Episode #102 – Dr. Michael Q. Bailey

Technological Transformation
Dr. Michael Q. Bailey discusses his distinguished career in Veterinary medicine, advancements in diagnostic imaging, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine, and his leadership within the AVMA. He shares insights on technological innovation, Veterinary education, the evolution of patient care, and the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of the Veterinary profession.

Transcript

Stacy Pursell:
Do you work in the animal health industry or veterinary profession? Have you ever wondered how successful people got their start and what led them to where they are today?
Hi, everyone. I’m Stacy Pursell, Founder and CEO of The VET Recruiter, the leading executive search and recruiting firm specializing in the animal health industry and veterinary profession. I was the first recruiter in the United States to focus exclusively on this space, building the first search firm dedicated to this unique niche. Over the past 28 plus years, I’ve developed relationships with many of the industry’s top leaders and trailblazers.
The People of Animal Health Podcast features the incredible individuals I’ve had the privilege to connect with throughout my career. In each episode, you’ll hear their stories, their career journeys, leadership lessons, and the impact they’ve made on the industry. With a wide range of expert guests, you’ll gain insights, inspiration, and ideas you can apply to your own career. Thanks for tuning in, and enjoy the episode.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. Today I’m joined by Dr. Michael Bailey, a veterinary radiologist, educator, researcher, innovator, and leader whose career has spanned clinical medicine, academia, research, corporate leadership, and organized veterinary medicine. Dr. Bailey is a Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Radiology, and serves as a Director at IDEXX, where his work focuses on diagnostic imaging, telemedicine, education, and innovation. His career has also included leadership roles with Banfield, the Pet Hospital, and major academic institutions, as well as service to the American Veterinary Medical Association, including as AVMA President. Throughout his career, he has helped advance digital imaging, telemedicine, radiation safety, artificial intelligence, and veterinary education in the United States and internationally. Michael, welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. How are you today?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
I’m fine, but hearing that now you’re making me feel old because I couldn’t get all that done in just a few years, could I?

