AVMA President on the State of Veterinary Medicine and Its Future | Michael Q Bailey

In this episode of Vet Life Reimagined, AVMA President Dr. Michael Bailey, shares his powerful career journey from childhood dealing with dyslexia and doubting adults to becoming a national leader in veterinary medicine.

We discuss the future of the profession, the importance of diversity of thought, how the Tuskegee study shaped his perspective, and why sharing the value of the profession is so crucial for our future.

Dr. Bailey also offers honest lessons on burnout, leadership, and what it means to define your own path while helping move the profession forward.

Tune in for a motivating conversation with a leader shaping the next chapter in veterinary medicine.

Resources:

• Video episode on YouTube
• AVMA's Veterinary Leadership Conference (VLC) 2026

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Transcript

Michael Q Bailey: [00:00:00] To be a veterinarian is to be almost the ultimate person because you can decide what it is you want to do with your degree, and I think a lot of people undervalue veterinary medicine.

megan-sprinkle: Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined, and welcome to 2026.

I thought Dr. Michael Q. Bailey, AVMA President, would be the perfect guest to share this week. Dr. Bailey contributed to our 2026 trends episode from last week, and his voice, experience, and leadership have shaped and continue to shape the veterinary profession in powerful ways, and this conversation airs the same week as the AVMA's Veterinary Leadership Conference where I will be attending for the first time and I'll be speaking on how your professional circle can shape your veterinary career.

So please let me know if you'll be there too and come hear my talk, but. In this episode, Dr. Bailey shares both [00:01:00] personal and professional reflections from a child with big doubts, cast by others to becoming a veterinarian, a radiologist educator, and now national leader, you'll hear how his alma mater Tuskegee shaped his vision, how working alongside human medicine teams helped him understand the true value of diversity of thought.

And why protecting our people, not just their productivity is key to the profession's feature. Dr. Bailey doesn't shy away from hard truths. In this episode. He talks very candidly and from personal experience about overwork, burnout, resistance to change. And the ruts that can keep us from moving forward.

But he also offers inspiration, emphasizing the value of defining your own path and the path of our collective profession. It's a powerful conversation with a leader who understands where veterinary medicine has been and where it's heading. So let's get to the conversation with [00:02:00] Dr. Michael Q. Bailey.

when did you first know that you were even interested in veterinary medicine?

Michael Q Bailey: Um, when I was a little boy. How's that go? , I knew I was interested in science probably when I was around six years old. I asked for a microscope for Christmas, and by the time I was in junior high school, I knew I was going to veterinary school and people were trying to tell me, now, now, now it's hard to get into veterinary school.

I said, doesn't matter, I'm going to veterinary school. And, despite, the, Naysayers. And of course everybody's saying, first of all, not many people get in, even fewer people of African descent get in. I persevered so that, that's say earliest recollection.

megan-sprinkle: Yeah, , I also got told that when I was [00:03:00] younger that it's hard to get into and are you sure? , But what, was around you that, that made you think veterinary medicine , do you remember any stories your parents interested in animals?

Michael Q Bailey: Um, no. I think the biggest thing was if there was a sick animal, basically if there was an animal around, they would come to me. So, you know, people might be calling and whatnot, but invariably they would always come. To me, or if they were looking for me, they'd say, okay, where's the dog? Where's the cat?

That's where Michael's going to be. And even though I, I was born in New York, Queens, I was raised in New Jersey. People don't think of New Jersey as being a rural state, but actually I grew up in rural New Jersey. In the spring, you open up your windows for fresh air and you smell the manure being laid on the fields.

So I was [00:04:00] always looking for the animals. I was out in creeks, seeing what was, going on inside of the crick. I wasn't a fisherman. I was more of , an observer, birds. I always was wondering, what's that bird? Where's it going? Oh, here's the nest. Here's the habitat. And I was lucky that there was.

A lot of, uh, natural habitat around me and when I grew up, I, I'm sorry. So many people, one of the reasons our parents moved us out of, uh, New York was because they didn't feel it was safe for kids to grow up wandering the streets. And in New Jersey, I wandered all over the place, , whether it was walking.

And when I got a bicycle, . My brother and I, we'd leave in the morning and my mother would say, if you're not back by dinner time, don't be surprised if there's not any dinner there. So we were gone all day just wandering and doing things. So , it was a, a good childhood from that point of view, even though we encountered [00:05:00] some difficulties.

But luckily as kids, we didn't suffer, I think, tremendously from those difficulties.

megan-sprinkle: Yeah, parents will do a lot for their kids. So I bet , she could tell that you were a curious person and she wanted to give you a safe place to be curious.

Michael Q Bailey: Yeah, , they did say, if there was something to get into, not in a bad way, but if there was something to get into, that's probably where I was.

megan-sprinkle: Well, I also have read that you, when you were younger, had trouble with like spelling and reading because you had,

Michael Q Bailey: I was.

megan-sprinkle: dyslexia. Well, you still do, I guess. Sorry. At the time it was undiagnosed now, you know, what, what was that like, struggling in that aspect, having High goals when it came to academics.

But not really having an answer for why you were having the challenges.

Michael Q Bailey: Well, let's just say particularly in elementary school and I went to, Catholic school most of my first five years, it was like, [00:06:00] he's an underachiever. Don't worry. Something will come along. And yes, reading was , a big problem. Writing grammar, even early on, mathematics was difficult. And I say early on it was, it's something to be around the corner and hear your mother saying, yeah, we know that he has some mental deficiencies and we're just not sure what to do about it.

Megan Sprinkle: Oh, my.

Michael Q Bailey: And realize your parents are saying you are. Boy, my mind seemed to be working okay, but yet yeah, I, I understood. And, uh, I was lucky at, uh, one of my aunts, actually it was my godmother, was a school teacher in Delaware and we were visiting her and my mother had been talking to her back and forth about things.

