Development, implementation, and evaluation of a novel multidisciplinary one health course for university undergraduates

Abstract

Today's collaborations across fields of health and wellness are insufficient to meet societies' challenges in combating disease and maintaining the ecosystem and public health. In this article, we present a One Health curriculum model designed to encourage undergraduate students of varying disciplines to value the connectedness of animals, humans, and the environment and to think innovatively about solutions to priority global health issues.We present the design and implementation of a course that brought together multiple faculty from different fields of study, including the dental, medical, nutrition, and veterinary schools, in a curriculum designed for undergraduates primarily from Arts & Sciences fields. The curriculum was collaboratively designed around four key One Health categories: 1) Infectious zoonotic diseases and global health, 2) Naturally occurring shared disease in companion animals that can serve as models for human disease, 3) Human-animal interactions, and 4) Impact of environmental health on human and animal health.We show this course successfully deepened students' understandings of One Health, its role in addressing high priority health issues and the overall benefits of a One Health approach to tackling societal problems. We also report a positive experience by the faculty working in collaboration to implement the curriculum model and the overall enthusiasm of students for the course, all of whom would recommend it to their peers.We conclude by proposing the potential of the curriculum model underlying this course to fill the need for One Health Curricula in programs preparing future health professionals. Keywords: One health, Animal, Environmental, Human, Interprofessional education