One Health-One Education: Medical and Veterinary Inter-Professional Training

Physicians and veterinarians are increasingly expected to collaborate across disciplines; however, in most cases their education and training remain isolated within their respective professions. Medical and veterinary students are rarely provided with opportunities for inter-professional learning during their coursework and clinical training. One Health serves as an ideal framework for developing problem-focused curricula that promote inter-professional teamwork. One Health issues (e.g., zoonotic diseases, water pollution, toxic waste, impact of climate change, and food safety and security) not only engage students across disciplines, but require faculty and senior leadership across various health-related fields to share knowledge and balance perspectives throughout curriculum development and implementation. In this article, we report on one of several interactive, small-group, case-based One Health curricular exercises developed collaboratively by students and faculty in our Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to ensure that all students, regardless of background or intended specialty, would receive a basic introduction to inter-professional collaboration in the context of a One Health clinical problem of the sort they might encounter in their future practice. Toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasmagondii infection) was selected as the first case because of the potentially different perspectives that medical and veterinary practitioners may have on advising a pregnant woman with regard to risk factors, prevention, testing, and treatment. Our goal was to develop an evidence-based approach to this clinical case that could be used by both professions to assess environmental and zoonotic risk factors for T.gondii in human pregnancies.