And my godmother was watching me trying to read and trying to get through things. And that's when she said, [00:07:00] Kathleen, my mother, uh, this boy doesn't have mental difficulties. This boy is dyslexic. It's a totally different thing. And said, there's things that, you know, a it, with the way he is, he's probably going to to do fine, but still there's things we can do to help him along.

So what she did, she sat down with me and yeah, I had all these reading with phonics and be honest, my kind of dyslexia reading with phonics didn't work. But, my aunt started sending me up these reading, I'm gonna say primers because they were for different levels and was kind of get you interested in, she was always sending me things about science, about moon launches, about submarines, about animals.

, Just little short little things and saying, here, this might be something you'd be interested in. And yeah, I started reading [00:08:00] them and I'd be, you know, slow working out the words, asking what this word meant. And my mother would say, there's the dictionary. And believe me, we had them all over the house.

And finally, I remember, I think it was fifth grade where, you know, I was still an underachiever, but over that summer I said. People can't see. I was cursing. , I'm, there's things I want to know. So I went to the library almost every day and would pull out a book and start reading it and, you know, if it was one I'd put stick under my shoulder if it was one, which I liked.

And I would spend that week reading a book. And between fifth and sixth grade, I think I read 20 books over the summer. And I'm not saying I understood all of them, but I was there reading and then I've suddenly realized, hey, these are interesting. . And [00:09:00] I found my way of reading and just found heck with, everybody else.

I was finding my way. I just kept pushing into that. And when I said I had trouble with mathematics. They were going through what was called new math. And when I was a kid, I don't know what new math was compared to old math. My parents said they couldn't help me and I finally sat down and said, well, they're trying to tell me to do it this way, but I found that if I do it this way, I come down to the correct answer.

And teachers didn't like that 'cause they wanted you to show your work, but I found different ways of doing the math that came down to the correct answer.

But it came down to it wasn't. I had difficulty, I just had a different way of doing it and I could come down to the correct answer. So, , that's a little bit of, , Bailey growing up and doing it his own way. 

megan-sprinkle: Well, I know that you end up going to [00:10:00] college, and you end up getting a bachelor's degree in agriculture. , And you still had your sight on veterinary medicine, I'm, I'm assuming. So with agriculture. , How did you foresee yourself as a vet? Did you think Maybe large animal, mixed, small animal?

What, what were you thinking?

Michael Q Bailey: I was lucky in that the town which I grew up in and Hopewell. , And mind you once again, realize folks, I've been veterinary medicine for over 40 years now saying that because many veterinarians, I'd say the large majority of veterinarians, then were mixed animal veterinarians. , And the veterinarian had just on the other side of the hill from where I live, said, sure, come on, see what we do.

And he was a mixed animal veterinarian. And he would go out, he would start calls at six o'clock in the morning and he had a Volkswagen, which he had fitted out with all of his treatment boxes and whatnot. It was inexpensive. You could get into these New [00:11:00] Jersey. Once again, people think about these super highways.

New Jersey is a colonial state. The significance of that is a lot of the roads, even to this day. Were wagon trails, were horse trails. And all they did was they pave some of them over. They didn't make them wider, so you might have a two lane road, but it was really a one and a half lane road that they put a line down the center.

So, uh, he would take this Volkswagen 'cause it could get in anywhere and he would do his farm calls from six in the morning to about 11 and he'd be back in the office at 11. And between 11 and two, they would see small animal cases and then depending, 'cause there was several of them, they would go out and see farm calls again in the afternoon.

And then that evening, like, I'm don't remember the hours for sure, so don't hold me till, but let's say six o'clock in the evening till about nine, they would see small animal cases. [00:12:00] So.

megan-sprinkle: It's a

Michael Q Bailey: Yeah,

megan-sprinkle: day.

Michael Q Bailey: it was a long day and they started in this small clinic that was attached to one of the doc's house and that was actually in the middle of town.

And then they bought some land, moved it out further, which actually moved it closer to me where they put in a large animal facility also where they could do surgeries on horses and cows and whatnot. So they had things coming in. So I was lucky I was able to, to see all these things. And yeah, I went to an ag school and in fact I applied to, Rutgers University College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

I was also interested in, , environmental studies, and when I got the application it said Cook College, and I said, I didn't apply to any culinary school. What? Why did they get the college turned out? They had changed the name Cook, I think their first dean or something, I don't remember anymore. But, people who wanted to go to [00:13:00] veterinary school in New Jersey, this was the preferred state school in New Jersey to go to if you wanted to get into veterinary school.

So a lot of the professors there had new people at veterinary schools and a lot of graduates had gone. In fact, we tried getting a veterinary school in New Jersey while I was there, which by the way, New Jersey just got there first veterinary school, not at Rutgers, but, and the, one of the excuses, politicians always have excuses, why we didn't have a veterinary school is they had contracts and they said, well, we get more students in veterinary schools than states that have veterinary schools do.

Which was true of course, we paid outta state tuition. . But there was a, a good chance of getting in. So going through my four years of undergraduate work and yeah, I did work in agriculture, theriogenology, environmental science, a lot of water studies. One of the professors I had, actually worked with [00:14:00] seeing eye dogs.

megan-sprinkle: Cool.

Michael Q Bailey: he was a dairy geneticist, but seeing eye dogs was having a big problem with hip dysplasia. So they came to Rutgers and said, can you use your genetic background to help us reduce the amount of hip dysplasia in the dogs that were breeding and whatnot? So he got very involved with seeing eye dogs and yeah, they helped lower the amount of dysplasia 'cause genetics is genetics.

Even though he was, , agriculturally based, it shows how it applies back to small animal medicine. And I, I had a lot of good exposure, but I'll be honest, by the end of my fourth year, in my fourth year, I decided not to apply to veterinary school.

megan-sprinkle: What happened?

