This past December, a team of professionals from different scientific fields, led by coauthors from NC State, won a competition to have their new case study published in the Association of American Veterinary Medical College journal last Friday.
The competition, as a part of the AAVMC One Health initiative, brings attention to connections between the health of humans, animals, and the environment.
“The One Health initiative is a program that understands the connections between animal, human and environmental health. So it seeks to promote collaborations between those disciplines,” said Erika Rost, a co-lead author of the case study.
Rost, along with co-lead author Erin Brewer, are members of the NC State Clinical Veterinary Pharmacy Residency. Other members of the team come from NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Banfield Pet Hospital in Augusta, Georgia.
“When you think about it, human medicine typically starts with animals,” Brewer said. “When we do drug trials, they all start with animals — looking for safety, toxicity, finding appropriate doses, whether it’s absorbed. So it’s definitely all related. There’s no reason why you can’t benefit from all of that information for all species.”
The case study, titled “A Veteran and His Dog,” highlights issues that can cause common symptoms in both humans and animals.
“The case is about a man named Robert, and he is a veteran and has PTSD,” Rost said. “So he has a service dog, Siri, for PTSD.”
The case study is directed toward professional students who receive medical records for both Robert and Siri. They watch videos of Robert speaking with a doctor and a veterinarian about his and Siri’s health respectively.
When similar symptoms arise, students must come up with a diagnosis and a plan to treat the two companions. In addition, the complexities of their health are interloped with various financial and social issues that could also be playing a role.
“The reason this is important for students is, back in the 80s, the World Health Organization found that students who participated in inter-professional studies such as this one were more likely to collaborate later when they were out in practice,” Rost said.
Brewer agreed, saying, “Everybody has their own specialty. We spend four years learning specifically about drugs, so we might have something to offer another profession who only gets a couple of hours of that kind of instruction. And the same with anybody’s specialty, you have something to bring to the table that everyone can benefit from.”
Brewer encouraged others to participate in the competition in the future.
“If anyone’s interested in it, it’s a great opportunity, a great experience, to learn from other professions and to come up with something really unique,” Brewer said.
