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Veterinary · head to head

ImproMed vs VIA Veterinary

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ImproMed

Veterinary

On-premise Windows practice management with deep inventory and financial reporting, now inside Covetrus

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
VIA Veterinary logo

VIA Veterinary

Veterinary

Medically oriented veterinary practice management, now owned by Antech and Mars Veterinary Health

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: ImproMed it is a server-based Windows product, so the practice owns the hardware, the SQL database, the patching and the backup regime, and those costs never appear in the software quotation.; VIA Veterinary the vendor is owned by Mars Veterinary Health through Antech, the same group that owns Antech Diagnostics, Banfield and VCA, so a practice is buying its record system from its diagnostics supplier and its competitor in the consolidation market.
  • They diverge on capability: ImproMed covers Multi-location inventory, VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which ImproMed and VIA Veterinary actually diverge.

Attributes where ImproMed and VIA Veterinary differ
AttributeImproMedVIA Veterinary
PlatformsWindowsWindows, Web, iPadOS

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Veterinary).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in ImproMed

  • Multi-location inventory
  • Production reporting
  • Wellness plans
  • Laboratory and imaging integration
  • On-premise deployment
  • Covetrus prescription management

Only in VIA Veterinary

  • Clinical flowsheets
  • Integrated SOAP
  • DICOM imaging
  • Laboratory results
  • VIA Cloud
  • VIA Touch
  • Multi-site
  • Open standards integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

ImproMed

  • A multi-doctor hospital carrying significant inventory value that needs reorder points and vendor price comparisonnot VIA Veterinary
  • A practice manager who has to analyse production by veterinary surgeon and reconcile it against the general ledgernot VIA Veterinary
  • A hospital in an area with unreliable internet that will not put the appointment book and records on a cloud connectionnot VIA Veterinary
  • A small group running wellness plans that need recurring billing and compliance tracking against patientsnot VIA Veterinary

VIA Veterinary

  • An emergency and critical care hospital that runs on treatment flowsheets and a live whiteboard rather than an appointment calendarnot ImproMed
  • A multi-doctor specialty referral practice needing DICOM imaging and lab results inside the medical recordnot ImproMed
  • A practice already committed to Antech diagnostics that wants first-party laboratory and imaging integrationnot ImproMed
  • A multi-site hospital group consolidating separate practice management installations onto one systemnot ImproMed

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

ImproMed

  • It is a server-based Windows product, so the practice owns the hardware, the SQL database, the patching and the backup regime, and those costs never appear in the software quotation.
  • Covetrus markets Pulse as its strategic cloud platform while holding three legacy practice management systems, so ask directly what development ImproMed still receives and get the support commitment and end-of-life notice period in writing.
  • Remote and mobile access is weak compared with cloud systems, which matters for on-call work, home record review and multi-site groups sharing patients.
  • The interface is dense and dated, and training a new receptionist or technician on it takes materially longer than on a modern cloud system.
  • If Covetrus does steer customers to Pulse, the migration is a full data conversion with retraining, so the cost of the eventual move should be priced into the decision now rather than later.

VIA Veterinary

  • The vendor is owned by Mars Veterinary Health through Antech, the same group that owns Antech Diagnostics, Banfield and VCA, so a practice is buying its record system from its diagnostics supplier and its competitor in the consolidation market.
  • No pricing is published at all, so licence, implementation, conversion, hardware and support costs all arrive through a sales process and cannot be compared against alternatives before you engage.
  • It remains substantially a Windows on-premises product with a cloud option layered on, so hardware, network and backup remain your operational problem in the traditional deployment.
  • Integration depth with IDEXX diagnostics is the obvious risk given the ownership, and a practice with in-house IDEXX analysers should test that path explicitly rather than assume parity with Antech.
  • The clinical emphasis means front-of-house and client engagement features, including online booking and marketing automation, tend to arrive through third-party integrations rather than natively.

Pricing, plan by plan

ImproMed

On request
  • ImproMed Infinity$undefined/year
    • Quoted per practice with a licence and an annual support agreement
    • Server hardware and database licensing are the responsibility of the practice
    • Data conversion and training charged separately

VIA Veterinary

On request
  • VIA Veterinary$undefined/year
    • Pricing available only through a sales process
    • On-premises or VIA Cloud deployment
    • Implementation, data conversion and training quoted per hospital

Which should you pick?

Choose ImproMed if

  • You need multi-location inventory.
  • You work on Windows.
  • You also want production reporting.
ImproMed review

Choose VIA Veterinary if

  • You need clinical flowsheets.
  • You work on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
  • You also want integrated soap.
VIA Veterinary review

Questions people ask

Is ImproMed or VIA Veterinary better?
Neither clearly leads. ImproMed starts at On request and VIA Veterinary at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, ImproMed or VIA Veterinary?
ImproMed starts at On request and VIA Veterinary at On request.
Does ImproMed or VIA Veterinary run on more platforms?
ImproMed runs on Windows. VIA Veterinary runs on Windows, Web, iPadOS.
What is ImproMed best used for?
ImproMed is most often used for a multi-doctor hospital carrying significant inventory value that needs reorder points and vendor price comparison, a practice manager who has to analyse production by veterinary surgeon and reconcile it against the general ledger, a hospital in an area with unreliable internet that will not put the appointment book and records on a cloud connection, a small group running wellness plans that need recurring billing and compliance tracking against patients. Of those, a multi-doctor hospital carrying significant inventory value that needs reorder points and vendor price comparison and a practice manager who has to analyse production by veterinary surgeon and reconcile it against the general ledger are not what VIA Veterinary is typically brought in for.
What can ImproMed do that VIA Veterinary cannot?
ImproMed covers Multi-location inventory, Production reporting, Wellness plans, Laboratory and imaging integration. VIA Veterinary covers Clinical flowsheets, Integrated SOAP, DICOM imaging, Laboratory results.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

ImproMed: Is ImproMed still being developed?

Ask Covetrus for a release history and a written support commitment. Pulse is the stated strategic cloud product, and ImproMed, AVImark and RxWorks are all legacy systems in the same portfolio.

VIA Veterinary: Who owns VIA?

VIA Information Systems is an Antech company and part of Mars Veterinary Health, the group that also owns Antech Diagnostics, Banfield and VCA.

ImproMed: Can it run in the cloud?

It is designed for an on-premise server. Hosting it on a remote desktop service is possible but it is not a native cloud application and does not behave like one.

VIA Veterinary: Is pricing published?

No. Licence, implementation, conversion and support costs come only through a sales process.

ImproMed: What is it better at than cloud alternatives?

Inventory control and financial and production reporting. Practices with high stock value and several veterinary surgeons are the ones that notice the difference.

VIA Veterinary: Can it run in the cloud?

Yes, VIA Cloud is offered alongside traditional on-premises installation, with cloud backup included.

ImproMed: What happens to my data if we move to Pulse?

A conversion project. Establish before signing what Covetrus will convert, what it will not, and who pays for it.

VIA Veterinary: What kind of practice is it built for?

Medically intensive practices: emergency, specialty, referral, equine and multi-doctor small animal hospitals where flowsheets and whiteboards drive the day.

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