Michael Q Bailey: I was exhausted

megan-sprinkle: Hmm.

Michael Q Bailey: between studying and even then, you know, I still had my struggles.

I had to get through all this lit. And the [00:15:00] way which I study is I don't study one book. If somebody says, here's the book for the class, I go to the library and I pull out at least two or three other books. 'cause I like seeing different ways of doing things. This is how my mind puts things together. I have to see multiple ways.

Even if I eventually say, well, they're all full of manure, at least I've seen multiple ways that they're full of manure. But by the end of that I also was working at least 20 hours a week to put myself through school.

megan-sprinkle: Hmm.

Michael Q Bailey: by the end of my fourth year, I had a person who I was dating who applied and got into veterinary school and I said, no, I'm not applying at this time.

I needed that year off. I didn't know it was just gonna be a year, but I became an extension agent. So I became an extension agent, worked with 4-H, worked with agriculture, and partway through that I said, okay, this has been good, but this is not what I want to do. And then I applied [00:16:00] to veterinary school and got in. 

megan-sprinkle: Oh, that's fascinating. ,, I wanna acknowledge how neat that you were able to see the flexibility of being a veterinarian by, I mean, when you were telling me the story about being a, the dairy geneticist, that all of a sudden, you know, starts working on, , how to address hip dysplasia in seeing eye dogs.

Like, to me, I was like, that's just because veterinary medicine is just so cool that we can do

Michael Q Bailey: Oh,

megan-sprinkle: many different

Michael Q Bailey: people don't realize the diversity to be a veterinarian is to be almost the ultimate person because you can decide what it is you want to do with your degree, and I think a lot of people undervalue veterinary medicine.

megan-sprinkle: Yeah. That's why I have this podcast is to show people how flexible this really is. That's probably why I get so excited by that story. [00:17:00] but, uh, going into vet school, you, uh, you went to Tuskegee, , 

and I think I overheard an episode that you were on of a podcast, and I think you said that there were five people in your class. Is that

Michael Q Bailey: No, that was the first class at Tuskegee.

megan-sprinkle: Oh,

Michael Q Bailey: Yeah,

megan-sprinkle: I misunderstood. I was like only

Michael Q Bailey: yeah. No, no. There, there were 60 of us, 60 of us started, but the first class at Tuskegee had five people. Um, one of the people was a woman,

megan-sprinkle: woman. Yep. That's what, that's where the

Michael Q Bailey: so yeah. So 20% of the first veterinary class at Tuskegee was, uh, a woman. And they, from talking to people who were there and whatnot, I said, it wasn't any question they picked the most qualified people.

And being, we're talking about Tuskegee, I hope people know that, Tuskegee is the home of the Tuskegee Airmen.

megan-sprinkle: Mm-hmm. I've been there. It's really good.

Michael Q Bailey: The largest contingent of people who , became [00:18:00] Tuskegee Airmen actually came from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I live.

megan-sprinkle: Really? I did not know that.

Michael Q Bailey: And all of the pilot trainees had to have a bachelor's degree or higher, unlike most of the pilot trainees in the rest of the military.

I say the military, 'cause then it was Army Air Corps. , But, , you could, if you were not black, you did not have to have a bachelor's degree.

megan-sprinkle: Hmm.

Michael Q Bailey: So the Tuskegee Airmen had very high standards, and it shows in what they were able to accomplish. Dr. Patterson, Frederick, Patterson, who at that time was president of Tuskegee, was a veterinarian.

 obtained his degree from Iowa State University. They're very proud of him. He came to Tuskegee and beginning of World War ii, he actually went and lobbied the government saying, listen, if you allow us, we can train [00:19:00] airmen here in Tuskegee and show you that people of African descent can fly planes.

And of course, a lot of the, uh, military said, no, no, no. Blacks do not have the mental capacity to do it. And he said, no, no, no, we do. And he proved his point. Then after World War ii, particularly with the GI plan, he said, you know, we can start a veterinary school here and they can compete with, any veterinarian in the country if you allow us.

Michael Q Bailey: so Tuskegee. That was my first time in the South. But Tuskegee took people who were told they couldn't do and they proved they could.

megan-sprinkle: Do you feel like that culture continued even during your time there?

Michael Q Bailey: Yes. Tuskegee is always one where if you say it's impossible, the wrong tuskegees or the wrong people to tell something's impossible. [00:20:00] 'cause as soon as you say impossible, they'll say, okay, we'll take that challenge. 

megan-sprinkle: That's a good spirit to have for sure. , A again, were you still thinking mixed animal at that point? And when, when did even the idea of a, a specialty come

Michael Q Bailey: When I entered veterinary school, I thought I would go into practice, I mean private practice 'cause everybody I feel is practicing. . I did very strongly consider a large animal. First of all, , I love horses. In fact, even though I had trouble feeding myself, I had a horse of my own while I was in college and did hunter jumper in college.

megan-sprinkle: Cool. Yeah.

Michael Q Bailey: why? Because I wanted to know more about what horses were about. , And I continued on even considered swine medicine, even though, forgive me, , swine veterinarians. But I decided that coming home [00:21:00] smelling like pigs just wasn't a way to attract a, a partner. And as I got closer and closer to, time, to graduate, I decided I would apply for a small animal, internship and,

then put my efforts into that. And when I got into the internship, , partway through, they said, you know, , if you're gonna stay in academia, 'cause reason is I wanted to teach. , I like teaching. So I figured by getting an internship and going to academia, I could more likely teach. And then they said, okay, would you consider a specialty?

And, you know, internship is where you get to experience a lot of things. Particularly I was at Michigan State University. I spent a lot of time in two areas, spent a lot of time in, um, radiology and spent a lot of time with the internist, [00:22:00] particularly the oncologists,

megan-sprinkle: Okay.