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you have had an incredible career, and I would like to start off at the beginning. Where did you grow up and what was your life like growing up?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
I was born in Queens, New York, but I grew up in New Jersey. In fact, most of my formative years were in Hopewell, New Jersey, which for those of you don’t know anything about Hopewell, it’s where George Washington landed when he crossed the Delaware.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, what attracted you to veterinary medicine, and how did you ultimately find your calling in diagnostic imaging?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Veterinary medicine, by the way, I always had an interest in medicine, and my parents said I was a dog whisperer from a little kid. So I guess putting medicine and dog whisperer together led me to veterinary medicine. Animals just, let’s just say they calm me. They make me feel as if they understand me and I try to understand them. And then leading to radiology, which is not something that happens overnight, because when I went to veterinary school at Tuskegee, I thought I would be a general practitioner, mixed practitioner, maybe even had an interest in swine. But then about that time, technology started taking off, and I of course continued to love medicine, but then wanted to see how I could get myself involved with the technological aspect of medicine.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you became a Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Radiology in 1987. When you look back over your career, how has veterinary diagnostic imaging changed and which advances have made the greatest differences for patients and for veterinarians?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Oh, well, let’s think about 1982 when I graduated, I heard about ultrasound but I had never seen an ultrasound picture or a machine. That’s because veterinary schools, very few of them had them. And when it comes down to what we talk about regularly, AI, and we’ll define that more later, that was something I saw on TV shows and it was all science fiction.
So since my graduation from veterinary school, we have not just had ultrasound become readily available in medicine, but we’ve also seen CT, which most people don’t know actually was first introduced by EMI, which is the same company that recorded the Beetles. And then magnetic residence spectroscopy or imaging, which has been around in the organic chemistry laboratory for quite a while, but there you just use fluid samples, but now that’s made so we can do whole body imaging. And that has all become, I’m going to say, readily available to veterinary medicine, at least in the United States or in North America, even.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, at Banfield, you helped lead the transition to digital radiology across more than 900 hospitals and helped develop a national image sharing system. What did that experience teach you about leading technological change on that scale?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
It’s not easy, that’s what I learned. I myself have been involved in telehealth since the late ’80s. When I became involved with Banfield, they had already been, I’m going to say, dabbling with image storage across their hospitals, but they were using what’s called a proprietary system, which means you either use their software or you could not view the images.
And about that time, the US military and DICOM standards were coming out, and I convinced Banfield they needed to change to a universally standardized system. And when I say universally standardized, whether you’re in human medicine or veterinary medicine, your software and your equipment can read all the images. So, Banfield listened to me and we became at that time, and I think still to this day, the largest distributed imaging veterinary practice in the world, which means that you could take an image in one hospital, let’s say in California, and an hour later you can be viewing those images in New York City if you want, just because of the system that was put together.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, how much of successful innovation is really about people and adoption, rather than the technology itself?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Well, you of course can’t have one without the other. So you first have to have the available technology or at least the dream of what that technology can be, because sometimes you need to convince somebody else you need to build this. It’s not existing yet, you need to build it. But you also have to have people who are willing to take a chance, because when it’s new or when it’s, let’s say, just in the dreaming stage, you have to have people who can invest in what your dream may be. So I was, I’m going to say fortunate in that Banfield, and at that time they had been bought by Mars, was willing to take a chance on this new, innovative technology because they saw the possibility of it really making a dent in our ability to treat our veterinary patients.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, now today, artificial intelligence is becoming a much bigger part of veterinary diagnostic imaging. Where do you believe AI can create the greatest value for veterinarians and where should the profession be cautious?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Oh, you could have a whole podcast on that, Stacy. AI, artificial intelligence, and I want to stop there for a minute, because you did say artificial intelligence so everybody knows where we are. But when we talk about AI, we have to be sure we do define whether it’s artificial intelligence, avian influenza, artificial insemination, actual intelligence.
So if we’re talking about artificial intelligence, the biggest plus that it can do for medicine, whether it’s human medicine, veterinary medicine, whatever type of medicine, is it can make us more efficient. And the efficiency doesn’t even have to be… A lot of people say, “Oh, is it going to put radiologists out of business?” No, radiologists are always going to be needed. You always have to have a human in the loop, but there’s a lot of repetitive tasks which are done in every aspect of medicine, and if we can put that off to the AI or to the AI agent, then that makes it so that we have more time for the human to be involved.
Now, am I saying that AI will not become involved in diagnostics? I’m not saying that, because this is another place that AI can be. AI is much faster than a human can ever be. It can collate vast amounts of information in a matter of seconds or minutes, but it’s not better than humans. If it was programmed by a human, it’s going to make the same mistakes as a human, but faster. So we need to have… And it doesn’t have the ability to second guess itself. And when I say second guess, this can look like this particular disease, but you can say, “But wait a minute, the bias is that this disease is happening in this location, but this patient was in that location.” It doesn’t have the ability to second guess itself and stop for a minute and think, “Could it be something else?” That’s where humans come in because we say, “Yes, that looks good, but what about this possibility?”
So, AI is a tool. It is a friend to be worked with, but if we do not watch it is going to get us in trouble. When I say us, I don’t mean veterinarians, I don’t mean medicine. I mean us people, in trouble.

Stacy Pursell:
Do you see AI, meaning artificial intelligence, primarily augmenting the veterinarian or could it fundamentally change the veterinarian’s role?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
It’s not going to change the veterinarian’s role. I’m hesitating right here because it could change the veterinarian’s role if the individual is lazy. But in reality, it will not change the role. What I mean if it’s lazy, if you let the AI do all the work, yeah, it can make you faster and go through the cases, but then you’re going to be called on the carpet. It may even be to your state board or to a malpractice suit, and you have to remember AI doesn’t need malpractice insurance because you’re the one making the diagnosis, not the AI.

Stacy Pursell:
That’s a very good point. Well, you have taught at institutions, including Tuskegee University, the Ohio State University, and Michigan State University, in addition to educating veterinary professionals internationally. What have those experiences taught you about developing the next generation of veterinarians and specialists?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Veterinarians worldwide are essentially the same. That’s the first thing. They have the same concerns. They want to do the best for their patients, they want to do the best for their community, because remember, veterinarians aren’t just the doctors of animals. They also are responsible for human health and environmental health. So, all veterinarians are concerned about the same thing. However, veterinarians are trying to manage all of these responsibilities while remaining sane, while remaining healthy themselves, and things like artificial intelligence can maybe give us a little bit of a breather if we use it properly.

