Kristin Welch, DVM, DACVECC
Dr. Kristin Welch, DVM, DACVECC, is a board-certified veterinary emergency and critical care specialist with over 20 years of experience in veterinary medicine. She completed her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine training at Michigan State University, followed by a rotating internship at the University of Pennsylvania and residency training in Emergency and Critical Care at Tufts University. What has consistently drawn her to the field is a deep commitment to both people and animals, recognizing that veterinary medicine is at least 75% communication and partnership with pet owners. She brings a strong focus on collaborative care, combining clinical expertise with a patient-centered and client-focused approach.
She is the Founder and Chief Medical Officer of DVM STAT Consulting, an international veterinary teleconsultation service she launched as a pilot in 2019 and expanded globally in 2024. The platform was created to bridge a critical gap in veterinary care: far more veterinarians exist than veterinary specialists, leaving many clinicians without timely access to advanced guidance. Today, DVM STAT Consulting provides 24/7 support to veterinarians anywhere in the world, offering access to a team of approximately 45 board-certified specialists across disciplines including internal medicine, cardiology, neurology, oncology, emergency and critical care, radiology, and more. The service is designed to support rural practices, resource-limited settings, and clients who may be unable to pursue traditional specialty referral, ensuring that high-quality veterinary care remains accessible regardless of location or financial constraints.
Prior to founding DVM STAT Consulting, Dr. Welch spent 10 years as the Director of an emergency department in a startup veterinary hospital, where she helped grow the organization into a 22-doctor team and establish it as the first VECCS Level 1 facility in the Southeast. That experience in building a high-performing, collaborative emergency and critical care team reinforced her understanding of both the strengths and limitations of localized specialty care. It also inspired her to expand her impact beyond a single region, ultimately leading to the creation of a scalable, international model that brings specialty expertise directly to veterinarians wherever they practice.
• Board-Certified Veterinary Specialist in Emergency and Critical Care
• Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine - DVM
• Tufts University - Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Residency Program
• Small Animal Clinical Proficiency Award
• Wade O. Brinker Orthopedic Surgery Award
• Phi Zeta Veterinary Honor Society
• International Veterinary Ultrasound Society
• Trident Veterinary Medical Association
• American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care
• Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society
• American Veterinary Medical Association
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to really focus on compassionate communication. My job is more than 75% focused on working with the families that love their pets, and veterinary medicine is my primary job, but if the pet owners don't understand why we're making the recommendations we're making and what the costs are associated with those recommendations, I really haven't done my job well, even if the patient has an excellent outcome. We always understand that veterinary medicine emergencies are extremely stressful, and as an emergency specialist, my career is focused on dealing with the sickest of the sick patients. Recognizing that it is never a good time for something like that to happen to the pet, and the huge emotional toll that it takes on the family and the suddenness of it, is an extremely important part of my role. I really counsel them on what the best next step is for their family and ensure that the pet has the best quality of life.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It is really important to get as much exposure to our industry as possible and to work and collaborate with as many types of veterinarians as you can in the early years while you're trying to determine what area of veterinary medicine you want to go into. There are so many avenues with our career - you can go into a small animal private practice, you can be a large animal practitioner, you can be an industry vet, you can work in lab animal medicine, you can be a business owner like myself. The opportunities truly are immense as a veterinarian. By exposing yourself to as many different areas of veterinary medicine, it really allows you to open your eyes and see what one lands best for you. When I first started in vet school, I had thought I wanted to be a mixed animal practitioner working with horses and small animals, and then during veterinary school, I absolutely fell in love with emergency and critical care medicine and teaching, and that's what I went into for the next 20 years. As a veterinarian with a veterinary degree, you can work in probably 10 or 15 different types of veterinary industry roles, and it can change over time. The opportunities are pretty endless.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest opportunity in veterinary medicine is to really push the envelope in terms of providing services that expand access to care affordably for pet owners. My company, DVM Stat, really fills that gap by enhancing pet owners' access to board-certified specialty care while they continue to work with the vet that they trust, who's right down the street from them. It allows every veterinarian to have a team of 45 specialists virtually that help to support their hospital and what they can provide there without having to hire and have an increased overhead at their practice. Financial restrictions are such a common problem in veterinary medicine that often limit pet owners' ability to provide the care that they want to their pets, and we really serve to mitigate that by making our consultations affordable and accessible to everyone.