Michael Q Bailey: and going through, I applied for residencies in both and was offered, residency in both, but I had to pick one.

And at that time. Radiology was, I'm gonna say sort of a dual direction. If you, uh, went into radiology, you did diagnostic radiology and therapeutic radiology. So by going to radiology, I could do oncology as well

megan-sprinkle: was the way to do both.

Michael Q Bailey: for me to do both. And it was so neat because I, I love physics. I love understanding why the photon does what it does, and as we went on why the sound wave does what it does and why the magnetic field.

So it turned out to be the perfect place for person who loves to tinker with physics.

megan-sprinkle: Yeah, I could see that. [00:23:00] Yeah. first of all, you said you were really interested in teaching. Did you discover that you liked teaching in that one year off when you were doing like four H? Or how did you kind of stumble across that enjoyment?

Michael Q Bailey: I did that. Yes. That kind of started peaking my interest. But also while I was in veterinary school, you know, we, we'd have our study groups and whatnot, and it seemed like in our study groups, people would come and say, Bailey's over there, let's go over there and hear what he has to say. And I would start teaching.

And, you know, it's, I'm not saying this because I was the smartest in the class, I was the highest, I was not, uh, uh, anywhere near the, uh, the top level in the class. But I could grasp an understanding of something and I could explain it. And that was probably the biggest thing because, and probably because I was looking at multiple sources.

I could explain things. I could take something that was, seemed [00:24:00] extremely complicated, and by the time I explained it, they'd all say, well, now why didn't we think of that? So , I enjoy it. And so I think that's where it came from. I love taking the complicated and making it real. I don't wanna say simple.

I just making it real. And that's where it really comes down to.

megan-sprinkle: It is an important skill to have for sure in a lot of areas of veterinary medicine, so I'm glad that you discovered that and leaned into it. So the radiology, I'm. I'm sure radiology has changed a little bit since, uh, finishing your residency in 1987, so, oh. What were your adventures in radiology?

Michael Q Bailey: Uh, change. Well, let's go. Even for my graduation from veterinary school, 82. Okay. Folks, you now know how old I am. , When I graduated from veterinary school in 82, we were reading articles about [00:25:00] ultrasound, but nobody had one in veterinary medicine. So I go to a major research institution and when they. I offered me the radiology residency.

I said, okay, but we need an ultrasound machine for me to do this residency. 'cause I actually, they were now making it so that, that was part of the requirement. You had to understand it. So they said, well, we have an ultrasound machine. I said, well do, where they showed me into this closet and there was this diathermy machine.

It's the heat therapy for muscles which uses ultrasound. And I said, that's not the kind of ultrasound I'm talking about.

megan-sprinkle: thing.

Michael Q Bailey: okay. So I showed them what I'm talking about and they said, well, we'll see what we can do. But okay. I started my residency. We had one by , partway through my second year in my residency.

They had to do a capital, you know, request and whatnot, but they saw how it was necessary. But also in that period of time I started working with CAT scanners, which, , cat [00:26:00] scanning from, human medicine. We went over and used the human cat scanner across the way and, got my, actually my first article that was written was on uh, cat scanning of a dog's adrenal gland.

So we diagnosing adrenomegaly , in a dog with a cat scanner. And then we got the ultrasound machine and started working with that. And I did a lot of work with nuclear medicine, but we had to go to the human hospital to get my basics of nuclear medicine. 'cause none of my mentors, they are great and basic in general.

Radiology. I almost said basic 'cause there's no such thing. , In general radiology. But they didn't know anything about cat scanning or ultrasound or nuclear medicine. So I went to the human hospital to learn about, nuclear medicine. And radiation therapy. I did have a mentor who did a lot of radiation therapy, but I needed to know more higher levels of radiation [00:27:00] therapy than what we had.

So I did spend a lot of time over with the human medical folks learning how they did thing and then applying that back to veterinary medicine.

megan-sprinkle: Yeah, , I heard you say that you did a lot of your research working on the human side of health, 

Michael Q Bailey: most of my research, actually, if you look at the papers that I'm on, you'll find most of it was done over at the medical school at The Ohio State University. So magnetic resident spectroscopy, , boron neutron capture therapy for the treatment of, metastatic lesions to the brain from, uh, malignant melanoma.

So much. 

megan-sprinkle: what did they think about a veterinarian coming?

Michael Q Bailey: Well, first of all, they saw it as a plus because of course they were using animal models. It allowed having somebody there. But then it also allowed them to have a different way of thinking about things because that's the, when you have a homogenous group of people, you [00:28:00] don't have diversity in thought.

And by bringing in as many people, whether it's background, whether it's cultural, whether it's ethnic, you actually have a greater chance of achieving your goals or exceeding your goals because you do have this diversity in thought. And I think they consider that to be a great plus. And they had not seen a veterinarian so aggressive about working in this deep research area.

, And I, I think everybody appreciated everybody. 'cause we, it was a very, very diverse, I mean, I was working, sometimes I would, I had. By that point we had two kids. So I would pick up the kids, take them home. My wife was a, neonatal intensive care nurse at that time, which she worked 12 hour shifts. So I'd pick up the kids when she was working, get them fed, make sure their homework was done, put them down to bed, get a few hours of sleep, and about 12, one o'clock in the morning I [00:29:00] was back to the laboratory.

megan-sprinkle: Oh wow.

Michael Q Bailey: So it was pretty intensive, but it was the things I learned in many respects about myself and about science and about others.

megan-sprinkle: Can you elaborate more about what you learned about yourself and others? I,

Michael Q Bailey: One thing I learned about myself and probably about other people is overwork is not healthy.

megan-sprinkle: yeah.