Stacy Pursell:
Are today’s veterinary students different from the students you taught earlier in your career?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
No. They have a different way of doing things, but that’s fine. When my father was growing up, they watched the radio. I’m serious when I said watch the radio, because they would sit there. My father grew up in Harlem, and he told me the story about War of the Worlds, and that they were staring at the radio as the spaceships were coming down the East River, and he would run upstairs to the roof of his apartment building trying to look down to see if he could see the spaceships coming down to the river. And then grew up to have television, and our parents would say, “Stop staring at all that TV. It’s going to hurt your eyes.” And now, we have our phones which you can watch movies on and whatnot. So we do things in a different way because of the technology that’s there, we need to adapt to that, and we need to be sure that we are interacting with our environment.
But just what I’m saying, are students different? No, they are using the current technology that’s available to them just like we did and just like our parents did. And we may not understand the current crop because we didn’t grow up that way. So, we have to learn. We’re a multi-generational profession, a multi-generational society, and we have to learn how to work in that multi-generational environment.

Stacy Pursell:
Those are some good points. Well, Michael, your research has ranged from advanced diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine, to cancer research and radiation therapy. What scientific work are you most proud of, and how has being a researcher shaped the way you practice and lead?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Being a researcher has taught me that the things you’re looking for may be not what you expect when you find it, and that goes with medicine and that goes with people. So you may be looking for this, and then all of a sudden you find out, “Boy, I didn’t expect that, but look at how this interacts here.” So, I think it’s made me a more well-rounded individual. And it’s also allowed me when I’m doing my clinical work to think about, “Boy, how can this be applied? What do we need to do so we can make this more readily available to the group who really needs it?” So, I think it’s just opened up my mind. It’s not just a clinical medicine mind, it’s a research mind. It’s a policy mind, because there’s a lot of things that you have to look at how is X, Y, Z going to be applied, and then how do you have to develop policy? So, it allows us to apply it.

Stacy Pursell:
You’ve spent time in Washington as an AVMA AAAS congressional science fellow working on health, education, agriculture, and nuclear energy policy. How did that experience change the way that you think about the intersection of science, veterinary medicine, and public policy?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Well, that’s part of what I was alluding to previously in the policy, because there’s things that you can say that we want to get this done, and I’ll use an example, the New World Screwworm, which is involving. First of all, it’s a cross-border parasite, so we have to know how to work with our colleagues across multiple borders. And there’s a lot of disease that way, but I’m talking about this one because it’s really in forefront. And then it came down to things were dragging on multiple years. Did we really need to think about anything we could do to try and treat the individual patient like dogs and cats versus a whole herd? And people said, “It’s not all that important.”
And all of a sudden it was here, and yeah, we had dogs and cats crossing the border, and we needed to think about how we could treat them so that this disease was not crossing the border with them. This isn’t just a matter of, yeah, what’s good in the laboratory, what’s good under a microscope. We had to think about what’s going to be accepted by the governments on any side of the border. And it’s something because in this day and age where we have jet planes and whatnot, what may be happening in warmer southern climates now can be in colder or what were colder northern climates. So we have to think about, what is the potential to cross a border anywhere in the world now? So, climate change is also part of what we’re talking about.

