you email; you will find it under Specialist work, and under Shared.
Settings → Specialist work still points you to the same page.
I am a listed specialist. How do I stop new cases while I am away?
On Specialist work, in your listing, choose Away until a date or Away until I switch it back under Away — not taking new cases. It takes effect as soon as you choose it; there is nothing else to save.
While you are away, vets cannot choose you by name and you are not emailed about cases in the pool. Cases already sent to you stay with you, and you can still pick up a pool case yourself if you want to. Away until a date switches itself off on that day; the other stays on until you choose Taking cases again. Your approval is not affected either way.
I am a listed specialist. How do I write my report?
On Specialist work, press Write your opinion on the case. It opens a writing screen for that one case.
On the left is the case: the question you were asked, the animal, what the referring vet wrote, and the films — press a film to see it large. On the right is your answer: a box for your own notes, then the sections of the report for your discipline. Only What you would do is required. You can attach your own letter or PDF as well.
When you are finished, press Send my opinion.
To measure or mark up the films, or to play the videos, press Open the case — at the top of the writing screen, beside the films, or on the case in Specialist work. It opens the case itself, with all its tools. What you have written is kept, and going back to Specialist work takes you straight back to the report you were writing.
A case sent for an opinion also has a page called Specialist report, behind the stethoscope in its top bar. That is the case’s own report and a different thing: writing there does not send your opinion, and the vet who asked is not told about it. The opinion you are being paid for is the one on the writing screen.
Is my report saved if I close the tab before sending it?
Yes. Everything you type on the writing screen is saved as you type — on that computer at once, and to your account a few seconds later — and the top of the screen says which, and when. Come back to Specialist work and you land on the report you were writing; the case also says how many sections you have written, and Carry on writing opens it.
Can I start a report on one computer and finish it on another?
Yes. Your report is saved to your account as well as to the computer you typed it on. Open the case from Specialist work on the other computer and what you wrote is there — as long as you have not typed anything new on that screen first, which is never replaced.
Your unsent report is deleted when you send it, when you decline the case, and when the case is withdrawn or taken back. Anything left unsent is deleted after six weeks.
Can AI summarise the referring vet’s history, lab results and attachments for me?
Yes. On the writing screen, press Summarise the history. It reads what the referring vet sent — the question, their answers, their clinical summary, and everything they attached: PDFs, photos (a photographed lab report, a clinical photograph), Word or text documents, and short videos. It writes a short summary that includes what the attachments add, picks out anything bearing on anaesthetic or treatment risk, lists what the material does not say, and puts the laboratory results that matter in a table — every value copied as the laboratory printed it, with the file it came from.
It is there to be read first, not instead. Under What they attached, each file shows one line saying what was read in it, next to an Open button that opens the file right there — so you can check the reading against the file. Any file it could not read is named, with why. For a photograph or a video it says what is plainly visible; it does not grade a lameness, measure, or diagnose from a picture. It never reads the radiographs.
It only runs when you ask for it, and only on a case you are answering. The animal’s name, the owner’s name and the microchip are not sent; an attached document is read as it was written.
Can I ask a question about the documents a referring vet sent?
Yes. On the writing screen, type it into Ask what was sent — for example “what was the last creatinine?” or “when did the lameness start?” — and press Ask. The answer comes only from what the referring vet wrote and attached, names the file it came from, and quotes numbers exactly as written. If the material does not say, it tells you so rather than guessing, and it will not interpret a result or suggest a diagnosis.
Your questions and their answers are kept with your report draft on that computer, so they are still there when you come back from looking at the films. Check anything that matters against the file itself.
Can AI write my report for me?
It can type it up — it cannot decide anything. Write your notes in the Your notes box, in shorthand and in any order, then press Type up my notes as a report. Your notes come back as full sentences under the right headings.
It uses only what is in your notes. A section you have already written is never overwritten: the typed-up version is shown beside it and you choose. Any figure that was not in your notes — a dose, a size, a number of weeks — is listed for you to check, and Undo puts everything back as it was. Nothing is sent until you press Send my opinion, and the report goes out under your name, so read it through first.