Michael Q Bailey: So whereas I experienced a lot of things, it was probably. From an academic point of view, it was probably the most productive time in my life. From a personal point of view, it was probably the most destructive time in my life.

I was exhausted. I, um, sometimes did not think straight. Just about dealing with other people is probably where, because you become short, , and where everybody's [00:30:00] talking about work life balance there was no such thing as work life balance then. And mind you we're not talking about, you know, the 18 hundreds we're talking about the eighties and nineties and early two thousands.

And when I left the university after I got tenured, and of course that was my motivation, , if I was gonna be at that university, I was gonna get tenured. But I left a little more than a year after I got tenure just because I didn't think that was a way for anybody to have to live. I was tired of missing my kids' ball games.

I was tired of not being able to take a vacation and vacate, because, you know, I would get phone calls. We got this patient, you've been treating radiation therapy wise, we need you to come in on your vacation and do it and whatnot. No, it wasn't the way to go. So that's where I came to realize that, you know, [00:31:00] there was a work life balance that had to be achieved, even though I didn't know that's what it was called then.

megan-sprinkle: Right.

Michael Q Bailey: Yeah. So that, that's probably the biggest thing I've learned. I've learned that it's, it's essential that you do something other than what your vocation is. So that's why I come and I take apart cars and motorcycles now, and I try to put them back together again. I. Sit down and I try to, uh, dismantle and reassemble things.

This is not medicine. This is not veterinary medicine. This is something else. My mind gets to go off in another pathway that's healthy. And while you're doing that, you may also say, ah, let me write that down. Put it on the side and keep going. 'cause all of a sudden my mind hit on something that I needed to think about before.

But if I didn't do it, I probably would never have hit upon that eureka moment. So that's probably the [00:32:00] biggest thing I've learned.

megan-sprinkle: , And we're definitely talking about it a lot more now. What do you think looking back, were some of the big triggers that started some maybe mindset shifts and behavior changes when it came to maybe saying that's not really the best way to keep people in or, or acceptable anymore?

Michael Q Bailey: When, particularly then if you were, at a university, you had a lot of people leaving early. And I think it's because we were wearing them out also. And this still goes on to today, university say, well, we're not a money maker. we're not here to make money. Uh, I don't disagree with that. I don't think universities have to lose money though.

And I just think people say, this is the way we've done it for decades of not centuries. And I say, why? Because it's the way we've done it. Well, it's not a reason to continue doing it that way. [00:33:00] Uh, so , I just think people get really set in a, a rut, and I'm sorry, universities, I love teaching and whatnot, but I think universities, particularly the big research universities.

Don't know how to get out of the rut that they've made over decades, if not centuries. And that's probably the biggest thing. There are better ways of people having a good quality of life and being good teachers and researchers, and we do not have to wear them down like that pencil that's worn down to the eraser cap, you don't have, you don't have to treat people that way.

Uh, there's no reason to treat people that way. People are a limited resource. At least , their energy is a limited resource. And I'm not saying, you know, gonna wear them out when they're 30 and throw them aside, no, their energy on what it is you want them to do as a limited resource. And there's a, a better [00:34:00] way of extending that energy so that they can be useful over a longer period of time.

Because the things that you learn when you're a veterinary student. Some people will say it's obsolete until all of a sudden you can say, Hmm, I can do this method I learned when I was a veterinary student. Modify it a little bit, and it once again becomes the best way of accomplishing this. But you have to let people's minds refresh so that they're thinking about what it was and how you can use it, how it's appropriate here.

And it sounds like I'm wandering, but No, it, I think the best example I have of what I'm talking about there, we had very good instructors in veterinary school on how to get things done with the tools that we had available, and I love [00:35:00] imaging. I love ultrasound. One day I was called into the university to determine a fluid level on a horse.

And I'll be honest, I didn't want to come in. Why it was a football weekend and getting into the university on a football weekend is near impossible. You know, they, if you say you're on an emergency call, they, they make it. But still, what should have been 15 minutes took over an hour to accomplish, okay? I came in, I determined the fluid level using ultrasound on a horse, and I turned around to the students and I asked them, I said, now you know how to determine the fluid level on this horse without an ultrasound machine, don't you?

And the students looked at me and said, what? No, that's ultrasound. That's the only way to do it. And I looked at the resident and I asked her, I said, you know how to determine fluid level on this horse without an ultrasound machine, don't you? I said, no. I said, okay, wait a minute, radiologist went to my office, got [00:36:00] a spoon, literal spoon, and a hammer.

This is percussion hammer. Mark the level on the horse with ultrasound where the fluid level was. So it had pleurisy and then took the spoon and the hammer and went, and you could hear the change from where there was fluid to where there was air in the, in the chest. And I said, $10, uh, hammer and spoon, $40,000 ultrasound machine.

What are you gonna do when all the power goes out? They were both just as good, but we spent $40,000 on this ultrasound machine and you could accomplish the same thing with a $10, piece of medical equipment, which is part of the reason that our cost in veterinary medicine and human medicine are so high because we always go to the highest technology.

Not necessarily what's just as effective, but what is the most expensive [00:37:00] technology that we have? So .

megan-sprinkle: . Well this is so interesting 'cause I mean, I think every day is an additional advanced technologies, especially now where, I think was one of the first places that was impacted by artificial intelligence. , Bringing in that technology now in a way, maybe that will actually make it less expensive.

I don't, I don't know. But, um, I mean, no. Okay. You're shaking your head no. , Well , let's back up just a little bit. 'cause you said you, you were ready to leave academia and look for something a little bit different. , And so did you find Idexx, did they find you? How did, how did that happen?

Michael Q Bailey: I went through several iterations. like one flipped into the other. I left academia, opened up an imaging center in Ohio. Put in the first veterinary CT scanner in the state of Ohio. Ohio.

megan-sprinkle: Wow.