Stacy Pursell:
What do you wish more veterinarians understood about how policy gets made?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
It is a long, arduous task. Most people, and we’re going through a cycle right now where people are listening to politicians and a lot of people think, “Well, dang it, just get in there and get it done.” The problem is, you look at the House with 450 people, you look at the Senate with 100 people, and you have to try and convince at least the majority of those people to see it your way so that you can get a vote, and that takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of sitting down over tables, over lunch, over dinner, just talking to them saying, “Listen, this is how it’s going to benefit your constituents.” So, you have to educate them in a way.
And a lot of my medical colleagues go in and use what’s called medicalese when talking to people. One of the things I’ve learned, I’m not saying I was perfect and at times still fall into it, but you have to learn that medicalese does not sell. You have to be able to talk humanese, you have to talk at the human level, and the politicians have to. They love the sound bites, so you need to find how you can give them a sound bite that’s going to help them sell what’s going on.
And then we always have to remember, you cannot expect to get it 100% of your way, at least most of the time. If you can meet somebody and get 75%, guess what? That’s a win. So we have to learn how to recognize the wins, how to achieve the wins, and how to talk to our fellow citizens, and some of them are citizens of the world, not necessarily citizens of the country, in a way that they will appreciate that you are respecting them as much as you want to be respected.

Stacy Pursell:
When you put 500 people in a room, you have 500 different opinions.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Well, we say you put 10 radiologists in a room and you have 15 different opinions.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you’ve been involved in organized veterinary medicine for many years, including service on the AVMA board of directors and as President of the AVMA. What motivated you to step into leadership?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Interesting question. I was at the leadership level at the state level when they asked me to go to AVMA House of Delegates. And when in the House of Delegates, I saw an opportunity where I could have more influence at the board of directors level. So, I ran for that office and won. I did not intend when I ran for board of directors to run for President. In fact, I figured, okay, I’ll do this and then I’ll retire from the AVMA because I’ve accomplished quite a bit.
When I was getting near the end of my tenure, I said, there’s a whole lot more I need to get done. And what is this that need to get done? Well, one of it is, I’m African American and I was the only one of my character that I saw, for the most part, in organized veterinary medicine. So I felt, I need to do something so more people can see, first of all, that African Americans can be involved, and I want African Americans to see that they can be involved. So I figured, okay, let’s take this next step and make sure that no matter what your ethnic, cultural characteristics are, you can see this possibility that you can be there.
Now you have to realize, there’s a reason why African Americans have been underrepresented in veterinary medicine. One of them is because for many years, and we’re talking about well into the ’60s, African Americans were prohibited from being involved in many state professional organizations. So they had to start their own, but that means it was separate, and separate but equal does not really exist. There’s a benefit to it. I went to a historically Black college and it gave me a lot of benefits because it allowed me to mature around a group of people which understood what I had. But at the same time, if you always are being separate, that means you do not reap the benefits of, I’m going to say, the larger or more established organization.
So, I said there were two reasons. One is the fact that African Americans were disallowed from being involved, and because of that, many African Americans said, “Heck, if they don’t want to be involved with me, why should I want to be involved with them?” And that has carried on into the 21st century. So now we need to say, “Yes, we need to have a place where you can go and you can feel comfortable, safe, but at the same time, you need to be involved in the greater world too.” So, how can we stitch those two things together and make sure that multicultural groups feel that they can have their place, as well as have a voice in the more global group?

Stacy Pursell:
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What did you learn about the profession from seeing it at that level?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Well, you already heard me say that we’re multi-generational, which is an important thing. That multi-generational goes on to the next thing. We have over 30 different schools of veterinary medicine in the United States, and that number is growing. We have people who are graduates from schools from around the world that we interact with and also that are practicing in the United States. One of the things that that has taught me is the fact that there are at least, if there’s 30 schools, and there’s more than that, but if there’s 30 schools, that means that there’s 30 ways being taught to do things. So, we need to figure out how to stitch those things together. That’s one of the advantages of having an overall accrediting body and licensing body in that, here’s the basic way we need to do things in the United States but that doesn’t mean you can’t work with that. But we’re going to take everybody’s things into consideration, so please have these basic aspects.
So we need to know what those differences are, and sometimes we need to examine them because sometimes they’re old-fashioned, that’s part of the multi-generational. Old-fashioned, by the way, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. It just may mean that that’s not the way that you were taught in veterinary school. And sometimes, there’s something new being taught that it would be good if everybody at least was aware of this other possibility.
When I was teaching at one of the universities you named, they asked me to come and ultrasound a horse that had pleurisy fluid in its chest. I really said, “You really don’t need me to come in and do that.” They said, “Yeah, we need you to come in.” Okay, I came in and did it. I ultrasound the horse, and then I turned around to the students and I said, “Now, you know how to determine the same thing without an ultrasound machine, don’t you?” And the students shook their head no. I turned to the resident, “You know how to determine this without an ultrasound machine, don’t you?” And this resident said, “No.” I said, “Okay, wait a minute.” I went to my office, got a spoon and a plexus hammer, came back. Ultrasound the horse, we marked a level of the fluid and said, “That’s what the ultrasound machine tells you,” and then I used the hammer going up, and when you reach the fluid air interface, you heard the sound change.

