Campus leaders envision a Center for One Medicine
By Diana Yates, News Bureau Staff Writer 217-333-5802; diya@illinois.edu
When she arrived at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the Urbana Champaign campus, Stacy Kostiuk had no intention of also getting a master’s degree in public health. “I had a slight interest in preventable diseases in humans, but I just thought I was going to be a vet,” she said. Then her sister went into public health, and a professor at Vet Med encouraged Kostiuk to get a dual DVM/MPH degree. When she learned that the MPH would add only a year to her program, Kostiuk decided to do it. She is among a forward-thinking group of about 500 students nationwide pursuing the dual degree at one of the 15 schools in the U.S. that now offer it. These students are part of a trend that recognizes the interdependence of human and animal health. A growing awareness of the role of zoonotic diseases, which move from animals to people, has contributed to this trend. More than 60 percent of the 1,400 disease-causing agents that affect people originate, or are amplified, in other animals. Those who track how diseases move through the environment know that animals often are sentinels of trouble. Public-health experts have learned to watch for sickness in poultry or wild birds in their surveillance for avian flu. Behavioral changes in cattle can indicate infection with mad cow disease. Die-offs of crows were an early sign of the arrival of the West Nile virus in North America. And as the human impact on the environment grows, the interplay of human and non-human ecology becomes more complex – and problematic. That is why some at the UI want to see a multidisciplinary approach to medical and ecological studies that goes beyond offering the DVM/MPH degree. They envision a Center for One Medicine, where medical and veterinary professionals work hand in hand with food scientists and ecologists, sharing data and resources and inspiring one another with their findings and their ideas. To further this vision, more than 60 people from various disciplines met in January to develop a plan for the center. The colleges of Medicine; Veterinary Medicine; Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; Liberal Arts and Sciences; and the School of Public Health at the Chicago campus were represented. Zoo administrators, wildlife pathologists and public-health-policy experts also were on hand. The two-day event included a presentation by UI President B. Joseph White, who said that medical and science education is often “driven in the direction of ever-increasing specialization.” “But once in a while we have to put things back together, to re-integrate things as much as we can,” he said. “I believe in this kind of collaboration with a shared focus on something consequential.” For students such as Kostiuk and fellow dual-degree student Abby Mathewson, this broadening perspective means their career prospects also are wider. Mathewson hopes to bring her veterinary and public-health expertise to rural areas of developing countries, where the relationship of human to environmental health is more immediate. Kostiuk envisions herself in a more traditional veterinary role, but one that includes an intensive educational component. “I’m definitely not your ‘fly to Africa to work on Ebola’ type of person,” she said. “I want to stay closer to home.” But in addition to running a veterinary practice, Kostiuk said she will work with her local health department. She also hopes to teach medical students about why it is important that they talk to veterinarians about what they are seeing day to day. These students will probably graduate before the Center for One Medicine becomes a reality, but they already are benefiting from the idea. The campuswide conversation is stimulating them to think more expansively about their options. Lauren Wrobel, another dual-degree student, wants to begin in private veterinary practice, but does not feel that she has to make it a lifelong career. She imagines eventually working for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or for the World Bank on issues relating to human and animal health, food safety or conservation. There are many hurdles ahead for those hoping to build the Center for One Medicine. Funding is tight at every level. Federal, state and university budgets are frozen or shrinking. And the One Medicine concept crosses so many academic and political boundaries it is difficult to identify potential sources of support. In a satellite conference with participants at the One Medicine meeting, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois asked the group to help him determine which federal agency would be the best potential source of support for the initiative. But those in leadership roles in human and veterinary medicine, ecology and food science recognize that their disciplines cannot remain competitive as distinct academic realms. “We’re all on parallel paths and we should be talking together,” said John Herrmann, a professor of clinical veterinary medicine and director of the DVM/MPH program. With medical, veterinary and agricultural colleges together on one campus alongside strong basic and ecological sciences programs, “we have all the capacities in the world,” Herrmann said. “Gosh, we have all these people with different areas of expertise. Let’s use them!”