Michael Q Bailey: Um, at that point, say I didn't have any [00:38:00] competition but knew it cost $250 to turn on my cat scanner for debt service and electricity and whatnot.

And for six months I was the only choice of where to go and things were going good. Then the university put in one and started charging $85.

megan-sprinkle: Oh.

Michael Q Bailey: Okay. I was still very busy, uh, but I was putting on 40,000 miles a year on my vehicle doing consultation work and whatnot. Still not missing my kids' games, which was very important.

But, you know, scheduling all these things. But it was nice 'cause I could schedule them. But then I got a call from my alma mater, Tuskegee, saying, we need a radiologist. Would you consider coming down? And I said, you can't afford me 'cause I was making a good income. And I said, well, why don't you come on down and we'll talk about it.

I said, you can't afford. Come on down and we'll talk about it. So I went down and they, they knew I liked teaching, I would just sucker, [00:39:00] but still, they said, so what would it take for you to move back down here and teach with us? And I said, well, you can't afford me. They said, name us a price. I named them a price.

They said, fine, when can you start?

megan-sprinkle: All right.

Michael Q Bailey: So at that time, it was a very good salary. Talked to my wife and she said, well, I'm not wild about going back down south, but you do like teaching, so let's give it a try. And I told 'em I would come four years. So I made a four year commitment. So freshman class and I would see them through graduation.

So I was down there for four years and then in. Entering into the fifth year, I decided, okay, it's time for me to try something else. I did a congressional fellowship on Capitol Hill, so I spent a year in Capitol Hill finding out what happens behind the sea scenes. Basically seeing how the sausage was made.

You don't wanna see how the sausage is made. , After the congressional fellowship, [00:40:00] I, , went into private practice. My youngest was in high school in Northern Virginia, so I didn't wanna move him, but yet I went back into practice. I was lure to a practice to Pittsburgh where I now live and, uh, let him finish high school there.

So I was traveling home on weekends so that he could finish high school there. And then my family moved, to Pittsburgh. My youngest enrolled in University of Pittsburgh. He had several schools he could go to, but that's where he was my oldest, by the way, stayed in Alabama. He's a, a Bama through and through uh, , and five years in private practice where I set up an imaging center and, worked with a lot of, hands-on patients, which I love patient care.

I love talking with the clients, but I also at that time was doing consultation work with a large corporate practice. We won't say who they are, but they make candy bars. And they asked [00:41:00] me, instead of consulting, why don't I come work for them full-time? And I said, well, I'm not moving out to the west coast.

They said, that's fine. We'll, we'll work with that. So I became their head radiologist and designed their imaging systems, which are probably still in use today that meet s the protocols and whatnot. And then IDEXX said, you know, you've been on the other side of this wall. Why didn't you come to our side?

Said, well, what are you offering me? And they offered me a good salary. So once again, I said, I'm not moving. Fine. So that, that's the route where I end up at. IDEXX and IDEXX has given me the opportunities not only to see how large imaging systems could work, which by the way, the previous, group, we put in the largest distributed imaging system in the world for veterinary medicine.

You could take a radiograph in California and an [00:42:00] hour later, people in New York City could be viewing those radiographs. And this was. Back in the, uh, two thousands early. So it was the largest distributed imaging system using dicom. I had to explain to a lot of people then what DICOM was. Uh, but it was something because I felt I was on the cutting edge of veterinary medicine, at least imaging wise at that particular point.

And moving to IDEXX from the CLI more clinical aspect allowed me to continue to the point where not only working with imaging systems and software systems integration, but artificial intelligence. So that's allowed me to, obtain some patents in artificial intelligence. So I'm not saying I'm an expert in artificial intelligence, but I do have an understanding of artificial intelligence, uh, which is one of the reasons why I say no, it's not going to lower the price.

megan-sprinkle: [00:43:00] Oh, oh. I'm trying to look at the dates that you were at IDEXX and I, I mean, you were probably there helping them that or, or at least contribute to it in, in some form or faction. What if you could think on the positive side of things, what was the most intriguing part? Bringing artificial intelligence.

'cause again, this was one of the first major impacts in veterinary medicine, at least in my perspective. Feel free to correct me, but what was that like?

Michael Q Bailey: It was, it took a little convincing, one of the things, and everybody knows there's a shortage of radiologists, and so I had to think about it. And I don't know if, uh, it's come out, but one of the things, I look at things and say, how can we make things less expensive? How can we make it so that more can can come out of what we have?

So one of the things that. I was thinking about and there were others thinking about the same thing. How can we have it so [00:44:00] that if it takes a radiologist to uh, let's say six minutes to read a case, how can we cut that time down? And we looked at what were all the tasks that a radiologist had to do. And radiologists are experts at interrogating that radiograph, but they hate all the other work you have to do to get to that point.

And when we had silver based films, you just threw the films up. You actually had, technicians or residents put the films up. So when the radiologist sat down, they just looked at the films dictated and they kept on going. When we went to digital, that went away. So first thing we did was say, okay, we need to reduce the redundant.

Non-diagnostic tasks. And that's the first thing we did was we made digital hanging protocols where it recognize the patient, recognize the anatomy, recognize the direction. So when the radiologist opens up [00:45:00] the case, all the images are set there for them. So all they have to do is read the case and then move on to the next one.

And that removed 25% of the reading time. And hopefully I'm not giving away any trade secrets here. I'm sorry, idexx. Um, , but that removed 25% of the reading time just by doing that. 

megan-sprinkle: that's impressive. I'm just thinking, I graduated vet school in 2014 I still remember. Uh, but just in that time period, like we were using film in vet school, like I still think so much has changed in, in 11 years or whatnot. , So it's, pretty interesting to see the pace of change now, I feel. Um, any, any thoughts around like, just how quickly we're changing

Michael Q Bailey: Well, things are not as fast as we feel. It's a matter of when we see the change taking place. Why am I saying that? About [00:46:00] 1990, I started doing telehealth teleconsultation. Most people don't think of it in veterinary medicine, but yes, I actually had people sending me radiographs over POTS, Poor old telephone system, and it took half an hour to send two radiographs.