Stacy Pursell:
Interesting.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
$10 hammer and spoon, $40,000 ultrasound machine. You can do this out in the field and you can do it if your ultrasound machine’s broken and you don’t have to spend $40,000 and you don’t have to call your radiologist in on a football weekend.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
So, sometimes the old ways still have value.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes, I can see that. Wow. Well, when you look at veterinary medicine today, what concerns you most about the profession and what gives you the most optimism?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Once again, we could spend the whole show talking about this. What concerns me the most? The thing that concerns me the most is that the expense of becoming a veterinary medical doctor, that would be VMD, I live in Pennsylvania, remember, or a doctor of veterinary medicine, or whatever the other initials might be in other countries and whatnot, what it costs to accomplish that is virtually the exact same as what it costs you to become an MD. Now, your return on investment, at least they say that you should be able to pay off an investment like that in two years worth of salary. It doesn’t mean you haven’t paid off in two years, but what you earn in two years should be what you need in order to pay off that kind of investment. It’s getting to the point where no, that’s not realistic. I mean, we’re talking about maybe 10 years worth of salary, which means it’s going to take you 20 years, at least, to pay it off.
That is preventing people from being able to enter the profession. It also is having an even greater impact on people of lower social economic means. And when I put it that way, because a lot of people are going to hear, “Oh, you’re talking about Black folks, right?” No, there’s a lot of white folks who are in the same social economic means who just cannot make it. It doesn’t matter. If you’re in a lower social economic means, you cannot afford to enter a profession. And a profession is a way that people are able to move their family up, as far as generational wealth. So we are closing that door on the individual. So, that’s gotten me very concerned.
Artificial intelligence does concern me, so don’t get me wrong. Once again, I could spend a whole show talking about the pluses and the minuses of AI, but one of the things which I have seen is somebody sends off a radiology report or it could be a cytology report, it comes back, they might read the report and then they stick it in the file and say, “Okay, it says here that it’s X, Y, or Z,” but they never looked at the original sample. So it could be telling you that there’s green cheese on Mars, but you have never looked at Mars to see it for yourself. So, it concerns me that a lot of people are just taking current technology at its face value where I’m sorry, that face value has no value at all, because if the answer is wrong, the answer is wrong.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah. Well, a very good point. You have had a front row seat to decades of change in veterinary medicine. What has surprised you most about how the profession has evolved?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
I guess it has surprised me that we have delved so deeply into the high technology in a large number of practices. And I’m putting it that way because I’m not saying delving into high technology, I’m talking about the high number of practices. I personally never thought that every single general practice needed to have its own x-ray machine and now, you see a lot of practices having their own CT scanner. This is duplication of costs and that duplication of costs has to be paid for. So that means that the pet family is going to be paying for it, but it also means that we’re stretching the expertise of people to read them. And some people will say, “Well, I as a GP can read this as good as any radiologist.” That may or may not be true, but it’s not going to be true across the GP range. However, there’s things that a GP can do better than I as a radiologist can do.
So I’m saying, “You do what you do best. Let me do what I do best. But if I have this coming from 100 different practices, it would be so much easier if they were coming from five different practices.”

Stacy Pursell:
Interesting.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
I could more easily handle the quality of the images, because you get stuff and image quality is variable and people don’t keep track of it. And I can also keep the people working with x-ray generating equipment safe more easily because it’s more easy to keep an eye of the quality of what’s going on if you have a hand in those facilities. But that’s just a superficial presentation.

