The marketing firm says that vets are among the hardest groups to reach and the panel, called the Veterinary Advisory Panel, will be particularly vital to building better relationships and understanding between the profession and animal healthcare manufacturers.
David Webb, senior research manager with Ipsos's agribusiness, food, and animal health team, said: "Veterinarians can be a difficult population to target for market research. The Veterinary Advisory Panel helps bridge that gap and allows animal health organistions to conduct surveys with greater ease than ever before.
"Unlike other methods such as telephone or mail, the online panel offers faster and more accurate results with greater cost-effectiveness."
The vets on the panel, which is set to expand to 2,000 over the coming year, come from across the US and Canada. Only licensed vets are on the panel and care has been taken to ensure that the bulk of their business is household pets rather than agricultural animals. At least three quarters of the business of those on the panel is made up of treating cats and dogs.
Webb said: "Along with knowing the number of dog and cat patients in their clinic, we also know precisely what brands they are using for all of the major product categories. That means we could conduct a survey targeting users of a specific brand."