But I had people sending me images from around the state of Ohio using this POTS system. And once again, I tried getting the university interested in doing it. They weren't interested, so I did it myself. So most people don't not think about veterinary medicine having access to a, , virtual teleconsultation system.

I could even send back arrows. I could talk to somebody on the telephone and say, here's a lesion, put an arrow on it, and you'd hear beep and an arrow would [00:47:00] appear on their side. So a lot of these things are not as new as people would have. It, it, they were limited, but they weren't as new. , But we have to, we have to consider the fact that in order to get this.

Technology available. This technology, whether it's artificial intelligence or analog, is not cheap. And one of the reasons that the price of veterinary medicine seems to be so high is because we are such a high technology profession now and we have to pay for it somehow.

megan-sprinkle: Yep. 

Michael Q Bailey: but just try to give a perspective there. 

megan-sprinkle: it is good. , And I do think radiology has been one of the areas that has been at the forefront of kind of progress, which is, a good place when you get to see that. and through all of this, [00:48:00] because I wanna make sure that I get to two, two big questions for you. , And I thought it was so funny when you said you don't wanna see how the sausage is made, and yet you came back to AVMA. Uh, so well, what inspired you to, run for, president-elect first? So what inspired you to come back to AVMA?

Michael Q Bailey: Once again, it's a long story , but I'm gonna say, first of all, it was over a 20 year progression. It did not happen overnight and for a lot of people say, yeah, I wanna do that. Say it takes time. So I went from state delegate to state association, executive committee president, then AVMA delegate, then AVMA Board of Directors, finding out about our colleagues.

And when I say our colleagues, remember I said early on that practice is not exclusively to the dogs, cats, and the horses. We have colleagues in public practice, we have colleagues who are in academic practice, and I was learning about [00:49:00] them all the time. But why? Well, there's several things. First of all, I never saw anybody like me in those places and said, well, why?

Well, people would say, well, we don't, can't find anybody interested. And I said, okay, well, I'm interested. So I would step in and say, okay, now let's get to work. AVMA, , if you are not happy with the way things are, I'm not saying everything is wrong, but you see something you're not happy with, you have two choices.

You can walk away and then you become part of the problem. Or you can jump in and say, how can I help resolve the problem? And I'm one of these people who, it's sort of like my dyslexia. Nobody else could solve my dyslexia but me. People might help me, but I have to be , the primary solution. So I get the book outta the library and I just keep on pouring away.

And mind you, part of it is I may read a paragraph two or three times before I [00:50:00] get, oh, that's what they're saying. Or I may take three different books so I can get the meaning from all those different books. That's what works for me. That may not be what works for somebody else, but I have to be part of the solution.

So coming into A VMA is not, I did not make this decision early on. I was gonna be president of the A VMA, to be honest, after I was on the board of directors, I figured that was gonna be it. I was gonna retire away from it, and then. Uh, I said, you know, but there's more I want to do yet. So I ran to become, uh, president-elect and president of A VMA, but it's not an ego thing.

In fact, I'll be honest, it's exhausting. Anybody who's considering doing this, this is one of the, and I've already talked about tenure. This is one of the most exhausting jobs I've ever had, and you have to be willing to spend long nights reading and writing. [00:51:00] I'm a horrible writer. You'd be amazed at the number of things I have written over the last few years.

When I say I'm a horrible writer, it's, I hate doing it. I know people who love writing. I can sit down and I can write, but I'm horrible because I don't like it. ?

megan-sprinkle: , It sounds like , you had this desire to make a difference and, , not trusting that anyone else is gonna do it. It can be an important drive, like you said, , you can't complain about something if you're not willing to. Do something about

Michael Q Bailey: That is it. You, if you're gonna complain, then you better get your derriere in there and, and help people fix it.

megan-sprinkle: exactly. Well, and then when you came in, there were several first, uh, which just kind of blows my mind that 162 years, I, I saw this. You are the first black president of AVMA

Michael Q Bailey: Yes. Yes.

megan-sprinkle: that's a long time. And you're [00:52:00] the first radiologist. And you, you commented that not a lot of specialists are heavily involved in A VMA. So kind of a unique perspective all the way around.

Michael Q Bailey: Yeah, specialists in many cases say, well, we're not sure what AVMA does for us. I can tell you, if you sit down with me, I'll tell you what AVMA does for you. First of all, you wouldn't have a specialty college if it wasn't for AVMA.

megan-sprinkle: Mm.

Michael Q Bailey: A VMA is out there promoting the profession, AVMA I hope everybody's an A VMA member.

I know everybody's not, but I tell people A VMA works for the profession. It doesn't work for A VMA members. It works for the profession. And part of our job is to make sure that people, that means politicians, the general public, know what veterinarians are. And I ask a lot of people, when I see somebody for the first time, do you know why we vaccinate dogs and cats for rabies?[00:53:00] 

And they say, well, to protect dogs and cats. And I say, well, you're not wrong. But the primary reason is to protect people. That's right. And people don't realize that veterinary medicine, the primary job is to protect human health. Yes. Animal health and environmental health. And people also don't realize veterinary medicine.

Everybody thinks of, , Parisian, , France, , as being the origins of veterinary medicine. Veterinary medicine goes back more than 3000 years. It goes back to China, Mesopotamia, Northern Africa, when, , Europe was going through the black plague, Northern Africa did not have it because they knew how to prevent it.