Stacy Pursell:
If you could look into a crystal ball, what do you think the veterinary profession will look like in 10 to 20 years from now?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Not a whole lot different than it does today, except for the fact that the equipment which you’re going to be using is going to be more compact, more automated, but I think it’s going to be even more global. I would say absolutely more global, but what’s happening in our politics today may hamper some of that globalization. But we need to be more global because we need to make it so that everybody has access to the medical, intellectual, technical capabilities that are available to medicine and veterinary medicine. And we can, it can be done, it’s just the political will. This is part of where that policy portion comes in. We have to see if we can get the political will to go along with that.

Stacy Pursell:
I mean, it’s hard because it changes every time there’s a new administration.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Or inside that administration, yes.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Michael, you have accomplished a great deal across several different chapters of your career. What daily habits or disciplines have contributed most to your success?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Lack of sleep. Actually, I retired from my prior job June 30th, so it’s actually been nice that I’ve been home more, so, and I’m actually getting to see my backyard and my garden more.
But going back to try to answer your question realistically, it’s a matter of knowing what I need to get accomplished and saying, “Okay, how can I set time aside to get that done, as well as to keep healthy at the same time?” And health may be physical health, it may be psychological health, it may be family health, so there’s all those things to be considered. So it’s a matter of trying to prioritize where things are going, and sometimes life moves a little bit faster than you want it at the moment. So when it gets to slow down, take advantage of it.

Stacy Pursell:
Exactly. Well, that one resonated with me, lack of sleep. I’m right there with you. What has been one of the biggest adversities or professional challenges that you’ve had to work through and what did it teach you?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Once again, there’s so many. But I think the biggest thing is, working in a practice, having a family come in, see me, and all of a sudden catch their breath because they did not expect to see me, did not expect to see a Black man standing in front of them. They were wondering, “Okay, what kind of care are we going to get here? And should we have been warned?” And I had one person that actually told me that’s actually what was on their mind when they came into the room.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Now, why do I tell you that? It’s because the fact by the end of our appointment, they had told me that was on their mind and they said, “Boy, you’re not what we expected, but boy, you’re better than we ever hoped.” So, it’s a matter of realizing that there are people who are going to take you at face value, and if they don’t give you a chance, they never will find out what you can deliver. And then, you try to deliver more than they ever imagined. And that may not be the most eloquent way of putting it, but it really comes down to the adversity is how people can be surprised that anybody has the potential to give them what they need, and then the chore is making sure that they know that anybody can give them what they need if they’re properly trained.

Stacy Pursell:
My mother used to always say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Dr. Michael Bailey:
That’s exactly the point. So that’s probably, because I’ve had that happen, yes, in the exam room. I’ve had that happen on Capitol Hill. I’ve had that happen in academic institutions. And what I have learned and how I’ve handled that is, just push forward. If you’re doing the best that’s possible, they will see it eventually. And then they’ll say, “Boy, I’m glad I went to that person.”

Stacy Pursell:
I love that. Well, if you could go back and give the younger Michael Bailey one piece of advice at the beginning of his career, what would it be?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
There’s a few young ladies I should have dated where I didn’t. Don’t be hesitant. When I went to Tuskegee for veterinary school, I had never been South before. So my advice is, don’t be hesitant. Once again, you never know what you’re going to get. And there’s a few risks that I probably should have taken and I chickened out, and that includes some of my early international travel which I didn’t do because I was just hesitant to leave the country. But I’d say for the most part, I’m not a coward and I have taken a lot of risks, and my advice is, go for it. You only regret the things you didn’t do because you learn from everything that you did do, even if you screwed it up.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you don’t know unless you try.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
That’s right.

Stacy Pursell:
Michael, what is one message, principle, or lesson you wish you could teach everyone listening to our podcast?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
The least expected place is probably where you’re going to learn the most. So if it’s your number one choice to do something is there, your number two choice is here, your number three choice is there, your last choice is here, but you only got your last choice, don’t be hesitant to take the last choice. Just make as much out of it as you can. So I think I’m probably going back and back on the same theme, but I’m saying you learn something. The only thing that prevents people from learning is themselves. So if you go to someplace that you felt, well, I really didn’t think I was going to get the opportunities I needed, you don’t know what opportunities are there.
I went to Africa a few years ago and went to some of the villages and whatnot, and I saw some of the happiest kids in the world, even though they virtually had nothing. And I realized it’s because of the fact what to me was nothing was their world. So you have to realize, you need to experience their world and realize that having what they have is better than having less than what they have. So I’m not explaining this well, but I’m just trying to say, do not turn your nose up at anything because you’d be surprised what you learn.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, sometimes people can have everything and they’re not happy.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
That’s exactly true. So, your number one choice may be the thing that makes you miserable. So don’t think not getting your number one choice is going to ruin your world, make the most of what it is that you got.