There's a long history veterinary medicine, we won't talk about the other professions, but I'm gonna say is one of the oldest professions out there, and people don't realize it. There was a Mesopotamian king who [00:54:00] actually put in the center of villages, these columns that gave the price of veterinary healthcare and also the price if your animal would die under the care of the veterinarian, how much the veterinarian owed you, which is 25% of the value of that animal, which is probably a beast of burden.

and by the way, it was two shekels is what veterinary healthcare cost back around 200 bc but this was closer to the middle of town. So not only was there the price for veterinary medicine, but there was malpractice coverage.

megan-sprinkle: There you go.

Michael Q Bailey: So lawyers, they must be one of the oldest professions too.

megan-sprinkle: Oh, probably, uh, anything that humans, uh, are, dealing with you, you need a lawyer. , But, I loved listening to some podcast episodes that you did while you were running for President Elect and, articles and, and things. And, and it seemed like a, a lot of your goal was to show the importance of the profession of veterinary [00:55:00] medicine. , And I know that your term is coming,

Michael Q Bailey: We're halfway through. We're halfway through.

megan-sprinkle: We're halfway through. Okay. Well then with the second half, , the best half because you feel the pressure, what are you hoping to, to do this, this next bit of your, your term?

Michael Q Bailey: If I cannot do anything else, I hope I make people more aware of the importance of veterinary medicine to their lives. And I feel we have been accomplishing it to a point we had, 25% through my term. I, , asked to speak with our marketing and communication folks again, and they said, Dr. Bailey, how can we help you?

I said, more. They said, what do you mean more, more interviews? I need to get more exposure.

megan-sprinkle: Hmm. Okay.

Michael Q Bailey: And they have been doing it. So we had one episode, it was a Halloween episode actually, which had over 500 viewings around the country. [00:56:00] So we're trying to make it, and it may seem like it's, uh, a little low key, but it's a matter of having people know that what we do is important.

We're not here just for the quick buck. We're here to make sure that your family is healthy and stays healthy. And during the holidays, , we want to minimize the adverse reactions to anything. people don't realize grapes can be toxic to your dog. Sugar-free chewing gum can be toxic to your dog, and most people have heard about chocolate toxicity, but there's so many other things out there that can be toxic.

And we wanna be sure that they know how to protect their pets, that when their pets do get lost, that they can be found and returned to them. And whereas, The emergency clinics and urgent care do want to have patients. We don't want you to have to go there unless it's absolutely necessary. So how can we protect [00:57:00] everybody?

And so those are the ways I'm trying to get people to realize that veterinary medicine, most veterinarians aren't here to get wealthy. We are here to, to make sure that our families are healthy. So whether it's taking care of your dog, your cat, your gerbil, your fish, making sure that you have healthy food, whether it's milk, whether it's beef, whether it's even, genetically.

Grown protein, which is big controversy or whether it's using artificial intelligence. 'cause a lot of people, uh, they talk about artificial intelligence, but they don't know. One of my favorite lines, I, every place I go say, keep a human in the loop. You cannot have artificial intelligence without having , people aware of how to properly use it.

'cause if you're not aware of how to properly use it, how many stories have you heard about somebody using a [00:58:00] GPS unit and taking them to a dead end road? You need to be aware of what's happening. You don't just take it off. Trust and artificial intelligence has a lot of blessings and a lot of curses, and I'd rather we avoid as many of the curses as possible.

megan-sprinkle: Have a lot of work ahead of you. Sorry to tell you.

Michael Q Bailey: yeah, no, I, I agree. It's. It's why it was good to have a little time off, because already, already I see a list of things I have coming up in the new year, but I'm not shying away from them. And I don't think anybody at A VMA is shying away from them. I just want our colleagues, and when I say our colleagues, yes, I mean veterinarians, I mean mean veterinary technicians and veterinary nurses, veterinary technologists, I mean MDs and dos and RNs, I mean, environmental scientists.

They're all our colleagues, [00:59:00] but they can't do it without us, even though they may not think about us. Think about the fact that 50% of the new diseases we encounter over the next 10 years are gonna be zoonotic diseases, and it's probably gonna be a veterinarian who's gonna spot it before human type does, just because they're, they're not trained the way we're trained.

We're trained to have a very open, malleable, creative mind, and I'm not putting down anybody. I'm just saying we're trained to think outside of the box or the cage or the corral or the, or geographic borders.

megan-sprinkle: I, I completely agree. And I am sorry to say that we are out of time, but I, I wanna ask one last question and I always love to end on gratitude. So what is something that you are really grateful for right now?[01:00:00] 

Michael Q Bailey: I am grateful for everybody who allows me to come into their home, whether it's in a a TV or podcast or a radio interview, and I am very gratified when people show the curiosity that I hope I have to the day. That I'm called home because curiosity is what makes us what we are. So be curious about me.

I'll be curious about you and uh, let's realize the only thing that's separates us from anybody else is our curiosity. 

Megan Sprinkle: I hope this is an inspiring way to begin 2026 with a conversation that's both reflective and forward looking. I admit that I understand Dr. Bailey's feelings of exhaustion. Maybe you do too. I'm [01:01:00] starting at the year with a fuel tank pretty low, but I've always walked away from time spent connecting with colleagues with a special rejuvenation, so please don't hesitate to send a text using the link in the show notes or hesitate to talk to me at a conference.

Your support, your kind words and enthusiasm make a big impact. As I reflect on Dr. Bailey's wisdom and insight, he didn't say that we had to have all the answers or maybe even know the exact path we have to go down to get to our goals. We must stay curious. The world needs us to be our best selves wherever we are working in the area where we are fueled and thriving.

There's so much in this episode to carry with us into the year ahead, so thank you for being here and I will see you next time on Vet Life Reimagined.