Stacy Pursell:
Love that. My mother used to say, “You can learn from anyone, including the janitor.” She said, “When you’re in a building, say hello, greet the janitor. You can learn something from anyone.”

Dr. Michael Bailey:
That’s right.

Stacy Pursell:
Was there a book or a mentor, idea, or experience that significantly changed your mindset or the way you approached your career or life?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
I had a professor in undergrad at Rutgers, Dr. Tudor. He’s a University of Pennsylvania grad. He is a poultry pathologist. He was allergic to chicken feathers. Mind you, he was a poultry pathologist and he was allergic to chicken feathers. And-

Stacy Pursell:
That must have been a challenge.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
It was a challenge to him but he loved birds, and he turned out he was an excellent immunologist. And I once said, “Dr. Tudor, you’re allergic to chicken feathers. Why are you doing this?” He says, “Because I can help a lot of birds and I can deal with this simple medical problem by doing simple things.” He had a mask which he wore most of the time, and he also had his, at that time, it was a bottle and medication of epinephrine and whatnot in case he had a major allergic reaction. They didn’t have EpiPens then. So he just said, “I’m here to accomplish something and this is the way I can accomplish it.” So, I think if you listen to the theme that we’ve been going around, it’s a matter of, yeah, sometimes you have to go through hardship to accomplish something, and he figured that’s what he was there for.

Stacy Pursell:
He had goals and he didn’t let those adversities set him back.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
That’s right.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you’ve got the mic. What is one thing you want to leave with the listeners at The People of Animal Health Podcast before you drop the mic today?

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Oh, dropping the mic, it makes me think I’m going to fall on the floor myself.

Stacy Pursell:
Don’t do that.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Veterinary medicine is probably one of the best, most broad-ranging, but challenging professions in the world. People do not realize how veterinarians actually shape, form, save humanity and the animal population worldwide. And I’m not being boastful here, but we think about if we have new diseases, they’re probably going to be zoonotic diseases. And for the most part, if you look at history, it’s been veterinarians who have diagnosed and helped develop treatments for most of the diseases that we are facing even today.
So I want people to realize that veterinarians, yes they are your dog and cat doctor, but veterinarians are your doctor, human doctor. Not saying we’re going to be giving you the injection, but they probably had a hand in forming what it is you may be using. Veterinarians are also the one who are going to try, with your help, keep your environment safe. And we cannot have a thriving country or world without veterinarians.
So I have a concern about we may be pricing people out of the profession, people who can have big contributions, and you never know who may come up with the next new treatment. So, what do I have to say? Veterinary medicine, you cannot leave home without a veterinarian being involved.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I love that. And for all of those listening, if you know a veterinarian, thank them, because they work very hard and they serve such incredible purposes. And Michael, I’m so glad I met you. I don’t know if you remember how we met.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
On a bus.

Stacy Pursell:
On a bus in Washington D.C.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Yeah.

Stacy Pursell:
During AVMA, we were going to the event, the fireworks, the music, and we were riding on a bus and we were sitting across the aisle and we started talking, and I’m so glad I met you that day.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Well, it’s always been a pleasure seeing you. I hope I will see more of you. And just because I’ve retired from one chapter of my life doesn’t mean I’m closing the book.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I look forward to what’s ahead, and thank you for being my guest today on The People of Animal Health Podcast. It was a pleasure to visit with you today.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Well, thank you for inviting me. And remember, everybody, veterinarians are what makes the world go around.

Stacy Pursell:
That’s right. Thank you, Michael.

Dr. Michael Bailey:
Take care, Stacy.